1. Common Core Reading October 11, 2012
Modesto
Common Core
Reading
October 11, 2012

2. Performance Tasks
The main purpose of performance tasks (PT) is to address complex targets from multiple claims that require analytical thinking, evaluations, and support of students’ own responses to texts. The PTs provide a means for students to demonstrate the ability to think and to reason and to use higher- order thinking skills to provide the required evidence for multiple claims and targets. Students will produce either a full write text or present a speech which will be scored according to a rubric. These kinds of tasks demonstrate the Smarter Balanced intent to show evidence that students are ready for college or career.

3. SMARTER

5. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Choose Standard Choose Scorable Product
Presentation of Information
Step 4
Processing of Content

6. Sample Student Work Products
Also see p. 20 in Using Rigor and Relevance to Create Effective Instruction

7. Digging into the Standards
Divide into grade level groups to investigate the reading strand.
How does the grade span develop from one grade to another?
Identify the “step up” in task difficulty at each grade for the standards (Begin with Standard 9.)
Participants will need a copy of their grade level standards
Grade level teams record the step –up for their grade level
Teams will have 20 minutes to discuss the standards
Teams will report out on their findings and discuss the implications of the step up

8. Digging into the Standards
Remember that each “step up” in task difficulty is matched by a “step up” in text complexity.
Select a recorder, reporter and time keeper
Record the step up on chart paper for your grade (20 minutes)
Teams report out and discussion the implications for their grade levels (20 minutes)

9. Standard 9 progression of difficulty
1st – omitted “With prompting and support”
2nd – added “most important” points
3rd – added “and key details”
4th – added “Integrate” … “in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably”
5th – added “several” texts
Draw participants’ attention to Standard 9 and how the task difficulty “steps up” at each grade level.
Note that some of the steps appear bigger than others: The jump here between 3rd and 4th grade for example.
Ask participants if they identified other places where the “step up” between grades was quite substantial. [In Standards 3, 5, 8, for example.]
For instance, the facilitator might say,
“Let’s look at how the standards ‘step up’ the level of task difficulty from grade to grade in Standard 9 first. If we look at these steps, I think we will agree that the step between 3rd and 4th grades represents a ‘bigger step’ than the other increments. In this case, it requires an integrated approach to the strands.
Where else did you find relatively big jumps in cognitive demand? These are worth noting because they may prove a bit more challenging for us.
Yes, Standards 3 and 8 ask students in grade 3 to begin using the language of the logical connections of time, sequence, cause/effect, comparison. That seems like a relatively big jump. How about Standard 6? [from grades 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. A level of self-awareness is necessary at the 3rd grade level, etc.]
And Standard 5 goes from focusing on text features (which are visible) to text structure (which is not) in grade 4.”

10. Standard 8 progression of difficulty
7 – “assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claim”
8 – “recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced”
9-10 – “valid” reasoning; “identify false statements and fallacious reasoning”
11-12 “seminal U. S. texts”; “constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning”; “premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy”
Draw participants’ attention to the distinctions that raise the level of rigor from grade to grade in Standard 8.
Note that some of the steps appear bigger than others: The jump here between 9-10th and 11-12th.
For instance, the facilitator might say,
“Let’s look at how the standards ‘step up’ the level of task difficulty from grade to grade in Standard 8 first. If we look at these steps, I think we will agree that the step between 9-10 and grade bands represents a ‘bigger step’ than the other increments. In this case, it requires some very specific content knowledge by which to evaluate the informational text.
Where else did you find relatively big jumps in cognitive demand or background knowledge? These are worth noting because they may prove a bit more challenging for us.”

11. Text complexity is defined by:
Overview of Text Complexity
Reading Standards include over exemplar texts (stories and literature, poetry, and informational texts) that illustrate appropriate level of complexity by grade
Text complexity is defined by:
Qualitative
Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands
Quantitative
Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity
Best measured by an attentive reader
Ability to make an informed decision about the difficulty of a text
Knowledge of four factors in developing effective tools:
Levels of Meaning or Purpose
Reader and Task: Determining whether a given text is appropriate for the student:
Cognitive abilities
Motivation
Topic knowledge
Linguistic and discourse knowledge
Comprehension strategies
Experiences
“Reading for Understanding, 2002, The RAND Reading Study group”
Quantitative:Word length or frequency (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level text, Dale-Chall Readability Formula, Lexile)
Sentence length
Text cohesion (University of Memphis, Coh-Metrix)
Measurement tools ( Lexile example
Structure
Language Conventionality & Clarity
Knowledge Demands
Reader and Task
Reader and Task – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned

12. Staircasing Texts Toward CCR Text at High End of Grade Band
End of Year
Text Between Middle and High End of
Grade Band
Text Near Middle of Grade Band
Staircasing Texts
Discuss the graphic, which shows how teachers might use texts at different levels of complexity throughout the year.
When you staircase texts, you develop a series of texts at increasing levels of complexity. Notice how this staircase builds from the low end of the grade band students are expected to master and ends at the high end. You might have five or six texts, all on the same theme or topic, that your students may use to dig deeply into the topic in a sequence that suits their increasing skills. As students’ knowledge increases, they are able to do more with the text, including make connections. As always, the goal of the staircase is to move students on the path toward college and career readiness.
Click to reveal arrows moving upward.
If you have students who have trouble reading or are inexperienced readers, you might wish to start your staircase slightly below their grade band. Remember that all students are expected to end up at the high end of the grade band, with scaffolding in the early grades in the band, and independently by the last grade in that band. However, with struggling readers it is important to meet them first where they are. Staircasing texts lets you know that your students are progressing step-by-step toward that reading proficiency goal.
WEBINAR TIP: Monitor Chat to watch for questions.
Text Between Low End and Middle of
Grade Band
Text at Low End of Grade Band
Beginning of Year
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13. Selecting Texts
Grade Level teams analyze text to be used in unit (Unit should include short and longer texts)
Using the Text Complexity tools determine the appropriateness of a text for your grade level
Additional time will be provided this afternoon for additional text analysis
15 – Lexile Tool
15A Text Complexity Qualitative Figure 2
15B Tools for Examining Text Complexity (Qualitative Measures, record text and standard
16 Gradients in Text Complexity for Informational Text
17 Gradients in Text Complexity for Literature

