1. Standards Mapping and Close Reading with an emphasis on Read Alouds
District Learning Day
Location goes here
August 6, 2015

2. Do Now Penny History Activity
Select a penny from the bin on the table.
Locate the year on the penny
On a sheet of paper, write down an interesting thing that happened to you in that year.
Share with your table members,
Identify one from your group that will be shared with the entire group.
Recommended Time: 5 to 7 Minutes
-Allow the participants 4 minutes to share their information with the groups.
-Ask for 2 to 3 volunteers to share out with the entire group.

3. Norms Be present and engaged.
Be respectful of differences in perspective while challenging each other productively and respectively.
Monitor “air time.”
Make the most of the time we have.
Stay focused on students.
Recommended Time: 1 to 2 Minutes
We will adhere to the following norms.

4. KUDO’s for Learning
Know-The participants will know the standards as they relate to preparing students for success, as well as, how to use the close reading strategy to build listening and language comprehension skills.
Understand-The participants will understand that instructional shifts are required to effectively develop comprehensive reading skills in students.
Be able to Do-The participants will be able to identify grade specific reading standards and effectively use the Read Aloud strategy to engage primary students in the Close Reading Process.
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Read the KUDO’s statements to the participants. Emphasis should be given to the “Do” section as this defines what teachers should incorporate in their classrooms throughout the school year.

5. Context for presentation
TN-Core Summer Training Manual. The content is aligned to the district’s and state’s goal of increasing literacy profanely rates for all students.
Recommended Time: 1 Minute
Inform the participants that the information, strategies, and resources discussed in this presentation are from the TN-Core Summer Training Manual. The resources and materials can be accessed on the state’s website at
Username: tneducation
Password: fastestimproving
Disclaimer:
Please inform the participants that the username and passcode are for Tennessee Educators only. This information should not be shared with teachers in other states.

6. The Stakes are High in Pre-K-Second grade
Three-quarters of children who struggle with reading in third grade will continue to struggle in school.
Children who do not read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school than proficient readers.
Eighty-two percent of fourth graders from low-income families failed to reach the “proficient” level in reading on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Children who cannot read proficiently and are poor for at least one year are six times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers.
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Time: 5 minute
Use with: Welcome page
Additional Materials: none
Directions: Say: “Before we dig into this content, let’s stop and think about why this matters. The stakes are high in Grades 1-2. Read these four statistics. Then discuss with a neighbor which statistic is most startling or compelling to you.” Call on a few participants. Before moving on, make sure to summarize the key points for participants. For example: “What we all seem to agree upon is that literacy matters, and strong instruction in the early grades matters. Let’s keep these statistics in mind as we move through the content today and help remind each other that the work we do is critical.”
Additional information:

7. Standards Mapping

8. Focus Question
Why is it important to understand the standards mapping process?
Recommended Time: Less than 1 Minute
-Pose the question to the group, allow 1 to 2 volunteers to respond.

9. Standards
Knowledge of the academic expectations of future grade levels is relevant to all standards. This session most closely aligns with the following College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading:
Key Ideas and Details
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Craft and Structure
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
Recommended Time: 1 minute
Review the standards; you may want to point out that specific TN academic standards will be connected to each module and the design of this training was thoughtfully organized around the standards.

10. Preparing for Third Grade: Standards Mapping
What do students need to be doing in early grades so that they are prepared to be successful in third grade?
Review the Tennessee Academic Standards, in your handout. The standards are organized by strand and show the progression of the standard from Pre-K to third grade.
Review the third grade writing task. Determine which standards are reflected in the writing task.
Looking at the culminating third grade standard, note the progression in expectations across grade levels. What does this progression make you think about your own instruction and how you can be preparing your students for future expectations?
Recommended Time: 20 minutes
Additional Materials: chart paper and chart markers
Directions: Read the directions on the slide.
Additional information:
The main idea of this task is to have participants understand the demands of the task (in terms of the standards) and realize that the standards build in complexity across the grades. Participants should realize that the roots of student success begin in Pre-K and grow across the years through thoughtful instruction.
There may be some discussion about the inclusion of Speaking and Listening. Since these standards aren’t assessed, participants may not want to include them.
Encourage participants to think about which standards speak “most loudly” through the task. Don’t just list all the standards. Encourage participants to argue for or against a standard being included.

