Text Complexity and Academic Vocabulary Tully 7-12

Catie Reeve Phyllis Litzenberger March 21, 2014

Common Core Literacy Shifts

1. Balancing Informational & Literary Texts (Grades PK-5) 2. Knowledge in the Disciplines (Grades 6-12) 3. Staircase of Complexity 4. Text-based Answers 5. Writing from Sources 6. Academic Vocabulary

Common Core Literacy Shifts

1. Building Knowledge Through Content Rich Nonfiction 2. Regular Practice with Complex Text and Its Academic Language 3. Reading and Writing Grounded in Evidence From Text, Both Literary and Informational

Current Understanding

In your grade level teams, discuss your current understanding of the Staircase of Complexity and Academic Vocabulary shifts.

On your tables…

• Common Core Learning Standards • Appendix A • Supplemental Information for Appendix A • Why Complex Texts Matter- David Liben •

Selection of Authentic Texts for Common Core Instruction: Guidance and a List of Resources for Text Selection

Know/Need to Know

What questions do you have? What are you wondering about the role of text complexity and academic vocabulary within a common core aligned curriculum ?

Common Understanding

Create common grade-level definitions of the Staircase of Complexity and Academic Vocabulary shifts and record

them on chart paper.

Why complex texts?

Why complex texts?

Appendix A

• Research indicates that: • … while the reading demands of college, workforce training programs, and citizenship have held steady or risen over the past fifty years or so, K-12 texts have, if anything, become less demanding. • Too many students reading at too low of a level. (Less than 50% of high school graduates can read sufficiently complex texts.) • What students can read, in terms of complexity, is greatest predictor of success in college (2006 ACT study)

Increasing the staircase of Complexity Standard 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. Standard 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it…

What Kinds of Complex Text?

Text Genres Grades 6-12 ELA and Literacy in History / Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

Balancing Informational and Literary Texts “…the Standards demand that a significant amount of reading of informational texts take place in and outside the ELA classroom … Because the ELA classroom must focus on literature … as well as literary nonfiction, a great deal of informational reading in grades 6– 12 must take place in other classes.” ~New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for ELA and Literacy (p. 5)

Literature

Story grammar: characters, setting, plot – problem, important events, solution and theme

_________________

Informational Text

Predominantly expository structures with: print features and captions, table of contents, index, diagrams, glossary, and tables

Fictional Narratives Poetry Drama Narrative Structures Expository Structures

The standards emphasize arguments and other literary nonfiction, built on informational (expository) text structures, rather than narrative literary nonfiction that are structured as stories (such as memoirs or biographies) Created by Denise Alterio, Judy Carr, and Lynn Miller, Sullivan County BOCES, June 2012  Short Stories   Novels       Myths/Fables/Tales  Sonnets   Free Verse   Limericks   Haiku     Comedy   Tragedy   Melodrama   Farce   Biography  Autobiography  Memoir  Description   Sequence or Time / Order   Compare and Contrast   Cause and Effect  Problem / Solution      Essays   Speeches   Opinion Pieces     Journalism  Historical, Scientific and Other Documents for a Broad Audience 

Measuring text complexity: The three-part model

Quantitative • Computer Software Qualitative • Human Reader Reader and Task • Our students and what we ask of them

Quantitative measures

• Readability formulas that measure… •

Word frequency

• Word length •

Sentence length

• Text length • Text cohesion ANYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED!

Text complexity bands

Text Complexity Grade Bands in the Standards Old Lexile Ranges Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR expectations

K-1 2-3 4-5 6-8 9-10 11-CCR N/A 450-725 645-845 860-1010 960-1115 1070-1220 N/A 420-820 740-1010 925-1185 1050-1335 1185-1385

www.lexile.com

Quantitative Measures

Remember, however, that the quantitative measure is only the first part of the text complexity triangle. Quantitative measures should never be used in isolation!

The quantitative measure may be validated, influenced, or even over-ruled by our examination of

qualitative measures

and the reader and task considerations.

Qualitative Measures “…those aspects of text complexity best measured or only measurable by an attentive human reader…” CCSS, Appendix A, p. 4

• Density and Complexity • Levels of meaning • Explicitly or implicitly stated purpose

Meaning and Purpose Structure

• Simplicity • Conventionality • Genre • Organization • Narration • Text features and graphics • Figurative language • Familiarity • Vocabulary • Sentence structure

Language Knowledge Demands

•Life Experience •Cultural Knowledge •Content Knowledge •Intertextuality

Literary rubric

Informational rubric

Qualitative features of text complexity explained

Group work

• Get into groups of 3 or 4. Make sure your group contains at least one member from each discipline (ELA, Science and Social Studies).

• Discuss the qualitative features of text (Purpose, Structure, Language, Knowledge Demands). What questions do you have? Attempt to answer them within your group.

• What specific qualities make a text more complex within each feature?

Evaluating text • With a partner practice using the rubrics by analyzing at least one text from the selection in the folder at your table.

• Discuss your results with your table group.

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

Importance of Vocabulary

Other Factors 26%

Vocabulary 74%

Up to 74% of a student’s reading comprehension depends his understanding of the vocabulary.

Academic Vocabulary

Tier One

• Words of everyday speech

Tier Two

• Not specific to any one academic area • Generally not well-defined by context or explicitly

defined within a text

• Wide applicability to many types of reading

Tier Three

• Domain specific • Low-frequency • Often explicitly defined • Usually heavily scaffolded

Academic Language • Knowledge of the language of a discipline is necessary for student success in a subject.

• Words work differently in different disciplines (e.g., “function,”) • Each discipline has their own set of words to represent their valued concepts and literacy processes.

