1. Text Set training for HS ELA
Amy Rudat
David Abel s

2. Part 1: Why Build Knowledge and Vocabulary ?

3. Knowledge and vocabulary are directly related to reading
Reminder…
Extensive research supports the necessity for reading on grade level in early elementary grades, with the consequences being directly related to HS graduation rates
The achievement gap grows the longer students are in school
The gap is not caused by lack of critical thinking, failure to use comprehension strategies, failure to master “standards”
Knowledge and vocabulary are directly related to reading
RECAP of liben presentations

4. Five Essential Studies
Hernandez 2011, “Double Jeopardy”
Lesnick et al 2010, “Reading on Grade Level in Third Grade: How Is it Related to High School Performance and College Enrollment?”
Fletcher and Lyon 1998, 74% of 3rd graders who read poorly will still be struggling in 9th grade.
Snow et al 1998, “A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by the end of third grade is quite unlikely to graduate from high school.”
Juel 1988, 1st grade reading scores are a “reliable predictor of later reading scores.”
Hernandez 2011 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed that students that are not reading proficient by third grade are 4 times less likely to graduate from high school on time than students who are reading proficiently in 3rd grade.
These 5 studies all suggest that if you are not reading successfully by at least the third grade your chances of catching up are low. This is both distressing and puzzling. Why would scores so early be such a strong predictor of outcomes later?

5. The Baseball Study Recht & Leslie (1988)
Compared reading comprehension for four categories of students:
High reading ability
High knowledge of baseball
Low knowledge of baseball
Low reading ability
Quick check for understanding/following along. Ask people who they think was in each category (i.e. likely “jocks” in the low reading ability, high baseball knowledge group; “nerds” in the high ability low knowledge of baseball group).
The students in these 4 groups read a passage about baseball and then took a test of their comprehension. Ask participants to predict what % of questions on a reading comprehension test each category of student would get right. The best is for them to draw a grid on their paper and put an actual % of predicted questions correct in each quadrant. Tell them that the colors are so they can quickly match the group with the graphs on the next slide.
Technical Notes:
“The high-ability /high-knowledge cell had 10 boys and 6 girls; the high ability/low-knowledge cell had 3 boys and 13 girls; the low-ability/
high-knowledge cell had 12 boys and 4 girls; and the low-ability/low knowledge cell had 7 boys and 9 girls.”
High reading ability was defined as 70th percentile or higher on a standardized test of reading. Low reading ability was defined as 30th percentile or lower.
High knowledge of baseball was defined as 70th percentile or higher on a test of baseball knowledge. Low baseball ability was defined as 30th percentile or lower.

6. After they predict percentages, show them this slide and give them a minute to take it in. They should notice that the low reading ability students with high knowledge (the “jocks”) outperformed the high reading ability students with low knowledge (the “nerds”). In addition there is little difference between the two high knowledge groups and the two low knowledge groups.
from pg. 18, table 1, Recht & Leslie (Qualitative Measure) Note: conversion from raw numbers to percentages achieved by dividing score by achieved by total possible score.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is this study generalizable? Yes! In fact a European study replicated the finding exactly with students of a totally different background on the topic of soccer. Additional research has shown similar results on a wide variety of other topic and subject areas.
Is the impact here from knowledge or from interest? Knowledge. It’s hard to disentangle these variables, but a separate study using basketball was able to distinguish the two and found that the one that had the major impact was knowledge.
If knowledge is so important does this undermine the value of close reading? No. Close reading teaches students how to gain knowledge from text by attending to it carefully. But, as we will soon discuss, high volume reading of informational text is also necessary to build the base of knowledge and vocabulary necessary to succeed with close reading. This is a BOTH, AND type of question, not an either or.

7. Findings
Knowledge of the topic had a MUCH bigger impact on comprehension than generalized reading ability did (pg. 18)
With sufficient prior knowledge “low ability” students performed similarly to higher ability students. (pg. 19) The difference in their performance was not statistically significant.
The second bullet point here has a big implication for student scaffolds. By helping students build their knowledge, “low readers” can perform at levels similar to “high readers.”
Reference:
“With adequate prior knowledge, those students who are comprehending below the 30th percentile on the SRA [standardize reading assessment] are comparable with those above the 30th percentile in reenactment, verbal recall, and the ability to summarize text.” (pg. 19)

8. The Causes What they are NOT What they ARE Lack of critical thinking
Failure to know or use comprehension strategies
Failure to master the standards
Vocabulary: Failure to grow sufficient vocabulary
Knowledge: Failure to develop wide background knowledge
Fluency: Failure to become a fluent reader
WHAT THIS MEANS:
Students now have an extremely small window to graduate high school with the knowledge, vocabulary, and skills necessary to navigate successfully in college and/or career.

