Introduction to the Literacy Design Collaborative

Days 1 & 2

Frank DuffinLDC Program Manager & Secondary Literacy Consultant

Lindsey StevensSocial Studies Teacher, Bonney Lake High School

Briefly think about the norms we will use over the next two days that will help us work productively together.

Pick one norm you think is most essential for our work together.

Talk at your table about the norms and identify two you think are most essential.

Be prepared to share.

Norms:

Briefly think about your response Turn and talk to your elbow partner Be prepared to share with the cohort

What Questions or Concerns do you have about Implementing the CCSS in your Classroom?

Pedagogical Shifts Demanded by the CCSSShift 1

Balancing Informational & Literary Text

Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts.

Shift 2

Knowledge in the Disciplines

Students build knowledge about the world (domains/content areas) through TEXT rather than the teacher or activities.

Shift 3

Staircase of Complexity

Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and space and support in the curriculum for close reading.

Shift 4

Text-based Answers

Students engage in rich and rigorous evidence-based conversations about text.

Shift 5

Writing from Sources

Writing emphasizes use of evidence from sources to inform or make an argument.

Shift 6

Academic and Technical Vocabulary

Students constantly build the transferable vocabulary they need to access grade-level complex texts. This can be done effectively by spiraling like content in increasingly complex texts.

LDC in Action:

As you watch the following video, describe the shifts in instruction?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cjxYR7G6EI&feature=player_embedded/

How did Sarah Engage students in doing the task? Help students develop and practice the skills

they need to master your task? Address the CCSS instructional shifts?

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Goals of LDC

To engage students in reading, comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, and responding to complex texts

To hardwire assignments to the College and Career Readiness Standards within the CCSS and to promote collaboration

To help teachers personalize learning so that every student can master the CCSS

To ensure that all students can be college and career ready

LDC Module Framework

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What are the LDC tools?

The bank of reading/writing tasks The module template

◦ Tasks◦ Skills ◦ Instruction◦ Results

Scoring rubrics Local and national collaboration Access to a community of educators with

LDC modules aligned to course content and to CCSS

8LDC Framework 10-17-11

What are the three typesof writing tasks?

1. Argumentation 2. Informational/explanatory3. Narrative

9LDC Framework 10-17-11

Task 1: [Insert optional question] After researching ________ (informational texts) on ________ (content), write ________ (an essay or substitute) in which you argue

________ (content). Support your position with evidence from your research.

(Argumentation/Analysis)

An Example Argumentation Task

10LDC Framework 10-17-11

Additional Demands: You may choose one or more of these D’s (demands) to a Template Task to increase the challenge: 

D1 Be sure to acknowledge competing views. (Argumentation) D2 Give ____(one; #) example/s from past or current____( events; issues) to illustrate and clarify your position. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory) D3 What ________ (conclusions; implications) can you draw________? (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory) D4 In your discussion, address the credibility and origin of sources in view of your research topic. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory) D5 Identify any gaps or unanswered questions. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory) D6 Use ________ (stylistic devices) to develop your work. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory or Narrative) D7 Use ________ (techniques) to convey multiple storylines. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory or Narrative) D8 Include ________ (e.g. bibliography, citations, references, endnotes). (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory)

Literature: novels, stories, poems, plays Informational texts: newspaper articles,

journal articles, primary source documents Opinion pieces: editorials, speeches, essays

on an issue Reference works: encyclopedias, almanacs,

manuals, how-to books

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In Choosing Texts to Read, Consider

For an essay, you might substitute a review, article, editorial, speech or proposal (“I propose amending Washington law to require schools to register students as voters on their 18th birthdays. That would be good policy because…”).

For a report, you might substitute an article, lab report or a manual.

For a narrative, you might substitute an article, account, biography, story or play script.

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For Writing Assignments

Use exact wording of the template task Determine if you will use a Demand from the

list. Keep the exact CCSS Anchor Standards listed in

the blank module because the alignment is already completed. Consider additional standards.

Add appropriate content standards. Provide source information for the standards

you use. Use the exact rubric listed in the blank module.

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LDC Task Requirements

Task Design Process:

Step 1: Work with a partner in your content area to identify content you want your students to go deeply into over the next marking period—roughly between 2 to 4 weeks.

