Upload
bridget-wells
View
217
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Writing About Text
Utah State Core Academy Level II 2014
“Thank goodness the writing scores
are going to drop!” Tim Shanahan
• New testing design to monitor student performance on the new core is well designed.
• However, the new design is almost certain to lower student writing scores which will be good for kids in the long run.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com2
How can this be good?
• Reading and writing are not perfectly aligned.
• There are many students who read and write poorly or who read and write well but, there are also many who read well and write poorly and vice versa.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com3
• Traditional state writing assessments were designed so that students did not have to read to do the writing so…
• Students who wrote well, but read poorly, did well on past writing tests.
So, what’s the problem?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com4
• New assessment design is going to have students read texts, answer reading comprehension questions, and then write about those texts (summarizing, synthesizing, and/or analyzing).
• Students who express themselves well but who struggle with reading, will fail to write well not because of weaknesses in composition, but in comprehension.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com5
How can this be good?• Research shows that literacy is improved when
students write about what they read.
• New test design will push us to combine reading and writing which is a real plus for kids.
• Even though past measures provided a purer assessment of “writing”, it wasn’t the kind of writing that allows individuals to succeed academically and economically.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com6
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com7
Non Proficient Readers and Writers:
• don’t graduate from high school.
• are not prepared for college level courses or entry level jobs.
• are handicapped when pursuing a degree, advancing in the workplace, or participating in the community.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com8
Poor Literacy = threat to individuals, and our Country
• Can’t compete in global markets – changes in technology
• All white and blue collar jobs require certain levels of literacy
• No longer an option for our youth
So…
The writing scores are going to drop, but this means that students are more likely to
receive better literacy instruction and higher real proficiency, especially with the skills that
we want them to have
IN ORDER TO BE COLLEGE AND CAREER READY!
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com9
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com10
A meta-analysis was performed to answer three basic questions about
the impacts of writing on reading1)Does writing about material read enhance
students’ comprehension of the text?2)Does teaching writing strengthen students’
reading skills?3)Does increasing how much students write
improve how well they read?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com11
This meta-analysis:
• Answers the three previous questions.
• Gives us research-based recommendations for instructional practices shown to be effective in improving students’ reading and writing.
• Tells us how these writing instructional practices will increase our students’ reading skills.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com12
Scientific Studiesdefinition reminders:
• ES = Effect Size, which provides a standardized measure of the quantitative differences between 2 treatments
• ES of 0.80 is large – MOON
• ES of 0.50 is moderate – Empire State Bldg.
• ES of 0.25 is small – street
Graham & Hebert, 2011
Question #1Does writing about material
read enhance students’ comprehension
of the text?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com13
Yes, have students write about the texts they read!
When students write about a text they read, they have “greater opportunities to:• think about ideas in a text • organize ideas into a coherent whole• facilitate reflection• encourage personal involvement• transform ideas into their own words
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com14
In short, writing about a text…
“Enhances comprehension because it provides students with a tool for visibly and permanently recording, connecting, analyzing, personalizing, and manipulating key ideas in text.”
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com15
Research-based strategies for writing about text
A. Summarizing text
B. Writing to text models
C. Writing about text: Asking/Answering Questions and Analytical Writing
D. Text Synthesis
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com16
Summarizing Text
One way reading can be a valuable basis for writing is to have students summarize texts.
Summarization is condensing the information into an essentialized but shorter version of the original.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com17
Summarizing Text
Readers must recognize: Which ideas are indispensable to the original
text. Which ones can be dropped altogether or
combined. The need for paraphrasing the text using their
own words.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com18
Summarizing Text
Summarization instruction improves both writing quality and reading comprehension, especially with elementary students.
Summarization has a large and consistent positive impact on student outcomes on both reading and writing. Across 19 studies with students in grades 3-12, the effect size was .52 showing summary writers at the 70th percentile with others at the 50th percentile.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com19
Summarizing Text
Good readers (or listeners) usually find that if they stop occasionally to sum up the information they’ve read, they have better comprehension and recall.