9. Imagine what it’s like to be a student with a vocabulary and knowledge deficit on test day…
Talk about the words and phrases that are not redacted because the words may be known, but not in the combinations as they appear here, nor with the intended meaning (which could be determined by context, if the context didn’t also contain redacted words and words that may be fuzzy)
Example: body of knowledge
Human social community
Training, prejudice
Gram of fluff

11. What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge
“Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture…”
From the standards:
Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture. At a curricular or instructional level, texts—within and across grade levels—need to be selected around topics or themes that systematically develop the knowledge base of students. Within a grade level, there should be an adequate number of titles on a single topic that would allow children to study that topic for a sustained period. The knowledge children have learned about particular topics in early grade levels should then be expanded and developed in subsequent grade levels to ensure an increasingly deeper understanding of these topics. Children in the upper elementary grades will generally be expected to read these texts independently and reflect on them in writing. However, children in the early grades (particularly K–2) should participate in rich, structured conversations with an adult in response to the written texts that are read aloud, orally comparing and contrasting as well as analyzing and synthesizing, in the manner called for by the Standards. Preparation for reading complex informational texts should begin at the very earliest elementary school grades. What follows is one example that uses domain specific nonfiction titles across grade levels to illustrate how curriculum designers and classroom teachers can infuse the English language arts block with rich, age-appropriate content knowledge and vocabulary in history/social studies, science, and the arts. Having students listen to informational read-alouds in the early grades helps lay the necessary foundation for students’ reading and understanding of increasingly complex texts on their own in subsequent grades

12. 2014 and 1/2015 ELA CC Regents Exam Topics & Tasks
Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain
Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, “The (Elusive) Theory of Everything”
Consumer privacy
The economics of hosting the Olympic Games
Ethics of De-extinction
Anna Howard Shaw, Women’s Suffrage, 1915
Red Jacket, Chief of the Seneca Nation, Speech to US War Dept, 1801
Henry D. Thoreau , Walden, 1910

13. The HS ELA standards are built off a foundation in the preceding grades This foundation includes: reading of grade-level complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

14. What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge
In the HS grades, addressing vocabulary and knowledge gaps is akin to emergency triage—but it is still necessary!
Building habits of mind, exposing students to a volume of non-fiction texts, making interdisciplinary connections
Enhancing understanding of Literary texts, including contemporary relevance
From the standards:
Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture. At a curricular or instructional level, texts—within and across grade levels—need to be selected around topics or themes that systematically develop the knowledge base of students. Within a grade level, there should be an adequate number of titles on a single topic that would allow children to study that topic for a sustained period. The knowledge children have learned about particular topics in early grade levels should then be expanded and developed in subsequent grade levels to ensure an increasingly deeper understanding of these topics. Children in the upper elementary grades will generally be expected to read these texts independently and reflect on them in writing. However, children in the early grades (particularly K–2) should participate in rich, structured conversations with an adult in response to the written texts that are read aloud, orally comparing and contrasting as well as analyzing and synthesizing, in the manner called for by the Standards. Preparation for reading complex informational texts should begin at the very earliest elementary school grades. What follows is one example that uses domain specific nonfiction titles across grade levels to illustrate how curriculum designers and classroom teachers can infuse the English language arts block with rich, age-appropriate content knowledge and vocabulary in history/social studies, science, and the arts. Having students listen to informational read-alouds in the early grades helps lay the necessary foundation for students’ reading and understanding of increasingly complex texts on their own in subsequent grades

15. Connection between Volume of Reading, Knowledge, and Vocabulary
Research by Landauer and Dumais into vocabulary acquisition shows that students acquire vocabulary up to four times faster when they read a series of related texts.
Reading a number of texts within a topic grows knowledge and vocabulary far faster than any other approach

16. How Does Volume of Reading Complement Close Reading?

17. Part 2: Text Sets and Expert Packs

18. Volume of Reading and Texts Sets
Text sets focus on
volume of reading;
gaining knowledge about a topic through reading a range of complexities;
light teacher support;
student-driven/ independence
Clear and repetitive practice for accountability from pre-existing choice
Contrast this to the typical way we do business where we skip around from topic to topic, plants today, tree mammal tomorrow, the colonies the day after. Instead we need to spend time reading several texts within the same topic in order to build knowledge and vocabulary faster. With the huge volume of words and huge bodies of knowledge that students need to learn, we can’t afford to not use the most effective, fastest way to gain this knowledge.
The research referenced here is what led to the creation of the idea of text sets: a thoughtfully sequenced series of texts designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.

19. What is a Text Set?
A text set is a set of “texts” around a similar topic, theme, or idea.
Strong text sets share common vocabulary, which helps bolster students’ vocabulary knowledge through repeated readings.
Strong text sets also provide students with repeated readings about similar ideas, which allow them to build knowledge.

