Language Arts Curriculum for High Ability Learners

1. To insert your company logo on this slide • From the Insert Menu • Select “Picture” • Locate your logo file • Click OK • To resize the logo • Click anywhere inside the logo. The boxes that appear outside the logo are known as “resize handles.” • Use these to resize the object. • If you hold down the shift key before using the resize handles, you will maintain the proportions of the object you wish to resize. Language Arts Curriculum for High Ability Learners Denver Public Schools Denver, CO June 6, 2011 Overview Session Presented by Dr. Kimberley L. Chandler Curriculum Director Center for Gifted Education The College of William and Mary klchan@wm.edu 757-221-2588

2. Agenda • Introduction • Curriculum Framework • Constructing Meaning Through Literature • Questions

3. Introduction • The Center for Gifted Education was established at The College of William and Mary almost 24 years ago by Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska. • The website is www.cfge.wm.edu. • Check this link for curriculum materials: http://www.cfge.wm.edu/curriculum.htm

4. Learner Needs What is taught Curriculum Assessment Instruction How it is delivered What is learned

5. The Integrated Curriculum Model Process-Product Dimension Advanced Content Dimension Issues/Themes Dimension - VanTassel-Baska, 1986

6. Learner Characteristics and Corresponding Emphases in the Curriculum THE LEARNER Precocity (Advanced development in some curricular area) Intensity (Capacity to focus and concentrate for long periods of time) Complexity (Can engage in high level and abstract thinking) THE CURRICULUM Advanced content (Provides opportunities for new learning) Process/product depth considerations (Enhances engagement and creative production; allows utilization of information in a generative way ) Issues/concepts/themes/ideas across domains of learning (Allows students to make connections across areas of study and to work at a level of deep understanding) 6

7. Language Arts Curriculum Framework The Literature Concept Process Understanding Change Using the Reasoning Process Content Literary Analysis and Interpretation Learning Language Arts Content and Skills Linguistic Competency Oral Communication Persuasive Writing

8. Language Arts Curriculum Goals • To develop analytical and interpretive skills in literature • To develop persuasive writing skills • To develop linguistic competency • To develop listening/oral communication skills • To develop reasoning skills in LA • To understand the concept of change in the LA

9. Language Arts Units • Beyond Words (gr. 1-2) • Journeys and Destinations (gr. 2-3) • Literary Reflections (gr. 4-5) • Patterns of Change (gr. 4-6) • Autobiographies and Memoirs (gr. 5-6) • Persuasion (gr. 6-7) • The 1940s: A Decade of Change (gr. 7-9) • Utopia: Man’s Changing Ideas of the Ideal (gr. 7-9) • Threads of Change in 19th Century American Literature (gr. 8-10) • Change Through Choices (gr. 10-12)

10. Concept Development Model Literature Web Hamburger Model Dagwood Model Reasoning Model Research Model Vocabulary Web Research-BasedLA Teaching Models

11. Assessment of Learning Outcomes • Pre- and post-assessments for literary analysis and interpretation, persuasive writing, and grammar • Portfolio of writing assignments, literature and vocabulary webs, other work • Research project and oral presentation • Response journal • Unit evaluation

12. Grading Considerations • Portfolio materials (persuasive writing; literary analysis) • Research project and oral presentation • Response journal • Homework

13. Major Findings - Language Arts • Significant and important treatment effects for literary analysis and interpretation and for persuasive writing • No significant gender effects • Student performance showed that additional attention was needed to enhance higher-level thinking and elaboration skills. • Students were able to improve significantly after unit instruction regardless of the grouping model employed. • Students enhanced their learning each time they were exposed to the units and maintained their level of achievement between interventions across the years.

14. Constructing Meaning Through Literature

15. Criteria for Selecting Unit Literature • Challenging for high-ability learners • Appropriate multicultural literature • Concept of change

16. Criteria for Selecting Literature for Gifted Readers • Rich, varied, precise, complex, exciting language • Open-ended, with capacity to inspire contemplative behavior • Complex, leading to interpretive and evaluative behaviors • Help build problem-solving skills • Role models • Broad-based in form Baskin & Harris, 1980

17. Considerations for Multicultural Literature • General accuracy • Avoidance of stereotypes • Authentic, up-to-date, age-appropriate language • Attention to author’s perspective • Currency of facts and interpretations • Concept of audience • Integration of cultural information • Balance and multidimensionality • Accurate and appropriate illustrations -- Miller-Lachman, 1992

18. Images/Symbols Key Words Structure Feelings Ideas READING Literature Web - Full Form

19. Literature Web • Key Words: What were some words and phrases that were especially interesting or important? What words were new to you? • Feelings: What feelings did you get reading the passage? What feelings did the characters have? How were those feelings expressed? • Ideas: What was the main idea? What other major ideas and concepts were important? What was the author trying to say about those ideas? • Images/Symbols: How did the author use description and imagery in the novel? What sensory images came to your mind? How did the author use symbols? • Structure: What type of writing was this? What literary and style elements did the author use? How did the structure of the writing contribute to the meaning of the novel? May identify such features as: use of unusual time sequence in narrative, use of voice, use of figurative language, etc.

20. Each day is a journey,a leaving home,over paths that windbetween rocks and bog.Behind each rockis a shadow;behind each shadow,a flower,or a wellspring,or a trembling rabbit,or an unfolding fern Only if you lookwill you find.Only if you leavewill you arrive.One step,then another,as day unrolls itselfalong the road toward night.And at evening,look who welcomes us Grandmother Moon,waiting in the doorway,the stars in her hands –to lead us safely home.Jane Yolen .Grandmother Moon

21. Building Textual Understanding Underlying Assumption: Discourse that promotes understanding needs direction, focus, and movement towards goal. • Marking (focusing) • Revoicing (repeating student ideas) • Turning back (textual or student-based) • Recapping (synthesizing) • Modeling (thinking aloud) • Annotating (providing information) Beck & McKeown, 1996

22. Follow-Up Questions • What is a journey? What words or phrases can you use to describe a journey? • How is a journey like a day? What important characteristics of a day is the poet trying to emphasize by calling a day a journey? How are a day and a journey different? • What does the poet mean by the words “as day unrolls itself along the road toward night”? • How is traveling, or movement in a place or space, like living in time?

23. Assessment for Literary Analysis and Interpretation • Short reading selection (poem, short story, fable, essay) • Four short-answer questions assess analysis and interpretation through focus on main idea/central theme (2 questions), quote analysis, and explication of connection to unit concept. • Rubric rates responses on 0-8 scale per question, for total possible score of 32 points. • Pre- and post-assessments are drawn from same genre.

24. Resource Book • Writing about Literature: Step by Step by Patricia McKeague ISBN-10: 0757560296 ISBN-13: 978-0757560293

25. Online Resources Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/ Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org Glossary of Poetic Terms: http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html Glossary of Literary Terms: http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm

26. Questions

27. Kendall/Hunt PublishingContact Information Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company 4050 Westmark Drive Dubuque, IA 52004-1840 1-800-247-3458 www.kendallhunt.com

28. Consultant Contact Information Dr. Kimberley L. Chandler Center for Gifted Education The College of William and Mary P.O. Box 8795 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 klchan@wm.edu 757-221-2588