Writing summaries about a text proves to be more powerful than: simply reading the text reading and rereading the text reading and studying the text
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com20
To summarize effectively, students need to:
Recognize main ideas and key details Disregard unimportant or repetitive ideas Construct topic sentences Paraphrase and collapse or combine lists or events
into general statements Start with shorter pieces of text, chapters, or easy-
to-understand books that are well organized and straightforward in style then move on to higher levels of complexity
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com21
Summarization of Longer Text
Use the GIST approach:1. Students read a brief text
2. Students write a single-sentence summary of the information (20 words or less)
3. When students are proficient, the teacher provides more extensive texts that have been marked with stopping points where students stop and write the GIST summaries they have been practicing
4. When the article is complete, the students combine the brief summaries and craft them into an overall summary
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com22
Teacher Guidance is essential! Effective approaches:
• Partial graphic summaries The teacher provides students with a partial summary
of a text. The students’ initial task is to fill in the missing
information. As the students progress, the teacher provides less
and less supportive summaries, allowing students to fill in more of the information on their own until they can write an entire summary.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com23
Teacher Guidance is essential! Effective approaches:
• Summarization templates Choose a simple graphic organizer or template which
shows one main idea and three supporting ideas. Gradually withdraw the support with practice. Finally, provide students with the beginnings of a
summary statement: “The author’s main idea was ___________, and he or she supported his or her idea with three key pieces of evidence…”
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com24
Teacher Guidance is essential! Effective approaches:
Teacher scaffolds the summarization process by taking students through each step with increasingly more student input Teacher guides students to identify the main ideas. Examine the text sentence by sentence to delete unnecessary,
repetitive, or trivial information. Replace extensive events, processes, or lists with summary
statements. Show students how to translate the marked-up text into a
summary statement of an appropriate length.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com25
Writing to Text Models
• Students carefully and analystically read texts to identify the key features and imitate them in their writing.
• Students read with an eye aimed specifically at identifying features of craft and structure.
• This technique will not only help students with their writing but will also push them to read at a deeper level.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com26
Writing to Text Models
Studies of imitative writing are few in numbers but show small gains in improving writing quality.
The average effect size for modeling was 0.25 meaning that the experimental students received a quarter of a standard deviation advantage over those who were not taught using text models.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com27
What does text modeling look like?
• When teaching students about a genre, engage them in the reading and writing of that genre.
• Select strong texts that are prototypical of the genre being studied.
• Have students read or listen to the texts chosen then follow with some kind of guided analysis—break the texts down into their critical elements.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com28
What does text modeling look like?
• Once students are familiar with the elements, have them produce their own imitative writing.
• Initially, a template with key features may need to be provided for the students but over time, the scaffolding should be removed.
• Use this model when imitating a genre or just a specific key feature.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com29
Text Modeling
Let’s look at some
text models!
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com30
What Makes GoodMyth Writing?
Contain good and evil characters
Often contain heroes or heroines
on journeys
Usually end in some form of tragedy
Usually have a message or meaning but not
a moral
Contain Gods and Goddesses
Set in far off, distant and
isolated lands
Usually told in Ancient times: approx. 1500 -
3000 years ago
Have some element of truth but mostly fictional
Usually contains a classic opening, ‘a long time ago…’
Were used to help the people understand the
world around them
Supernatural or fantastical creatures
Passed down by word of mouth
What does text modeling look like?
Anyone who studies a text or some aspect of a text so carefully that he or she can use it as the basis of their own written inventions truly understands the original work and is better situated to take on similar texts in the future, influencing both reading and writing.
Modeling requires readers to read like writers, with an eye on not only what the text says but on how it works.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com32
Writing to Ask & Answer Questions and Analytical Writing
Engage students in responding to questions about text, especially questions that require more extensive and extended analyses and critical evaluations of the texts.
There are greater benefits from answering questions in writing than there are by answering verbally.
Writing acts as a second form of rehearsal.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com33
Writing About Text-Asking and Answering Questions
Writing questions or answers to questions about text has a small but consistently positive effect on reading comprehension for grades 2-12.
Eight studies were reviewed and the average effect size found was 0.40 meaning that students who were expected to write questions and answers about text scored at the 66th percentile while the control group ended up at only the 50th percentile.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com34
Writing About Text-Extensive Responses and Analysis
When questions required more extensive responses involving personal reactions, interpretation of a text’s meaning, analyses of a text’s craft or content, or critical evaluation of a text, the effect size grew in magnitude.
The effect size for this type of writing across nine studies grew to 0.77 ending up at the 78th percentile showing a positive impact for reading, writing, and learning content.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com35
Writing About Text-Extensive Responses and Analysis
• Extensive analytical and evaluative writing is valuable because it promotes a critical understanding of a text and often requires readers to revise their understanding of a text as they read and write.
• Such writing requires readers to use their own knowledge and bring it to bear on the information in the text.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com36
Text Synthesis
• Text synthesis means combining ideas from multiple sources into one written presentation.
• It is the most demanding and elaborate approach to writing about text.
• Writers become researchers, not casual readers.
• Sources may echo or contradict each other or simply present nonoverlapping information.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com37
Text Synthesis
• Readers should recognize conflicts among sources and then transform the information for themselves or point out the discrepancies in their own writing.