14. Step 1: Qualitative Measures
Measures such as:
Levels of meaning
Levels of purpose
Structure
Organization
Language conventionality
Language clarity
Prior knowledge demands

15. SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortia

17. Step 2: Quantitative Measures
Measures such as:
Word length
Word frequency
Word difficulty
Sentence length
Text length
Text cohesion

18. Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges
Text Complexity Grade Band in the Standards
Old Lexile Ranges
Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR expectations
K-1
N/A
2-3
4-5
6-8
9-10
11-CCR
Metametrics has realigned its Lexile ranges to match the Standards’ text complexity grade bands and has adjusted upward its trajectory of reading comprehension development through the grades

19. 7 The band levels themselves have been expanded slightly over the original CCSS scale that appears in Appendix A at both the top and bottom of each band to provide for a more modulated climb toward college and career readiness and offer slightly more overlap between bands. The wider band width allows more flexibility in the younger grades where students enter school with widely varied preparation levels. This change was provided in response to feedback received since publication of the original scale (published in terms of the Lexile® metric) in Appendix A.
8 Since Flesch-Kincaid has no ‘caretaker’ that oversees or maintains the formula, the research leads worked to bring the measure in line with college and career readiness levels of text complexity based on the version of the formula used by Coh-Metrix.

20. Lexile Analyzer http://www.lexile.com/analyzer/

21. Step 3: Reader and Task Considerations such as: Motivation
Knowledge and experience
Purpose for reading
Complexity of task assigned regarding text
Complexity of questions asked regarding text

22. Step 4: Recommended Placement
After reflecting upon all three legs of the text complexity model we can make a final recommendation of placement within a text and begin to document our thinking for future reference.

23. Text Dependent Questions
Step One: Identify the Core Understandings and Key Ideas of the Text
Design Backwards
What are the major points
Essential to designing good questions and a culminating assignment

24. Text Dependent Questions
Step Two: Start Small to Build Confidence
Opening questions should be ones that help orientate students to the text
Be sufficiently specific enough for them to answer
Confidence to tackle more difficult questions later on.

25. Text Dependent Questions
Step Three: Target Vocabulary and Text Structure
Key text structures
Academic words in the text that are connected to the key ideas and understandings, and
Craft questions that illuminate these connections

26. Text Dependent Questions
Step Four: Tackle Tough Sections Head-on
Find the sections of the text that will present the greatest difficulty and craft questions that support students in mastering these sections (these could be sections with difficult syntax, particularly dense information, and tricky transitions or places that offer a variety of possible inferences).

27. Text Dependent Questions
Step Five: Create Coherent Sequences of Text Dependent Questions
Questions should not be random but should build toward more coherent understanding and analysis to ensure that students learn to stay focused on the text to bring them to a gradual understanding of its meaning.

28. Text Dependent Questions
Step Six: Identify the Standards That Are Being Addressed
Step Seven: Create the Culminating Assessment
(a) mastery of one or more of the standards
(b) involves writing, and
(c) is structured to be completed by students independently.

29. A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
section 1 What’s at stake: a nation as a place and an idea
(1–2 days)
Section 1 Activities  
Students first read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address silently.
Teacher reads out loud, student follow along
Students re-read the first paragraph and translate it into their own words.
Teacher asks the class a small set of guiding questions about the first paragraph of Lincoln’s speech.
After the discussion, students rewrite their translation of Lincoln’s paragraph.
The teacher guides discussion of first line of second paragraph.
Wrap up.
Please review the Gettysburg sample that I sent to see how questions evolve.

30. A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
In the first sentence, what does Lincoln tell us about this new nation?
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

31. Creating Text Based Questions
In small groups develop several questions that require close reading of the first paragraph of the Gettysburg Address
Sample questions are on the next slide

32. A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Guiding Questions:
What does Lincoln mean by “four score and seven years ago”? Who are “our fathers”?
What does conceived mean?
What does proposition mean?
What is he saying is significant about America? Is he saying that no one has been free or equal before? So what is new?
Sum up and gather what students have learned so far: have students summarize the three ways in which the nation is new.

33. Text Dependent Questions
Close analytic reading of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” the following would not be text dependent questions:
Why did the North fight the civil war?
Have you ever been to a funeral or gravesite?
Lincoln says that the nation is dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.” Why is equality an important value to promote?
these questions is that they require no familiarity at all with Lincoln’s speech in order to answer them. Responding to these sorts of questions instead requires students to go outside the text.

34. Developing Text-Based Questions
Resource: for sample units

35. Question Starters Which sentence best emphasizes ___?
Which statement best supports ___?
Which is the most accurate statement ___?
Use details and information from the text ___?
Which fact provides the best evidence ___?
Which detail best illustrates ___?
Additional Question Starters
Tell participants that they may also select from this list of additional question starters. 35 35
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36. Afternoon Session
Developing a Unit

37. Developing a Unit Focus needs to address the Reading Strand
Develop Focus of Learning
Design Performance Task
Learning Activities
Select Text
Develop Text Based Questions
Resources Rigor/Relevance planning tools #31