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Task Design ProcessStep 2: Decide if you want the students to argue, inform/explain, or narrate (text type) about the content:

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Argumentation Informational/Explanatory

Narrative

Task Design ProcessStep 3: Decide the appropriate text structure (definition, description, procedural/sequential, synthesis, analysis, comparison, evaluation, problem-solution, cause-effect) for your text type.

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Argumentation Informational/Explanatory

Narrative

Definition

Description

Procedural-Sequential

Synthesis

Analysis

Comparison

Evaluation

Problem-Solution

Cause-Effect

Step 4: Type this URL into your browser: http://ldctraining.wikispaces.com/ Download the folder called “Day 1: Task Design” to your computer. Open the document titled “LDC-Template-Task-Collection-2-July-20131”.

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Argumentation Informational/Explanatory

Narrative

Definition X

Description X X

Procedural-Sequential

X X

Synthesis X

Analysis X X

Comparison X X

Evaluation X

Problem-Solution X

Cause-Effect X X

Step 5: Copy the appropriate task onto a blank word document and save it in a memorable location.

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Argumentation Informational/Explanatory

Narrative

Definition X

Description X X

Procedural-Sequential

X X

Synthesis X

Analysis X X

Comparison X X

Evaluation X

Problem-Solution X

Cause-Effect X X

Addresses content essential to the discipline, inviting students to engage deeply in thinking and literacy practices around that issue

Makes effective use of the template task’s writing type (argumentation, information/explanation or narrative)

Selects reading texts that use and develop academic/technical understanding and vocabulary

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Step 6: Fill in the blanks keeping these characteristics of a great teaching task in mind:

Designs a writing prompt that requires sustained writing and effective use of ideas and evidence from the reading texts

Establishes a teaching task that is both challenging and feasible for students, with a balance of reading demands and writing demands that works well for the intended grade and content

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Step 6: Fill in the blanks keeping these characteristics of a great teaching task in mind: (continued)

Use the Jurying Tool to Improve and Refine your Task

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Category Work in Progress Good to Go ExemplarTask

Clarity &

Coherence

Template type (writing mode) may be mis-matched to the intended purpose of the prompt (e.g., use of an Argumentation template when an Explanatory template would be a better fit; selecting a "definition" template when a "description" template would be appropriate)

Question/prompt may be posed in a way that biases students toward a particular response.

Question/prompt may be answerable without the use of text or instructional scaffolding (through Module), i.e., texts and instruction are dispensable.

Template task is filled in correctly (in the correct mode-Argumentation, Explanatory, Narrative) without modification and task is worded clearly.

Prompt wording follows through on answering the essential question (if posed) and is aligned with content, texts, and student product (a "good fit").

Question and prompt are unbiased and leave room for diverse responses.

Task is text dependent (hardwires the use of evidence of text in response).

Background creates a frame for teaching task.

("Good to Go" characteristics and...) Teaching task is worded precisely to provide

a clear purpose for writing and unambiguous directions to students.

Prompt, texts, content, and student product are tightly aligned (are close to a "perfect fit").

 

Content May have a weak connection to or skim the surface of content central to the discipline

May address content/topic from a framework that is not relevant to the discipline (e.g., for a history task, focusing on a moral issue rather than an historical question.)

May oversimplify a topic, or may not require students to engage in analytic reading and thinking skills central to the discipline.

Addresses substantive content central to the discipline, requires students to build strong content knowledge.

Engages students in a range of analytic reading and thinking skills, e.g., analysis, comparison, synthesis, evaluation, cause-effect, problem-solution.

("Good to Go" characteristics and...) Addresses "big ideas" or enduring

understandings central to the discipline. Engages students in complex, higher order

thinking skills specific to the discipline. Task pattern has broad applicability for

addressing particular CCSS.

Text/s May be loosely aligned or misaligned to the purpose of the task, e.g., use of literary fiction for a research task.

May not provide textual evidence for supporting a counterclaim or alternate view (especially for Argumentation tasks).

May allow for student selection of texts when assigning one common foundational text on a difficult/esoteric topic (e.g., existentialism) would be helpful for supporting literacy through instructional scaffolding.

May be overly difficult/demanding OR may be too easy (not requiring the use of literacy strategies) for the range of student ability.

