1. Text-dependent Questions
Text Complexity and
K-2 ELA
Nancy Frey, PhD
Text-dependent Questions

2. If you can read this…

3. If you can read this…
Thank a teacher!

4. If you can read this…
effectively and write a analytical essay in under 42 minutes, and you meet all the math standards, objectives, and learning targets set forth by the Common Core State Standards, and you walk briskly through life in a healthy body taking 10,000 steps a day, while experiencing social and emotional well being, and you can effectively utilize technology and social media to access and analyze important information, and you play the piano perfectly…

5. If you can read this… Thank a teacher!
effectively and write a analytical essay in under 42 minutes, and you meet all the math standards, objectives, and learning targets set forth by the Common Core State Standards, and you walk briskly through life in a healthy body taking 10,000 steps a day, while experiencing social and emotional well being, and you can effectively utilize technology and social media to access and analyze important information, and you play the piano perfectly…
Thank a teacher!

6. Leaders wear many hats.

7. Skilled learners
are nurtured.

8. Skilled leaders
need to be nurtured, too.

9. Write as many entries on the ABC chart as possible while the other rolls the die. Switch roles each time you roll 6!
Take Six

10. Take Six
Terms related to the ELA Common Core State Standards (e.g., “text-dependent questions”)

11. Compare papers with your partner and add terms to your own
Compare papers with your partner and add terms to your own. How many terms did you collectively gather?
Take Six

12. 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

13. “Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade
‘staircase’ of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning reading
to the college and career readiness level.” (CCSS, 2010, p. 80)

14. “Fewer, Clearer, Higher”
Purpose of the newly designed standards
“Fewer, Clearer, Higher”

15. Key Features of the Standards

16. Key Features of the Standards
Text complexity and the
growth of comprehension.

17. Key Features of the Standards
Text complexity and the
growth of comprehension.
Text types, responding to reading, and research.

18. Key Features of the Standards
Text complexity and the
growth of comprehension.
Text types, responding to reading, and research.
Flexible communication and collaboration.

19. Key Features of the Standards
Text complexity and the
growth of comprehension.
Text types, responding to reading, and research.
Flexible communication and collaboration.
Academic language, vocabulary, and effective use.

20. All must be present for literacy learning.
Key Features of the Standards
Text complexity and the
growth of comprehension.
Text types, responding to reading, and research.
Flexible communication and collaboration.
Academic language, vocabulary, and effective use.
All must be present for literacy learning.

21. “Read like a detective, write like a reporter.”

22. K-5 Reading Standards

23. Expository

24. Expository
Persuasive

25. Expository
Persuasive
Narrative

26. Students produce as well as read complex texts.

27. Quantitative Measures
Source: The Common Core State Standards: Supporting Districts and Teachers with Text Complexity. Webinar delivered January 26, 2012 by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

28. Quantitative Measures
Use quantitative info to identify grade bands.
Source: The Common Core State Standards: Supporting Districts and Teachers with Text Complexity. Webinar delivered January 26, 2012 by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

29. Language Convention and Clarity
Qualitative Values
Background
Prior
Cultural
Vocabulary
Standard English
Variations
Register
Genre
Organization
Narration
Text Features
Graphics
Density and Complexity
Figurative Language
Purpose
Levels of Meaning
Structure
Knowledge Demands
Language Convention and Clarity

30. Levels of Meaning and Purpose
Density and complexity
Figurative language
Purpose

31. Density and Complexity
Gibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

32. Types of Vocabulary Tier 1/General Tier 2/Specialized Tier 3/Technical
Commonplace; learned from interactions with texts and people
Tier 2/Specialized
Change meaning with context (“polysemic”)
Tier 3/Technical
Specific to the discipline
There are several ways to classify vocabulary. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) describe vocabulary as in tiers, while Vacca and Vacca (2002) label subject area vocabulary as General, Specialized, and Technical. They have much in common with each other, and understanding the ways in which vocabulary can be classified is a useful first step in making selection decisions.
Polysemic (POL-ee-see-mik) is a linguistics term that describes words with multiple meanings. This type of word is especially difficult for English language learners, who often have a more constrained vocabulary.

33. Density and Complexity
More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?
Blue = Tier 1 vocabulary
Gibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

34. Density and Complexity
More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?
Blue = Tier 1 vocabulary
Green = Tier 2 vocabulary
Gibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

35. Density and Complexity
More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?
Blue = Tier 1 vocabulary
Green = Tier 2 vocabulary
Red = Tier 3 vocabulary
Gibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

36. Structure
Genre
Organization
Narration
Text features and graphics

37. Structure Changes in narration, point of view
Changes in font signal narration changes
Complex themes

38. Language Conventions
Standard English and variations
Register

39. Language Conventions Non-standard English usage
“Out in the hottest, dustiest part of town is an orphanage run by a female person nasty enough to scare night into day. She goes by the name of Mrs. Sump, though I doubt there ever was a Mr. Sump on accounta she looks like somethin’ the cat drug in and the dog wouldn’t eat.”
(Stanley, 1996, p. 2)

40. Knowledge Demands Background knowledge Prior knowledge
Cultural knowledge
Vocabulary

41. Knowledge Demands
Prior experience (Secondary text on technical directions and related information )
Background knowledge (technical drawings and directions for making a paper airplane, invention process, mythology)

42. Language Convention and Clarity
Qualitative Values
Background
Prior
Cultural
Vocabulary
Standard English
Variations
Register
Genre
Organization
Narration
Text Features
Graphics
Density and Complexity
Figurative Language
Purpose
Levels of Meaning
Structure
Knowledge Demands
Language Convention and Clarity
Use qualitative values to identify specific grade levels.

