LET’S TALK! How Accountable Talk Read Aloud can help our ELLs reach Common Core Welcome - thanks for inviting me special thanks to Kristen and to my mentor Jane I am Linda Marshall – I am a literacy coach at the best school in PBC, we have approximately 600 students K-5, 99% F&R lunch, overall about 70% ELLs but incoming Ks are about 95 % non-English speakers. Students are from Mexico, Guatamala, Haiti. Many are not US citizens or are 1st generation born in US. Beautiful Beautiful Children and families that are trying their best. I also am an instructor at FAU. And … Linda Marshall mostmarsh@bellsouth.net

South Grade

What I do (and love doing) This is me doing what I do – working with colleagues trying to figure stuff out with kids. I am a literacy coach at a small school in South East Florida. Our school has about 600 students – Prek – 5. We are 99% free and reduced lunch, 90% of our K enter with little or no knowledge of English and our over school population is about 65% ELL. We are a reader’s/writer’s workshop school and have been working with TC – Columbia for about 6 years. I have been at South Grade for 9 years, before that I was a district administrator in the reading curriculum dept., an ELL coordinator for 15 schools, an ELL teacher and a regular classroom teacher. I have been in this business of education for 28 years and when I do the math and think -2 more years to full retirement – WOW! I also teach Reading – birth to 3rd grade at FAU. Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person on earth.

My Amazing Family (and how we spent our summer vacation!) Mother of 2 AMAZING YOUNG WOMEN and wife to a sweet, smart, science guy. We love to TRAVEL, eat delicious unsual food and be together. Emily is a graduate student at U of F – father’s daughter and is a scientist, Alison is an undergrad at FSU and she is going to save the world. Steve works for the great state of FL, he is a biological scientist. Sometimes I feel as if I am the luckiest person in the world.

Me and My Favorite Guy in My True Home! I am a northerner by birth and by dispositon – the south is like living in a foreign land – even though we have been there for over 20 years. Nycity is my home and favorite place anywhere.

Spencer Other worthwhile things to know about me – we are not quite empty nest because of Spencer. He is much younger in this picture. He was a rescue and look at him! Do I need to say anything else, he is much older and crotchetier but he is my baby and there is

Meanest Cat in the World CRYSTAL – the meanest cat in the world. But what can I say about a cat that hisses, spits and growls at the people who feed and shelter her. She has attitude – she cracks me up, I completely admire her.

Secret Ambitions (What I want to be when I grow up) My secret ambitions and what I most believe in

I believe in CELEBRATIONS! OF ALL KINDS!

And I am adamant about books, reading, and striving to be better for reading them. “What we read to children should have charm, magic, impact and appeal.” Margaret Mooney

What school looked like when I was young What school looked like when I was young! (ok maybe an exaggeration but close) So I’ve been around schools for a long time, I’ve seen A LOT OF STUFF come and go

South Grade Elementary 1962 Seriously, this is what school looked like for me – lots of kids in desks and rows. Life was different back then. This is actually the school I work in back in 1962 – the same year I was in first grade. South Grade Elementary 1962

My School now! This is South Grade now, no more desks, no more rows, lot less kids in a room. Even the teachers look different, more importantly the curriculum and the methodology have changed.

So I am here to talk to you today about CC and ELL students but first I must confess! I WAS A COMMON CORE RESISTER! THAT’S RIGHT AND I AM SURE SOME OF YOU OUT THERE WERE/ARE TOO… BUT I CAME AROUND AND NOW I HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE BUT I HAD STAGES TO GO THROUGH. I CALL THEM THE STAGES OF COMMON CORE ACCEPTANCE. I AM SHARING THIS WITH YOU WITH THE HOPES THAT IT WILL HELP SOME OF YOU. True Confessions

The Stages of Common Core Resistance There were stages to my resistance – with lots of pushes and pulls, and still sometimes I hear that voice… so here is my story, some of you might relate

1. Denial Maybe if I don’t pay attention they will just go away! Lots of other things went away (like everyone on grade level by 2014?)