11. Preparing for Third Grade: Standards Mapping
Writing
Example
Anchor 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
In Kindergarten, the standard expects students to use drawing, dictation, and writing to state an opinion about a topic or text. In first grade the standard expects students to write, state an opinion, and supply a reason for the opinion. By third grade students have to support their opinion with multiple reasons, use sequencing word. As a Kindergarten teacher, I can be thinking about how to prepare my students to give reasons for their opinion.   
Recommended Time: 20 minutes
Use with: Standards chart in participant book and reference the standards found in the appendix
Additional Materials: chart paper and chart markers
Directions: Review the example. This example is printed in the manual. This is where you will model the rest of the process for the Writing standard.
If you use a jigsaw activity here, you may want to have participants find their standards section in the appendix and tab it. The standards are the first section after the appendix tab.
Additional information:
The main idea of this task is to have participants understand the demands of the task (in terms of the standards) and realize that the standards build in complexity across the grades. Participants should realize that the roots of student success begin in Pre-K and grow across the years through thoughtful instruction.
There may be some discussion about the inclusion of Speaking and Listening. Since these standards aren’t assessed, participants may not want to include them.
If time is an issues, assign a strand (for example Informational Text) to a small group and assign another strand (for example Foundational Skills) to another small group.
Encourage participants to think about which standards speak “most loudly” through the task. Don’t just list all the standards. Encourage participants to argue for or against a standard being included.

12. Third Grade Writing Task
Read the writing task on your own
Directions: Read Text 1 The Emperor’s Challenge, Text 2 Waiting for the Little Penguins, and the prompt.
While reading, think about the knowledge, skills, and habits that students need to be successful on this task.
Recommended Time: 20 minutes
Directions: Explain to participants that this task is a practice task for the MIST platform. It was designed to help students practice for the 2015 TCAP Writing Assessment. The demands of this task are very similar to the demands of writing tasks for the TNReady.
Additional information: This task can be accessed at See full URL in the participant manual. These are secure materials and should not be copied. The format of the task has been modified from the version that appears on the MIST platform.

13. Key Idea
To be successful, in current and future grade levels, students must comprehend what they listen to and read. Students must understand that comprehending, or understanding, is the purpose for reading and listening.
Recommended Time: 1 min
Read the big idea on the slide. Allow participants time to share thoughts. You may want to point out the “key” printed on this slide and in their participant manuals. This training is full of “key ideas”, so keep your eye out for this symbol and be sure to consider these key ideas carefully.

14. SCS Standards based instructional resources

15. Focus Question
What resources will SCS provide to teachers to access the standards and curricular resources?

16. TNDOE Curriculum Standards
Based on the Common Core State Standards
Recommended Time: 1 Minute
-Remind the participants that each standard addressed within the SCS curriculum guides and pacing charts are found within the Tennessee State Standards. The standards can be accessed using the link above.

17. ELA Standards and Strands
Reading: Literature
Reading: Informational Text
Reading: Foundational Skills
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Language
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Briefly discuss the ELA standards and strands.
-Inform the teachers that the ELA strands are covered beginning in Pre-K and extending through 12th grade.

18. What are curriculum maps?
Detailed information regarding standards, expected outcomes, resources, and suggested performance assessments
Pacing by the week
Your roadmap for success; follow it!
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Read the slide to the participants
-Ensure that all participants understand that they are expected to adhere to the curriculum map that has been designed by the district.

19. SCS ELA Curriculum Documents
Include what to teach and when to teach it
Provide “Outcome” statements to help you write daily/weekly objectives
Reference resources that can be used
Provide sample performance assessments
Do NOT
Provide instructional activities
Recommended Time: 4 Minutes
-Read the slide to the participants.
-Ensure they understand that the curriculum documents do not provide them with the “HOW”. Meaning the guided do not provide activities or directions for explicitly delivering the content.
* Ensure that the participants are aware that the curriculum documents for the school year are currently in the revision stage and will be posted to the website once they are complete. Directions for accessing their materials will be made available at a later date.

20. Using the Curriculum Maps to Plan
Match standards and learning target statements to the selected texts for the week.
Plan your weekly and daily objectives, using the learning target statements to help.
Study the suggested assessments, and match them to your objectives.
Plan your instruction, using the district lesson plan and Journeys resources.
Recommended Time: 3 Minutes
-Read the information on the slide to the participants.

21. Our Primary Resource Recommended Time: Less than 1 Minute
-Inform the teachers that they will be expected to use their curricular materials to deliver explicit, grade level, instruction to their students.