Antonacci & O’ Callaghan (2011) 27

Academic Vocabulary in ELA

Tier 3 Words Tier 2 Words archetype summons epic poetry mythology Odyssey affirmative titanic disintegration 28

Academic Vocabulary in History Tier 3 Words Tier 2 Words abolition inclined radical aggressive secede martial law sublime convictions 29

Academic Vocabulary in Science Tier 3 Words Tier 2 Words cell membrane buzzes cell wall crammed nucleus cytoplasm shuttling cranking 30

How to Build Academic Language • • • • Make It Intentional • Select high-leverage, meaningful vocabulary for explicit, student centered, instruction.

Make It Transparent • Make vocabulary instruction explicit through effective questioning, modeling, and instruction that builds understanding of the word AND the text.

Make It Useable • Provide regular opportunities for students to practice with high leverage vocabulary in writing tasks and in discussion about text.

Make It Personal • Provide a volume, and variety of independent reading that includes both fiction and non-fiction texts.

(adapted from Fisher, 2008)

31

Two Aspects of Vocabulary Context • Words students can figure out from content • Words for which the definition needs to be provided Amount of Instructional Time • Words that need more time: abstract, have multiple meanings, and/or are a part of a word family • Words that need less time: concrete or describe events/processes/ideas/concepts/experiences that are familiar to students EngageNY.org

• Misconception Alert!

License to ignore some words doesn’t mean ignore ALL words.

•

Select words critical to understanding the text.

•

Select words critical to the disciplinary thinking we do with text.

•

Spending time on words doesn’t mean copying dictionary definitions

•

Commit to text-based word work

Try This: Text Analysis • Vocabulary Analysis of an text.

• Read the excerpt.

• Annotate for vocabulary words potentially challenging to your students.

• Share your list with a partner.

• In pairs, prioritize your words by placing your annotated words on the blank Academic Vocabulary Quadrant Chart.

Transparent Approaches

• • Effective questioning of the language in the text: •

Open-ended

•

Text-dependent

•

Analyzes word relationships

Explicit modeling of textual analysis.

M ISCONCEPTION A LERTS : Questioning and modeling aren’t “transmitting.” Students must do the work of learning.

(Marzano & Pickering 2005; Nagy, 1989; Nagy & Scott, 2000; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997)

Useable Approaches

• Using high-leverage vocabulary in writing tasks •

Quick write prompts, collaborative writing tasks, assessments

• Use high-leverage vocabulary in discussion tasks •

Discuss language use M ISCONCEPTION A LERTS : Writing and talking about vocabulary does not mean writing and reciting definitions. Use vocabulary to think, write, and talk about the text.

In Action…

• Teaching Academic and Scientific Vocabulary- Common Core Literacy

Vocabulary Strategies

•

Frayer Model

•

Semantic Mapping

•

Semantic Feature Analysis

•

Linear Arrays

Frayer Model

Semantic Mapping

Semantic Feature Analysis

Linear Arrays

WRITING FROM SOURCES SUBSHIFTS

Common Core Literacy Shifts

1. Balancing Informational & Literary Texts (Grades PK-5) 2. Knowledge in the Disciplines (Grades 6-12) 3. Staircase of Complexity 4. Text-based Answers 5. Writing from Sources 6. Academic Vocabulary

Writing from Sources

Subshift A Subshifts

Work with sources

Subshift B

Grapple with complex text and content; leverage academic vocabulary

Subshift C Subshift D Subshift E Subshift F

Emphasize questioning, inquiry, and explaining understanding rather than defense Follow inquiry process: questions, sources, information, scope and plan  product Use technology and other minds Repeat

Writing from Sources Writing needs to emphasize the use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than personal narrative or decontextualized prompts.

Writing from Sources While narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they read.

ELA/Literacy Shift 5: Writing from Sources

Our Students Need to…

• • • • Generate more informational text Organize evidence to support a claim Compare evidence from multiple sources Make arguments using evidence

So We Need to…

• • • • • Spend less time on personal narrative Present opportunities to write from multiple sources Give opportunities to analyze and synthesize ideas Develop student’ ability to argue a point with evidence Give students permission to reach their own conclusions about what they read and articulate those conclusions

Writing Progressions 50 EngageNY.org

Productive Inquiry

Productive Inquiry

“In essence, the standards and the tests that will assess them are expecting that students become researchers – not graphic organizer filler-in-ers, not text copiers, but independently thinking, curious , and rigorous researchers…”

“…Taking time to teach students to research well is taking time to teach them the skills of the standards. Teaching students to research well is teaching them to learn well.”

Christopher Lehman, Energize Research Reading & Writing, p.3

All roads lead to research!

Why do Core Research?

Our students need to be able to find, evaluate, and apply information now. More importantly, the ability to research and to express an understanding of it are authentic college and career ready skills.

How is Core Research different?

The focus is on inquiry-based research.

It’s about research to help students deepen their understanding of a topic and support them as they express that understanding.

It’s not about searching for information to support conclusions we’ve already made.

How is Core Research different?

Inquiry

• • • • • • • Attitude of question and reflecting with cognition Start with a question Investigation is open Center is within student Answers involving building ideas Messy, recursive Open-ended

Coverage

• • • • • • Teacher selection and direction Assigned topics and isolated facts Student as information receiver Reliance on a textbook Hearing about a discipline One subject at a time From Barbara K. Stripling “Inquiry-Based Learning.” Curriculum Connections through the Library

From Barbara K. Stripling “Inquiry-Based Learning.” Curriculum Connections through the Library

Inquiry Skills and Strategies

• Connect: Initiate Inquiry • Wonder: Generate Questions • Investigate: Gather Information • Construct: Deepen Understanding and Finalize Inquiry • Express: Develop and Communicate Evidence-Based Perspectives •

REFLECT

Thank you!

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