• How well students are able to synthesize information in their writing is highly correlated to their reading proficiency.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com38
Text Synthesis
• When students are first learning, limit the difficulty and length of the sources used.
• Provide a great deal of modeling and scaffolding and reading support whenever needed.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com39
Writing About Text and the State Core Standards
Asking higher level questions pushes readers to think deeply about the texts. When students write answers to such questions, and provide evidence from the texts in support of their answers, student learning increases.
Model and scaffold instruction so that students know how to formulate extensive responses.
Provide sufficient space and time for student answers.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com40
Writing About Text and the State Core Standards
• Teachers can frame questions about texts that will require sufficiently thorough and high level responses by using the Reading State Core Standards as a basis for questions.
• Even though these are reading standards, they provide useful guidance for appropriate questions to frame writing responses to text.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com41
Graham & Hebert, 2011
Question #2Does teaching writing strengthen
students’ reading skills?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com42
When spelling, sentence construction, paragraph construction, text organization, and the writing process are directly taught, reading also improves.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com43
Spelling
• Accurate and automatic spelling supports fluent writing.
• Spelling requires more specific word knowledge than reading. We have to know:– All letters– Word structure (sounds, syllables, meaningful word parts)
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com44
Spelling
• When students are writing, they need available cognitive “desk space” in order to focus on the high demands of composition.
• If mental energy is spent on spelling, students, will not be able to focus on composition tasks.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com45
Sentence Construction
• A sentence is a group of words that express a complete thought.
• The sentence structure and the words carry meaning but the meanings often depend on the role the word plays. Students need to be taught:– The roles of words in sentences (parts of speech)– Types of phrases
– Sentence structure
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com46
Text Organization
• A well-written text has an organizational structure that supports comprehension of the reader.
• A text is organized into paragraphs, chapters, or a larger structure that follows conventions of genre or type of text:– Narrative Structure– Explanatory/Informative Structure– Paragraph Structure
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com47
Text Organization
• Students in all grade levels can benefit from practice with different types of text structure.
• Students should be taught how to:– Identify a topic sentence– Write or select a topic sentence for a paragraph– Rearrange sentences to make paragraphs– Eliminate unneeded sentences– Identify the structure with the help of a graphic organizer
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com48
The Writing Process
• The writing process consists of steps the writer should take when producing written language that conveys meaning.
1. Planning-Generating and organizing ideas with a purpose, structure, and audience in mind.
2. Translating-Ideas converted into specific words using appropriate syntax and the conventional standards of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage.
3. Reviewing & Revising-Editing, rewriting, and evaluating how the piece will be interpreted by the audience.
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com49
The Writing Process
What has to be automatized for
the writing process to
work effectively?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com50
Graham & Hebert, 2011
Question #3Does increasing how much students write
improve how well they read?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com51
Write Frequently
• Students need to write frequently to improve.
• The most common characteristic of poor writing is its brevity and sparseness caused by:• Problems with vocabulary• Grammar• Spelling• Punctuation & capitalization• Handwriting
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com52
Write Frequently
• Teach handwriting and keyboarding explicitly and systematically.
• Divide instructional time between lower level and higher level writing skills:– Form letters correctly then work on fluency and speed
– Write high-frequency words or spelling words
– Quick writes in cursive
– Other?
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com53
State Core Standards
“Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all
aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly
demanding content and sources.”--The CCSS ELA document
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com54
State Core StandardsPositive Shifts!
• Promote teacher-directed writing for a purpose• Emphasize informational (expository) text• Emphasize logic, evidence, analysis• Require understanding of text structure• Promote writing in response to reading (In the past, policies promote “workshop” practices that are not
supported by evidence of effectiveness!)
--Louisa Moats
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com55
Remember!
• Language and Reading Foundations standards should not be underestimated or divorced from composition.
• Language and conventions should not be treated as if they were easy to acquire or as if they would be acquired merely through writing practice.
• Many students will not rise to the idealistic levels of the core if instruction in these areas isn’t explicit.
--Louisa Moats
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com56
Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com57
References• Graham, S and Herbert, M. (2010). Writing to read: evidence for how writing
can improve reading. Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Graham, S. (2012). Address given at UIRA Conference, Ogden, Utah
• Graham, S., MacArthur, C., & Fitzgerald, J. (2013). Best Practices in Writing Instruction, 2nd Edition (pp. 334-348). New York & London: The Guilford Press.
• Moats, L. C. (2012). LETRS Module 9: Teaching Beginning Spelling and Writing (K-3). Longmont, CO: Cambium Learning Sopris.
• Shanahan, T. Thank Goodness the Writing Scores are Going to Drop. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com