22. Journeys Components—All Grades
Teacher’s edition
Student books
Focus wall poster
Sets of readers
Above Level
Below Level
On Level
Vocabulary Readers
ELL Readers
Language and Literacy Guide
Writing Handbook (T, S)
Reader’s Notebook (consumable)
Literacy Center Flip Charts
Grab and Go Set
Tennessee Test Power
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Briefly read and discuss the list of resources with the participants.

23. Additional Journeys Components
Reading Toolkit (1-3)
Literacy Toolkit (4-5)
Decodable Readers (1, 2)
Big books (K, 1)
Sound-Spelling Cards (1-3)
Curious About Words Kit (K-3)
Common Core Language Support Cards (K-3)
Recommended Time: 1 Minute
-Briefly read and discuss the list of resources with the participants.

24. Using Journeys to Plan and Instruct
Consult both your curriculum map and your Journeys five-day planner to complete your lesson plan.
Write your daily objectives (I can…) and determine how you will assess them.
Plan whole group instruction.
Plan small group instruction:
Teacher-directed small group
Literacy stations (How many? Which ones? Differentiated activities?)
Plan closure.
Plan follow-up for reteaching and enrichment.
List the materials you will need.
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Briefly read and discuss the list with the participants.
-inform them that weekly planner is provided for every story in the series.

25. Access to Journeys Online
Look for an from This will contain your login information.
Log into ThinkCentral at
Go to the Dashboard and play around. You can’t break the system; learn to use it!
Recommended Time: 2 Minutes
-Ensure the participants understand how to access their Journey’s resources online.
-If participants need assistance setting up an account, tell them to Jennifer Davis. Her address is
Additional Information
-The screen shot is a picture of the Think Central Dashboard.

26. Password: readandwrite
Recommended Time: 1 Minutes
-Read the slide to the participants. Encourage them to write down the passcode.
Password: readandwrite

27. Resources from the TDOE
The TNCore website
Instructional resources –units, tasks, close reading lessons
Assessment resources—writing prompts, scored papers, scoring rubrics
Username: tneducation
Password: fastestimproving
Training materials
Text complexity resources
For teachers in grades K-3
Recommended Time: 1 Minutes
-Briefly read and discuss the list of resources with the participants.

28. Close Reading and Read Alouds

29. Focus Question
What is Close Reading? How should this process look in the primary grade?
Recommended Time: Less than 1 minute
-Inform the participants that by the end of this segment of the presentation they will be able to answer two essential questions:
What is close reading?
How should this process look in the primary grades?

30. Something to Think About
If we want to create close readers who are also independent readers, we need to explicitly teach how to approach a text to uncover its multiple layers of meaning. In the meantime, we'll need to come to class prepared to ask important text-dependent questions when students' own questioning fails to produce a deep understanding. College and career readiness begins in the primary grades. With the right tools, we can build close reading skills even with our youngest readers.
- Boyles, 2013.
Recommended Time: 15 minutes
-Have a participant read the quote.
-Reread the bolded sections. -If participants seem especially engaged, it may be worth asking if anyone has a response to this quote.

31. What is Close Reading?
The Tennessee Academic Standards for English Language Arts ask students to read closely and carefully. They require that this careful, close reading be done with texts of greater complexity than has generally been the case in America’s public schools. Text complexity and the ability to rely on oneself to gain an accurate understanding of it are vital skills for the workplace, for college, and for citizenship.
- Guide to Close Reading. Retrieved from
Recommended Time: Less than 1 minute
- Select a participant to read the slide

32. Close Reading Requires
Understanding your purpose in reading
Understanding the author’s purpose in writing
Seeing ideas in a text as being interconnected
Looking for and understanding systems of meaning
Engaging a text while reading
Getting beyond impressionist reading
Formulating questions and seeking answers to those questions while reading
Recommended Time: 1 minute
-Read the slide

33. Close Reading Strategies
Story Mapping
SOAPS
Text-Self-World Connections
Three Levels of Questions
Arguments and Evidence
Appeals-Logical, Ethical Emotional
Assumptions
Recommended Time: Less than 1 minute
-Briefly discuss the list of strategies that can be used to engage students in a close read.
* Additional information is provided on the following slide.

