Smwp day three_erwc.lps

Middle School Professional Learning:
Expository Reading and Writing Modules

Overview of our three days together
December 11, 2013

February 11, 2014

February 25, 2014

Overview and
background of ERWC

Debrief homework;
Debrief homework;
Review ERWC outcomes Status check

Alignment of the CCSS
standards and ERWC
outcomes

What writers need,
effective writing practice
and writing argument

Integration of reading
and writing to support
academic literacy

Effective readers,
academic literacy, close
reading

Continued work with
academic literacy

Differentiating ERWC for
ELs, SPED, and
advanced learners

Experience with a
module and the
assignment template

Adapting the assignment
template to your own
curriculum (Day Three)

Planning time
2

Agenda: February 25, 2014
 Status Check
– How is it going? What did you try?

 Integrating reading and writing to support academic
literacy
– Habits of mind, academic vocabulary
– Close Reading and text complexity

 Differentiating ERWC for all types of learners
 Adapting the assignment template
 Planning time (woven throughout the day)

3

Issues of Text Complexity
There is only one way to acquire the language of literacy,
and that is through literacy itself. Why? Because the only
place students are likely to encounter these structures and
patterns is in the materials they read. And that is possible
only if the texts they read in school are written in such
language. Complex texts provide school-age learners
reliable access to this language, and interacting with such
texts allows them to discover how academic language
works.
Filmore & Filmore
UC Berkeley/Stanford University Understanding Language Project
http://ell.stanford.edu/

Issues of Text Complexity
Simply put, the easy texts schools give to English
Learners and Language Minority students – given
prophylactically as a safeguard against failure –
actually prevent them from discovering how
language works in academic discourse.
Filmore & Filmore
UC Berkeley/Stanford University
Understanding Language Project
http://ell.stanford.edu/

What makes texts complex?
 Quantitative measures
 Qualitative measures
 Matching readers to texts

6

Close Reading
“A close reading is a careful and purposeful
rereading of a text. It’s an encounter with the text
where students really focus on what the author had
to say, what the author’s purpose was, what the
words mean, and what the structure of the text
tells us” (Doug Fisher).

Text Dependent Questioning
The Common Core State Standards for reading
strongly focus on students gathering evidence,
knowledge, and insight from what they read.
Indeed, eighty to ninety percent of the Reading
Standards in each grade require text dependent
analysis; accordingly, aligned curriculum materials
should have a similar percentage of text
dependent questions.
www.achievethecore.org

Practice with visual texts
 “Moving Day”:

http://artforsale.com/shop/index.php?
main_page=product_info&products_id=280
 What does the text explicitly state?
 What is your evidence from the text?
 What can you infer from the text?
 What is your evidence from the text?
9

Developing Text Dependent Questions

10

Writing questions for informational text
 Unlocking complex texts:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?
key=0Ap6v8TaBt6LdDBuVk1xZzdYX2Myek95eWtsTll5ZFE&usp=shari
ng#gid=0
 Try writing a question for each level of DOK for one of
the texts or a text you use.

11

Academic literacy—developing habits of mind
Text complexity, close reading, text-dependent questioning are part
of academic literacy. Academic literacy is really about habits of mind.
Read through the three handouts (habits of mind, students who are
college and career ready, classroom discussion strategies).
Annotate to note the big ideas, interesting concepts, and important
points.
Make notes about what habits do your students already exhibit
and what habits they are working toward.
Put the big ideas onto sticky notes (one idea per note).
Create a concept map to represent your thinking about the concepts.
www.asccc.org/Publications/Papers/AcademicLiteracy/main.htm

Generate-Sort-Connect

Concept Map

Making Texts Accessible for ELs
 Analyze and plan how to address linguistic
difficulties of texts.
 Teach strategies for learning vocabulary including
how to use an English learner dictionary.
 Teach the company words keep, not just their
meanings (i.e. collocations and gradations).
 Use good teaching strategies: interactive activities,
graphic organizers, sentence frames, modeling,
debriefing.
14

Differentiating continued . . .
 Read the article on differentiating instruction for
English learners (it also applies to other learners)
– Use your close reading strategies 
– Highlighting big ideas, asking questions, making
connections, noting interesting concepts

 Discuss the ideas with your table group
– What validated elements in your current practice?
– Were there any reminders of ideas you “used to
know?”
– What did you read that was new?
15

Differentiating a module
 Review Social Network (8th grade) or Good As It
Goods (7th grade)
 Identify places in the module where your English
learners or students with special needs might
struggle more than others
 Strategize ways to modify the module using the
strategies already in your repertoire (using the
article as a reminder)
16

Adapting the assignment template
 Read Appendix A (Questions to Consider) with
the curriculum/unit you brought with you in mind.
 What questions and big ideas from the article
seem most applicable as you think about
adapting it to the Assignment Template?
 Revise your curriculum by chunking it into each
section of the AT.
19

Smwp day three_erwc.lps

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