2. Anger REALLY! Yet another idea about how to make education better! From those folks who brought us: ESEA, IASA, Reading First, Blueprint 2000, NCLB, Race to the Top, etc……

3. Bargaining – then the need to regain control Ummm so if I get really good at teaching one part of Common Core, I won’t have to worry about the other parts? So maybe if I keep moving up grades I won’t have to learn them so fast? They are not going to beat me down! I am going to learn this junk! I’ll show them… The normal reaction to feelings of helplessness and vulnerability is often a need to regain control–

4. Depression/Fear I am old! How am I ever supposed to learn this new stuff anyway? Everyone says Common Core is really hard, what’s wrong with me, they don’t look so hard! I am old! Can I really learn this new stuff?

5. Questions What are these new standards really about? What is at their foundation? So I started reading my mentors: Lucy, Dick, The Freemans, Cappelini, Fountas and Pinnell, Owocki, Folks at IRA and others My anti-mentors: David Coleman, ACT, Pearson, Parcc, Timothy Shanahan

6. Acceptance Here I am! But it is Acceptance with conditions. NOT JUST ACCEPTANCE – I AM EMBRACING CC! They are “a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century” “The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.” That’s a mouthfull right? But if you unpack the statement, its true, it sounds great

WHY ACCEPTANCE? Because… “They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language. (READ IT) How could you responsibly disagree with that? Let’s face it they are GOLD

THEY ARE GOLD Who doesn’t want their students thinking, reading, talking and understanding at high levels of complexity? Who doesn’t want students inferring, thinking BIG ideas and supporting those idea, naming themes, synthesizing information, analyzing and critiquing (all in standard English)? Who doesn’t want kids to have rich and exquisite conversations to grow and build ideas? I am embracing the CC as gold because

Another reason I can accept the Standards “The Standards are intended to be a living work: as new and better evidence emerges, the Standards will be revised accordingly.” Another reason I can accept, embrace, celebrate the standards because the standards documents also state that

What are my conditions? I will lobby for: A fair assessment of Common Core – one that does not put ELLs, children in poverty, ESE students at a disadvantage Assessment of CC that are not used to judge a teacher’s body of work Negotiations about assessing at high text complexity levels when even the architects of the CC acknowledge there is not a lot of research to support putting students in complex text without scaffolding!

So To Common Core or Not to Common Core? No matter what side of the philosophical divide you are on – to Common Core or not to Common Core – we are all on the same side. We want students who: “actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. “ Not sure about here in NE, but in Florida the debate rages. I recently attended an FRA conference and some heavy hitters were there speaking to both sides of the political divide. There was a debate panel with Richard Allington, and Timothy Shannahan. William Teale from IRA presented more questions than answers, and William McBride presented data that showed if tested today using common core standards, results for children in poverty and ELLs would be abmismal. So after lots of thinking, soul searching, I have come to a decision. I will happily use common core to help students reach the gold standard of education – but I will continue to lobby for fairness and I will also search for methodologies that make sense for teachers and students to reach that gold standard. That brings me to the heart of my presentation

Why Accountable Talk Read Aloud with Grand Conversation? One methodology that aligns with my beliefs and honors Common Core !

What is Accountable Talk Read Aloud Accountable Talk or Interactive Read-aloud is a powerful, research based, instructional tool in which the teacher not only reads aloud, but has predetermined stopping points where the teacher and students “interact” with the text There is always a clear instructional focus So you are all thinking – read aloud? Really? Come on we all do read aloud, and it has been around forever. True enough, but this is a little bit of a twist, it is a read aloud with intention, it is a read aloud that strives to keeps kids engaged and “accountable” to themselves and their partners by prompting and providing opportunities to think and talk thru the text. The read aloud is ALWAYS PLANNED – an easy way to plan is using sticky notes with the instructional focus and the method – turn and talk, stop and jot etc., and exact prompts teacher will use to keep the focus

The top sticky has the RC skill named for the teacher, you don’t say that to the kids, next to it is what you will tell the students to do at this point of the book – here it is stop and jot in their notebooks, you then prompt with specific sentence frames.