43. Task and Reader  

44. Text Reader Task Quantitative Qualitative Cognitive capabilities
Motivation
Knowledge
Experience
Task
Teacher-led Peer-led
Independent

45. Our goal with complex text is to slow the reader down.

46. Annotation is a note of any form made while reading text.
“Reading with a pencil.”

47. People have been annotating texts since there have been texts to annotate.

48. Annotation is not highlighting.

49. Annotation slows down the reader in order to deepen understanding.

50. Annotation occurs with digital and print texts.

51. Annotation in Kindergarten
Language experience approach
Interactive writing and shared pen activities

52. 2 4 5 3 1 Modeled Annotation in Kindergarten
Kemp, L. M. (1996). One peaceful pond: A counting book. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

53. Modeled Annotation in Second
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

54. Even young students can annotate.

55. Read IRA’s Guidance on Literacy Implementation for CCSS.
What are the implications for your school?
Are there misconceptions your staff might hold?
How will you deepen their understanding of literacy development?

56. Close Reading

57. “X-ray the book”

58. Not every reading is a close one!
“X-ray the book”

59. In the primary grades, close reading is accomplished through interactive read alouds and shared readings.

60. Creating a Close Reading

61. Creating a Close Reading
Short passage
Creating a Close Reading

62. Creating a Close Reading
Short passage
Complex text
Creating a Close Reading

63. Creating a Close Reading
Short passage
Complex text
Limited frontloading
Creating a Close Reading

64. Creating a Close Reading
Short passage
Complex text
Limited frontloading
Repeated readings
Creating a Close Reading

65. Multiple readings often make this unnecessary
The Role of Pre-reading
Multiple readings often make this unnecessary

66. Multiple readings often make this unnecessary
The Role of Pre-reading
Too often provides information students can glean from careful reading of the text
Hard to wean students from this
Similarly challenging to move teachers away from providing this “smoothing of the road”
Multiple readings often make this unnecessary

67. Creating a Close Reading
Short passage
Complex text
Limited frontloading
Repeated readings
Text-dependent questions
Creating a Close Reading

68. Characteristics of Text-dependent questions

69. Characteristics of Text-dependent questions
Questions that can only be answered with evidence from the text
Can be literal but can 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 enhance reading proficiency

70. Progression of Text-dependent Questions
Opinions, Arguments,
Intertextual Connections
Inferences
Author’s Purpose
Vocab & Text Structure
Key Details
General Understandings
Whole
Across texts
Entire text
Segments
Paragraph
Sentence
Word
Part

71. General Understandings
Overall view
Sequence of information
Story arc
Main claim and evidence
Gist of passage

72. General Understandings in Kindergarten
Retell the story in order using the words beginning, middle, and end.

73. Key Details Search for nuances in meaning
Determine importance of ideas
Find supporting details that support main ideas
Answers who, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many.

74. Key Details in Kindergarten
How long did it take to go from a hatched egg to a butterfly?
What is one food that gave him a stomachache? What is one food that did not him a stomachache?

75. It took more than 3 weeks. He ate for one week, and then “he stayed inside [his cocoon] for more than two weeks.”

76. Foods that did not give him a stomachache
Foods that gave him a stomachache
Apples
Pears
Plums
Strawberries
Oranges
Green leaf
Chocolate cake
Ice cream
Pickle
Swiss cheese
Salami
Lollipop
Cherry pie
Sausage
Cupcake
watermelon

77. Vocabulary and Text Structure
Bridges literal and inferential meanings
Denotation
Connotation
Shades of meaning
Figurative language
How organization contributes to meaning

78. Vocabulary in Kindergarten
How does the author help us to understand what cocoon means?

79. There is an illustration of the cocoon, and a sentence that reads, “He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.”

80. Author’s Purpose Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform? Persuade?
Point of view: First-person, third-person limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator
Critical Literacy: Whose story is not represented?

81. Author’s Purpose in Kindergarten
Who tells the story—the narrator or the caterpillar?

82. A narrator tells the story, because he uses the words he and his
A narrator tells the story, because he uses the words he and his. If it was the caterpillar, he would say I and my.

83. Inferences
Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text, each key detail in literary text, and observe how these build to a whole.

84. Inferences in Kindergarten
The title of the book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. How do we know he is hungry?

85. The caterpillar ate food every day “but he was still hungry
The caterpillar ate food every day “but he was still hungry.” On Saturday he ate so much food he got a stomachache! Then he was “a big, fat caterpillar” so he could build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

86. Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections
Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5)
Claims
Evidence
Counterclaims
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Rhetoric
Links to other texts throughout the grades

87. Opinions and Intertextual Connections in Kindergarten
Narrative
Informational
Is this a happy story or a sad one? How do you know?
How are these two books similar? How are they different?

88. Lesson design
How does purpose and meaningful collaborative work fit into this lesson?

89. Don’t over-teach. Students with disabilities and English learners have the right to appropriately struggle!

90. Accommodations for Close Reading
Provide students with copies of text-dependent questions in advance of reading.
Pre-teach reading, especially background knowledge and cognates.
Provide realia or visual glossaries to support student learning.
Highlight contextual clues.

91. Develop Text-dependent Questions for Your Reading
Do the questions require the reader to return to the text?
Do the questions require the reader to use evidence to support his or her ideas or claims?
Do the questions move from text-explicit to text-implicit knowledge?
Are there questions that require the reader to analyze, evaluate, and create?

92. 293 days until Moving Day

93. Fostering Transition to CCSS
How will you shift attention to curriculum, while preserving quality instruction?
How will teams make decisions about what to edit, and what to add in curriculum?
How will teams learn how to reduce some practices (e.g., pre-reading), and add new practices (e.g., close reading)?

94. Using Foundational Work to Build Upon
How will you use this foundational knowledge to build capacity? What resources do you have? What do you need?