20. Strong Whole-Class Text Set, Grade 7
Anchor: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (Literary, non-leveled or adapted version)
“The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry (Literary, Appendix B Exemplar)
“The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” Walter Dean Myers (Literary)
Reader’s Theatre version of A Christmas Carol (SCOPE Magazine, Scholastic) (Literary)
“Charles Dickens: Six Things He Gave the Modern World,” Alex Hudson (BBC News) (Informational)
Live drama/film of A Christmas Carol EXCERPT
Original Manuscript of A Christmas Carol with Dickens’ revisions (New York Times)
Theme around Dickens and “A Christmas Carol” – deep dive

21. Text Set as Mini-Assessment Grade 9
The Manhattan Project Texts
Based on a series of texts about the
Manhattan Project and President Truman’s communication to Joseph Stalin regarding the United States’ development of an atomic bomb.
Questions may address several standards within the same question; complex texts tend to yield rich assessment questions that call for deep analysis.
In this mini-assessment there are eleven selected-response or Additionally, there is an optional writing prompt, which is aligned to both the Reading Standards for Informational Texts and the Writing Standards.

22. Systems that Must be in Place
Content
ELL
ELA
SWD
AIS
Cross Content Communication
Shared understanding of knowledge and vocabulary process and deficits
Cross Service Communication: ELL, AIS, SWD, ELA

23. An Expert Pack Text Set
Collection of resources organized for students to build knowledge about a specific topic; ideally related to a topic in general education classroom
Glossary of terms to help students access challenging vocabulary
Suggested activities to help students capture and express their learning
As independent as possible: in this process the bulk of the teacher work is pre-loaded.

24. Expert Pack Resources
Text broadly defined: text, graphic novel/text, free articles (readworks), art, infographic, interactive graphics and text, interviews, audio, etc.
Text sequenced generally beginning with lower reading levels (quantitative and qualitative) and moving to more complex levels.
Support students’ ability to read the next selection (mostly) independently or in pairs.
Students develop expertise on the topic.
Topics ideally connected in some way to a content area curriculum .

25. Expert Pack Development of Steps
Text Selection (between 8 and 10 texts)
Vocabulary Selection (teacher identifies anticipated vocabulary within each text)
Suggested Activities: Learning worth remembering for specific texts and developing conversation across text includes:
Summary: table where students record text, their central learning, and how this learning builds on/adds to learning from previous text
Vocabulary “sensational six:” students select vocabulary that they think is critical to understanding text, locate definition, and use it in a sentence specifically about the text

26. Expert Pack Development of Steps
Student accountability – is this work worth doing?
“light touch approach” for teachers and students. Can this be done easily and mostly independently?
Picture of knowledge (students record something they read that was interesting, taught you something new, made you want to learn more, and is still confusing)
Quizmaker – students develop questions for other students for reading of text, that require the text to develop the answer.
Wonderings: I am still confused about/ This made me wonder
Using vocabulary in discussion of text

27. Of Mice and Men and text set
What kind of text set?
Assessment? Expert Pack?
Extension?
What topic could I concentrate on that would support student understanding of the central text and provide background that does not give students answers to the central questions that we will be exploring in the module, but provides a foundation that may benefit students in knowledge and vocabulary as they tackle the text?
Dust bowl and migrant workers? To what extent?

28. You Try: OMAM Expert Pack-in-progress
Read the sample OMAM expert pack and think about the following:
What knowledge about the world and words does this text provide?
How can this knowledge benefit students as they read Of Mice and Men?
How can this knowledge benefit students in other texts and topics they may encounter in ELA or other subject area classes?
Sequence of texts
Where texts work or don’t work for this purpose
how will these texts (including graphics/images) support and enhance understanding of the context of the novel? Of other texts and topics they may encounter in ELA or other subject area classes?
Sequence of texts—what order would you give these to students with this end goal in mind
Where texts work or don’t work for this purpose—would you ditch one, two, all of these for other resources? Why? What is missing from this set that you feel is needed?

29. You Try: OMAM Expert Pack-in-progress
Keep in mind the function of the expert pack is ideally supporting struggling students with the goal of building knowledge and vocabulary within a topic

30. Learn more!
The training materials for SAP’s text Set Project, as well as the completed text sets are housed in an Edmodo group. Follow these steps for access:
 Make a teacher account at
On the left side of home screen, it will say "Groups" under your name and picture. Click on the "+" next to "Groups" and choose "Join".
Type in the group code: sma265 
Now, from your home screen, you should see "Text Set Project" listed under "Groups". Click on this tab.
Choose "Folders" from the left side of your screen, and, here, you will find all of the materials.