34. Close Reading Strategies Defined
Recommended Time: 3 to 4 minutes
-Discuss the components associated with each strategy with the participants.
-Discuss the topics in the following order:
Story Maps
SOAPS
Connections
Three Levels of Questions
Arguments and evidence
Appeals
Assumptions

35. Key Shift
In order to assist students with making the shift to become more engaged with complex text, teachers must make a shifts with their questioning techniques.
Recommended Time: 3 minutes
-Read the slide to the participants.
-Focus on the fact that students and teachers must shift their though processes to effectively engage in the close reading process.
-Focus on the shift in questioning practices moving from using lower level stems that require students to recall information and events to a higher level stems that require students to analyze and justify their thought process.

36. Airtight Activity: Classroom Peek
Kindergarten, Second Read
Kindergarten, Third Read
Close Reading
Looks like…
Sounds like…
Feels like…
Recommended Time: 10 minutes
-Inform the participants that they are going to watch a video of a close read being conducted in a classroom.
-Tell them as they view the video, they will complete the close reading handout in their packet.

37. What resonated with you? What is similar to your current practice?
Reflection: MODELING
What resonated with you?
What is similar to your current practice?
What is different than your current practice?
What are you going to change as a result?
Recommended Time: 5 minutes
-Engage the participants in a discussion to reflect on the video.

38. Implications for Learning
To ensure our students are college and career ready, we must teach them critical reading strategies in order for them to independently attack a text.
Our students must learn how to own a text, rather than letting the text own them.
Recommended Time: Less than 1 minute
Read the slide to the participants.

39. Focus Question
How are Read Alouds connected to the close reading process?
Recommended Time: Less than 1 minute
-Read the slide to the participants.

40. The Importance of Read Alouds
Reading aloud is often recommended as the most significant activity for adults to support the emerging literacy skills of young children.
- NELP, 2008.
Reading aloud to young children is not only one of the best activities to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity, and memory.
- Bardige, 2009.
Reading texts aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for successful reading.
- McCormick, 1977.
Recommended Time: 1 minute
Directions: Have training participants read each of the quotes aloud. Ask participants for their reaction to these quotes. One potential misconception is that we read aloud to students because they enjoy it, when in fact it is a powerful pedagogical strategy. You should intentionally point out the dates of these quotes – over the course of 30 years, the research has stayed the same. Read alouds aren’t an instructional fad; they are a powerful tool that we should invest in as educators.

41. Stellalluna Read Aloud: MODELING
Stellalluna by Janell Cannon
Recommended Time: 15 minutes
-Use the book, Stellalluna by Janell Cannon to model a Read Aloud with the participants.
-Follow the process in your step-by-step guide.

42. What resonated with you? What is similar to your current practice?
Reflection: MODELING
What resonated with you?
What is similar to your current practice?
What is different than your current practice?
What are you going to change as a result?
Recommended Time: 5 minutes
-Engage the participants in a discussion to reflect upon the read aloud process.

43. Key Idea
Close reading is the thoughtful and critical process of analyzing a text. Close reading focuses on the significant details and patterns within a text to help students develop a deep and precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, meanings, etc. Close reading is an important shift within the Tennessee Academic Standards.
Recommended Time: 15 minutes
-Read the slide and summarize the relationship that exists between the close reading process and the Tennessee Academic Standards.

44. Next steps and activities for follow up
Plan and conduct a Read Aloud with your students.
Select a complex trade book.
Carefully craft a variety of complex questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a point of reference.
Engage students in the activity, carefully modeling your though process as a method of setting the foundational stage for teaching close reading concepts.
Reflect on your experience (positive or negative) and your thoughts to
Recommended Time: 2 minutes
-Read the slide to the participants to ensure the expectations for using this training to enhance instruction in their classrooms.

45. Revisit Objectives
Know-The participants will know the standards as they relate to preparing students for success, as well as, how to use the close reading strategy to build listening and language comprehension skills.
Understand-The participants will understand that instructional shifts are required to effectively develop comprehensive reading skills in students.
Be able to Do-The participants will be able to identify grade specific reading standards and effectively use the Read Aloud strategy to engage primary students in the Close Reading Process.
Recommended Time: 2 minutes
-Review the objectives from the beginning of the training to ensure that the goals were accomplished.

46. Reflection: One minute paper on post-it
Jot down your “Take-Aways”
Consider what you need to know and be able to do to successfully implement what you have learned in this session.
What is still unclear?
What professional development or additional resources do you need?
Recommended Time: 2 minutes
-Presenters please collect post-it notes at the end of each session.

47. Early Childhood and Curriculum and Instruction Staff
Susan Dold, Staci Hendrix, Dr. Tanya Kelly, Jolie Madihalli, Chanel Sallie, Visit us on our weebly: Password: readandwrite