Reading in YOUR Content Area

Literacy Training for Teachers at East Wake High Schools

Sara Overby, WCPSS Coordinating Teacher for Secondary Literacysoverby@wcpss.net

AgendaTime Topic To Think About

10 min Introduction

• What do I want to learn? • Why is reading in ALL content areas

important?

20 min The Standards

• Which of these do students already experience in their classes?

• Which do they need to experience?

15 min

Text Complexity

• Why does exposure to complex text matter?

• How do I know if text is complex?

30 min

Quantitative, Qualitative, and Task Factors

• How can I find out the grade level of a text?

• How can I tell if other factors make a text hard?

• How can I stretch students’ minds through their experiences with text?

15 min

Where We Go From Here

• What’s my role?• What have I learned? What are my

concerns?

Today’s Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, teachers will be able to … know where to find the Common Core

Reading Standards for grades 9 and 10 explain the rationale for including complex

text in all content areas explain the 3 major factors that govern text

complexity use analysis resources to assess the level of

complexity of a particular text

Reading Complex Text Matters!

Why do students need experience with complex text

in EVERY classroom?

Students and Text

http://www.act.org/standard/planact/reading/index.html

How did WCPSS do?

22

20.14

5

Average WCPSS ACT Reading score

Benchmark for ACT (out of 36)

Percent of WCPSS students in score range 20-23 2

2

20Percent of WCPSS students in score range 16-19

Percent of WCPSS students meeting ACT Reading benchmark

CCSS Reading Standards

10 of these…Let’s take a look!http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy

http://rt3nc.org/objects/standards/cclitmap/ela.html

Reading Standard 10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend

[literature, literary nonfiction, and informational text] in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend [literature, literary nonfiction, and informational text] in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

3 factors of text complexity

QuantitativeQualitativeReader and Task

Quantitative Factors Numerical Score of text difficulty Identifies expected AGE or GRADE Band Based on varying combinations of

o Length ( and/or syllables) of wordso Frequency of words usedo Length (and/or clauses) of sentenceso “Coherence” – how explicitly ideas are

connected

The Best Known Software Program--Lexile.com

Raters and Sample Lexile http://www.lexile.com/analyzer/

ETS Source Raterhttp://naeptba.ets.org/SourceRater3/ Flesch-Kincaidhttp://www.readability-score.com/

He leaned down and untied the laces, slipped off first one shoe and then the other. And he worked his damp feet comfortably in the hot dry dust until little spurts of it came up between his toes, and until the skin on his feet tightened with dryness. He took off his coat and wrapped his shoes in it and slipped the bundle under his arm. And at last he moved up the road, shooting the dust ahead of him, making a cloud that hung low to the ground behind him.The right of way was fenced, two strands of barbed wire on willow poles. The poles were crooked and badly trimmed. Whenever a crotch came to the proper height the wire lay in it, and where there was no crotch the barbed wire was lashed to the post with rusty baling wire. Beyond the fence, the corn lay beaten down by wind and heat and drought, and the cups where leaf joined stalk were filled with dust.

From The Grapes of Wrath

Qualitative FactorsOther factors that make text easy or difficult to read. Levels of meaning or author’s (hidden) purpose Conventional v. unfamiliar structure Language use:

Clear ? Conversational ? Contemporary? Prior knowledge demands

Life experience Cultural capital Disciplinary content knowledge

How can teachers judge?

Give it a whirl!

Reader and TaskThe tasks given to the reader that make the thinking and learning experience with the text rigorous – or that temper the rigor of the text.

Complexity of Text

Complexity of Task

Think Before You PlanReader and Task Considerations

Cognitive Capability Reading Skills

Motivation and Engagement with Task and Text

Prior Knowledge and Experience Content and/or Theme Concerns

Complexity of Associated Tasks

Reading planDate Book Focus Standards

EVERY TIME EVERY BOOKStandard 1-Text EvidenceStandard 4-

Cumulative impact of wordsStandard 10-Text Complexity

October 22The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Standard 3-CharacterizationStandard 6- Particular point of view

November 19

Shop Class as Soul Craft

Standard 2-Central idea as it emerges

February 18 The Book ThiefStandard 7 – Scenes in two mediaStandard 9 – Use of source material

March 18 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Standard 5-Choices of structure and time

April 22The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Standard 6-Effect of cultural experience

Get Ready for October 22

Read the book! As you read…

o Think about the book through lens of the Reading Standard #o “Notice and Note” connections and ideas

After you read…go back and record…o the 10 most important words from the 1st 3 pages (your

opinion)o The 10 most important words form the last 3 pages (your

opinion)o Be read to explain WHY you chose those words

When you come to Book Club…o Bring 3 Great Ideas of yours to share with the groupo Bring 3 applications to real EW classrooms and real EW

students (even though the text will not be the same)

What did you learn?

By the end of this session, teachers will be able to … know where to find the Common Core Reading

Standards for grades 9 and 10. explain the rationale for including complex text

in all content areas explain the 3 major factors that govern text

complexity use analysis resources to assess the level of

complexity of a particular text

Feedback?1 Thing I Want/Need to Tell You

2 Concerns/ Questions/ Better if’s…

3 Things I Learned Today 4 Goals for Myself during “Book Club”