THE FAQS OF EDQS WIFI INFORMATION USERNAME: WPGUEST PASSWORD: 2014WP** SOURCE: ACHIEVE THE CORE Barbara Wexler / Write to Literacy

The CCSS Requires Three Shifts in ELA/Literacy  Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction  Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational  Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Evidence-Dependent Questions (EDQs): Shift Number Two  Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction  Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational  Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Non-EDQ EDQ In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote? What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous? What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received? “The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?

EDQs are not…  Low-level, literal, or recall questions  Focused on comprehension strategies  Just questions…

EDQs...  Can only be answered with evidence from the text.  Can be literal (checking for understanding) but must also involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation.  Focus on word, sentence, and paragraph, as well as larger ideas, themes, or events.  Focus on difficult portions of text in order to augment reading proficiency.  Should include prompts for writing / discussion.

Three Types of EDQs  Questions that assess themes and central ideas  Questions that assess knowledge of vocabulary  Questions that assess syntax and structure

Creating EDQs  Identify the core understandings and key ideas of the text.  Start small to build confidence.  Target vocabulary and text structure.  Tackle tough sections head-on.  Create coherent sequences of text-dependent questions.  Identify the standards that are being addressed. NOTE: This is step six! You do not start with the Standard!  Create a culminating assessment.

Vocabulary Which words should be taught? ◦ Essential to understanding text ◦ Likely to appear in future reading Which words should get more time and attention? ◦ More abstract words (as opposed to concrete words) persist vs. checkpoint noticed vs. accident ◦ Words which are part of a semantic word family secure, securely, security, secured

Structure and EDQs  Text-dependent questions can be crafted to point students’ attention to features of text that enhance understanding (such as how section headers and captions lead to greater clarity or provide hints regarding what is most important in informational text, or how illustrations add to a narrative).

Culminating Task  Should relate to core understanding and key ideas.  A coherent sequence of text dependent questions will scaffold students toward successfully completing the culminating task.

Final FAQs about EDQs  There is no one right way to have students work with text-dependent questions.  Providing for the differing needs of students means providing and scaffolding supports differentially—not asking easier questions or substituting simpler text.  Listening and speaking should be built into any sequence of activities along with reading and writing.  “Re-read it, think it, talk it, write it”  The CCSS require ALL students to read and engage with grade appropriate complex text regularly. This requires new ways of working in our classrooms.

Creating Tests with EDQs Chew on This Chapter Six Test (“Meat”) (The test is in pagination order.) 1. True or False: The Hanna sisters took over the ranch, with their father, when their mother died suddenly. 2. Read the paragraph at the end of page of 160 and top of page 161, list three reasons why ranchers face economic problems: _______________________________, _____________________________ and ___________________________________ 3. ________________________________________is America’s largest purchaser of beef. 4. In 1968, this company bought beef from __________________companies, a few years later they reduced this number to _______________________________. (page 161). 5. In 1917, the five largest meatpacking companies _______________________________, ________________________________, ________________________________ ________________________________ and ________________________________ controlled about ______________percent of the market (p. 161). 6. True or False: Today, manure fires are rare. 7. In which two states did chicken farms emerge on a large scale after WWII? _______________________________ and ____________________________________ 8. True or False: Chicken McNuggets were introduced in A typical farmer earns $_____________________a year (page 174). 10. What did Japanese scientists discovered in 1994 (page 176)? 11. True or False: Butch and Sundance were pigs who made a daring escape to freedom.

Creating a Culminating Task Chew on This is a book rooted in bias. For the culminating task, students determine an assertion and then cite three examples (evidence) of bias in the each of the last two chapters of the book. They give any explanation for their choices (commentary). They do this with the use of a graphic organizer. They then compare and contrast the two chapters in a brief essay.

Hale Charter Academy / Woodland Hills Barbara Wexler GATE / SAS Coordinator