Is (are) intellectually challenging but accessible to all students.

Require students to apply literacy skills to comprehend and analyze content.

Are useful for providing content and evidence to be used in addressing the task.

Do not bias students toward a particular response (support competing views).

("Good to Go" characteristics and...) Are engaging, tightly relevant

(indispensable), and authentic. Are tightly aligned to the task purpose Represent central modes of discourse in the

discipline. Are carefully selected/excerpted/ modified

to provide appropriate text complexity (using either quantitative or qualitative measures) for the range of student reading ability.

 

Student Product

May be inappropriate to the rhetorical mode or content and challenge of the task (e.g., asking students to write a blog entry when a formal essay is more appropriate).

Is aligned to rhetorical mode and appropriate for content and challenge of the task.

Provides sufficient opportunity for diverse students to demonstrate their achievement.

 

("Good to Go" characteristics and...) Authentically engages students in rhetorical

modes and types of writing central to the discipline.

 

Directions◦ Type this URL into your browser:

http://literacy.psesd.org/ ◦ Download the folder called “Day 1: Task

Design” to your computer.◦ Open the document titled “LDC-Template-Task-

Collection-2-July-20131”.◦ Open the appropriate “BLANK LDC Template”

(Argumentation, Informational/Explanatory, Narrative), and save as the title of your module in a place you can find it.

◦ Copy your task, paste it into the appropriate BLANK LDC Template, and fill in the blanks.

LDC Resources

Directions◦Open the appropriate “BLANK LDC Template” (Argumentation, Informational/Explanatory, Narrative), and save as the title of your module in a place you can find it.

◦Copy your task, paste it into the appropriate BLANK LDC Template, and fill in the blanks.

LDC Resources

Go to https://www.edmodo.com/ Sign in or create an account Join URL: edmo.do/j/t9zvmt

or Group Code: 4mvkid Post your task in the post tab Pick another task in your content area to give feedback

Post Revised Tasks on Edmodo

How does this work (CCSS, LDC task design, etc.) resonate with your thinking?

What questions or concerns are still lingering about this work?

Homework: Review and refine your Task and be ready

to publish it tomorrow morning. Read through Sarah Ballute’s modulle

“The British Industrial Revolution”

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Tweet Up Exit Slip:

Objectives for Module Development:

Develop a module for the next marking period that addresses

Engaging students in doing the task Helping students develop and

practice the skills they need to master your task

Addressing the CCSS instructional shifts

LDC Module Framework

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Skills Students Need

To understand the Task and assignment

To read rigorous materials from different genre

To analyze their reading and synthesize it in preparation for writing

To write thoughtful and insightful pieces demonstrating their learning

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LDC Skills Clusters

Preparing for the Task Reading Process Transition to Writing Writing Process

Does Sarah’s skills clusters address these major skills in her task? 3

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The Instructional Ladder

Instructional ladder – outlines step-by-step what students will do (and what teachers will teach) to achieve the larger teaching task.

1. Skills list/clusters

2. Design mini-task for each skill

3. Instructional strategies and pacing

4. Scoring or checking for understanding

Product

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Module Section 3:Instruction

• SKILL: How do you engage students in reading and responding to challenging texts and writing challenging documents?

• PRODUCT AND PROMPT: What product will the students produce to let you know you they are engaged?

• INSTRUCTION: How do you facilitate that engagement?

• Scoring; How will you check for understanding and keep track of the score?

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Mini-Tasks

Mini-tasks – a small or short assignment that engages students in learning each of the skills necessary to complete the task.

Core Elements of Mini-Tasks1. Prompt

2. Product

3. Scoring guide

4. Instruction

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Let’s Create

Using the Module Template provided, begin to create your module.Remember your module:

• Should cover 2-4 weeks of study• Should be a major unit of your course• Should involve rigorous reading in varied genre• Should result in a major piece of writing• Should be made up of mini-tasks that are

evaluated along the way

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Survey Monkey Feedback and Homework

Please take time to fill out the Survey Monkey workshop feedback. We will use this feedback to adapt our next workshop to meet your needs. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W6FF8BZ

Homework: Implement your module between now and

our next workshop, and be prepared to discuss

What you found working with LDC Challenges you encountered and how you

overcame them Be prepared to bring scored or un-scored

student work

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