Purpose? It gives : Teachers and students a variety of ways to think and talk about text Teachers the opportunity to model and students to practice planned reading strategies Students an opportunity to talk back to and build upon each other’s thinking Students the scaffold to develop a theory, or a set of ideas, this theory will drive student’s discussion Students a model of how to develop ways to track and collect evidence in text around a theory Classrooms a way to engage in behaviors that elicit and sustain meaningful conversations – a way to teach the “art of conversation”

Accountable Talk Read Aloud EVERYDAY about 15 minutes WHEN Accountable Talk Read Aloud EVERYDAY about 15 minutes Whole Class Grand Conversation about 3 times a week right after the read aloud, takes anywhere from 3 -15 minutes

Instructional Focus Reading Skills and Strategies such as: Inferring Predicting Previewing and accumulating text Envisioning Determining main ideas and key details (text evidence) Synthesizing Interpreting Analyzing AND MORE… Could be any of these – this is by no means an inclusive list – you can have talk as a focus, science concepts, - I use ATRA as a way to model reading stragies – but it does not have to be limited to reading content

Instructional Focus is Determined by… Student’s needs (assessments) Common Core Standards Units or Genres being studied Insert picture of fiction and nonfiction sticky with teaching point

What Accountable Talk Read Aloud Looks Like Teacher Sitting with children in reading area Reading a purposefully selected and planned book marked with post-its Models strategies by thinking aloud Models explicit examples of responding to text (content of talk) AND also ways to respond to partners (social /academic context) Teacher “listening in” and sometimes recording partnership conversations Teacher ignoring raised hands So we have been talking a bit about what ATRA is, now lets talk about what it looks and sounds like.Is hand raising a big deal? I think it is for several reasons – especially in an ELL context. For one thing – when a student is called on what are all the other kiddos doing? If I have a one in 18 chance of getting called on my chances are much smaller than a one on one! If I am responsible for talking to my partner I might pay better attention. Also, with ELLs there is a much better chance that they will talk to each other rather than to a large group. Also, we are teaching “conversation” who raises their hand in a conversation

STUDENTS Sitting next to partner in circle or rows in reading area Observing how the teacher stops at strategic places in the text to think Turning and Talking, or Stopping and Jotting with partners at specified points Anchors ideas in the text

What Accountable Talk Sounds Like TEACHER Reading to students with great expression and fluency, including gestures Modeling comprehension and explaining vocabulary through “Think Alouds” while reading Prompting and voiceovers that promote higher order thinking Facilitating and prompting students thinking about strategies and text Occasionally sharing something she heard during partnership talk

STUDENTS Students sharing their thinking/ideas related to what is being read to their partners Students listening, clarifying, elaborating, and building upon each others’ idea High engagement – lots of talking at once

Nonfiction might sound like

Fiction might sound like

WHAT AN ACCOUNTABLE TALK SOUNDS LIKE…

Why for ELL students? Engages students with texts that have more challenging concepts and/or language than students can read independently. The read-aloud strategy helps English-language learners develop new vocabulary and syntactic awareness. Reading aloud builds good reading habits. It stimulates imaginations and emotions; models good reading processes; exposes students to a range of literature; enriches vocabularies and rhetorical sensitivity; elucidates difficult texts; helps to distinguish different genres; supports independent reading; and encourages a lifelong enjoyment of reading.  Mary Cappelini says – when I would read Shakespeare’s sonnets, they sounded foreign, when my professor read them aloud with expression and drama I started to understand, then finally I could read them on my own

Other ways to make Accountable Talk Accessible:

CAUTIONS Too many interruptions during reading can break the flow of comprehension, making it difficult for students to hold on to meaning Focus should not be too weighted on strategies without thinking about understanding the whole text

Reminders Accountable book talk is student talk that is accountable to the learning, where the students discuss what is being read. Community is vital – especially for ELLs. Accountable talk requires that students take risks among peers. It is critical that the classroom has clear expectations about sharing and responding to one another. Student Talk – not teacher talk – I know how much we LOVE to talk and we have many chances to, but we should not be the dominate voice in the room during this time

Followed by… Grand Conversation What is it After the read aloud, students sometimes engage in a conversation in which they share their thinking about a text Time for students to talk, minimal teacher talk Students build on one another’s ideas and thinking about a text using specific sentence frames Talk takes stamina building, just like independent reading Read aloud is sometimes followed by Grand Conversation. For a grand conversation to occur lots of things need to happen, namely the book has to be compelling, and engaging and provocative. An environment has to exist where all voices are heard and valued. Students need to build stamina around talk. An effort needs to be made for quiet voices to be heard along with the dominant ones. There are tecniques

Purpose Engage in behaviors that elicit and sustain meaningful conversations with their peers Builds community, purpose and passion around books, ideas, and talk Builds listening skills. Students respectfully listen to one another so that the direction and purpose of their discussion is between each other, not between teacher and student

What Grand Conversation Looks Like: STUDENT Sits in circle next to partner Shifts body toward and makes eye contact with speaker

TEACHER Sits in or outside of circle Takes notes Will sometimes provide ideas for the conversation using clear concise prompts Role is to facilitate students’ talking to one another and building on each others thinking

Connection to Common Core? Exposes children to a variety of genres, literary styles and high complexity, giving students the opportunity to think and talk at high levels.

Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening Let’s start with the Anchor Standards for Speaking and listening and see how ACTRA teaches with this standard in mind

Comprehension and Collaboration CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1  Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Inside of Speaking and Listening we have Comprehension and Collaboration – to me a perfect fit! A beautiful way to get your students to meet these standards. We are to: (READ STANDARD)– WITH ATRA we teach students to listen to others ideas and to build on them both with partners, foursomes and in whole class conversations. Following many read alouds, NOT all, we have what we call Grand Conversations where students talk to one another (teacher backs her way out of the conversation), the expectation is that students build on one anothers ideas. They use sentence frames as starting points and are expected to use text evdience.

When training students in turn and talk and Grand Conversations, we use sentence frames like these and make sure that they are on charts for students to use. We usually introduce them one or two at a time so that students become comfortable using them. We have them on charts, sometimes on cards that we give to students and guide them in using the specific academic language that fits the talk around the book

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Using talking prompts like these help students with Present information, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning of the author and the reader

Note on range and content of student speaking and listening To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations—as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner. Being productive members of these conversations requires that students contribute accurate, relevant information; respond to and develop what others have said; make comparisons and contrasts; and analyze and synthesize a multitude of ideas in various domains. This note in the common core about the content of student speaking and listening skills really enforces my belief that ATRA is a vital methodology that encourages students to develop conversation that is responsive, relevant, analytical and synthesizes information while also comparing and contrasting. Its high test!

Language Anchor Standards

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.6 Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.

Ways to Build Vocabulary Academic Language for non-fiction could be: Various text features, example – this photograph teaches me… Structures – the author is comparing… Main ideas supported with text evidence of key details – One main idea is_____ I know this because______ Domain Specific words: Photosynthesis, adaptations, etc.- these can be introduced using word banks, note books So just a few ways to give you some notion of how to build a range of academic and domain specific words when reading nonfiction text might be:

SAMPLE ACADEMIC VOCABULARY FOR FICTION Academic Language for fiction could be: I’m Predicting This is the type of character who My interpretation of what this book is really about Symbolic of I am accumulating ideas to build a theory The main idea supported by these key details Domain Specific words Different types of character traits – ex. Shy, lazy Mysteries – clues, suspects, crime There

General Academic Vocabulary that crosses Content Areas I agree/disagree because Please say more I would like to add on to that The idea I have is__________ That is one way to look at it, another way is I used to think________ but now I think ____ In my opinion _______ The evidence I have to support my idea ______

Conventions of Standard English CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

During our read aloud time we teach our students to turn and talk and use sentence frames to support their thinking when speaking. We have charts as visible anchors and reminders to students of the academic language that they can use during this time.

How to Choose the Perfect Read Aloud Do you LOVE IT? Is it at or above where your student’s are conceptually? (always push for a little above) What are you studying about Which standards are you working on?

MOST IMPORTANT THING Choosing texts to read and talk about is a CRITICAL decision. This is an opportunity to build strong classroom community, the texts you select to share, think, and talk about are invaluable. BE INTENTIONAL – help your students be inspired, react, learn, be challenged by, get passionate

BOOKS CHANGE LIVES (So do conversations) LOVE THAT DOG