Transcript Utilizing Extended Response to Enhance

I’m blown away by the leaps and bounds you took over those 2
weeks. Your final project is impressive. Your initial questions and
final reflections are insightful and well-written. You took many
ideas and concepts to the next level. I think the students in future
courses will benefit from your introspection and hard work.The
slide Designing Questions slide is something that I will be using for
my future 5th graders and grad/undergrads.
Don’t be a stranger. My email is [email protected]
Thank you
Utilizing Extended Response to
Enhance Comprehension and
Develop Expository Writing Skills
Tammy Hainsfurther
On a personal note………
Change is inevitable right? Sadly enough one important fact that
hasn’t changed is too many students are exiting our classrooms not
reading on grade level, and a reading level is what’s left after the
students forget all the facts we have instilled in them. I am a fourth
grade Language Arts teacher whose passion is to inspire each and
every student who passes through my classroom doors to read,
with the ultimate goal of promoting and encouraging lifelong
literacy.
Next year my district is consolidating with another district. I have
been searching for a solution to address all reading levels in my
classroom, transition to the new North Mac School District
including a new Shurley English series and new Michael Haggerty
writing format, increase RTI interventions within my reading
classes, become enlightened on PBIS (Positive Behavior
Intervention and Support), and complete my Master’s project.
On a personal note continued……
During my first summer class I developed a plan for implementing
guided, leveled reading groups using Literature Circles. I believe
differentiated instruction using leveled literature circles and
invisible tiered instruction will maximize learning for the 65 reading
students who will enter my classroom with reading levels ranging
on average from 3rd to 6th grade. Invisible tiered instruction meets
the needs of diverse learners by allowing extra help for struggling
learners and enrichment for higher readers without either being
obvious. My next need to plan for is writing, therefore the main
project for this, my second class this summer is to explore
expository writing; specifically extended response, and it’s
relationship to novel teaching and extending students’ text
comprehension beyond the surface level while preparing students
for the ISAT exams.
Question:
How can I integrate the ISAT (Illinois Standards
Achievement Test) Reading Extended
Response with my novel teaching to improve
student comprehension, extent thinking, and
develop expository writing while preparing
for the ISAT exam?
What is Extended Response?
• Extended Response is part of the Illinois
Standards Achievement Test in which students
are asked to read a passage and respond in
writing to demonstrate an accurate
understanding of the text, main ideas stated
explicitly or implicitly, and other important
information. Readers are asked to support
their answers by providing information,
examples, and details from the text, and
making connections.
Connections that improve reading
comprehension
• Connections can be:
• Text to self-What do I think about this or what
connections can I make with what I already
know?
• Text to text-This character, setting, plot or
theme reminds me of another story I read……
• Text to world-How does the main idea relate
to other people, subjects, concepts or events?
What is expository writing?
Expository writing gives information, explains,
defines, or describes.
Examples of expository text include:
essays
speeches
journals
magazine or newspaper articles
directions
Why ask students to write an
extended response?
• “True comprehension goes beyond literal
understanding and involves the reader’s
interaction with text. If students are to
become thoughtful, insightful readers, they
must extend their thinking beyond a
superficial understanding of the text.”
• Harvey & Goudvis, 2000
Students must be taught to seek deeper meaning within text.
Another reason
• “Teachers can facilitate and encourage
students to interact with the text by
consistently challenging the reader to make
connections and comparisons.”
• Keene & Zimmerman (2007)
If we don’t expect and create opportunities for our students to
activate prior knowledge, gain new knowledge, and seek
connections many won’t.
ISAT Extended Response Reading
Rubric
Grades 3 and 4
Sample Novel: Hatchet By Gary
Paulsen
Motivational Video on Gary Paulsen
Lesson Plan
• Extended Response will be introduced to the
whole group and modeled on the overhead
with a transparency of the Baseball Answer
Graphic Organizer using student ideas, and
then reinforced and practiced in small
Literature Circles during the reading of
Hatchet. Students will write on dated copies
of the baseball graphic organizer and these
will be kept in the student writing folder for
comparison at later dates.
Triple!
Homerun!
Develop questions from the upper
levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Designing Questions-National Board
Resource Center at Illinois State
University
Design questions about text students are reading to allow
opportunities for students to meet the criteria in the rubric.
The Reading Extended Response Questions should elicit
higher order thinking skills including:
Making predictions
Explaining cause and effect
Main ideas
Drawing conclusions
Differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information
Add the sentence tag from the ISAT question at grade level to
connect text and prior knowledge.
Hatchet Questions
• Following Chapter 11 please answer the
following question in writing using the
Baseball Graphic Organizer.
• How does Brian see and hear differently from
when he first crashed? Use information from
the novel and your own ideas and conclusions
to support your answer.
Brian has become more observant, and he carefully identifies
things he comes into contact with. Students are asked to compare
then and now, and how they are different. This is an example of man versus self.
Brian is becoming more self aware.
Additional Questions
• After reading Chapter 12 please respond to
the following:
• What does Brian mean when he says
“Discoveries happened because they need to
happen?” Use information from the novel and
your own ideas and conclusions to support
your answer.
A need causes us to search for and to find an answer. This question requires
the reader to understand the content, analyze the need for discoveries,
and make inferences regarding the meaning of the passage.
• After reading Chapter 16 please respond to
the following:
• How does Brian react to being attacked and
nearly killed at the lake, and then having
everything destroyed by a tornado? Use
information from the chapter and your own
ideas and conclusions to support your answer.
Brian was tough minded and ready to accept any and all challenges to his
survival. The purpose of this question is to determine what motivates Brian
to continue. He is determined to remain mentally tough and handle adversity.
• After reading Chapter 18 please respond in
writing to the following:
• Explain what Brian means when he says that
the loss of the hatchet means that he has
nothing. Use information from the novel and
your own ideas and conclusion to support
your answer.
Without the hatchet Brian would not have survived in the Canadian
wilderness. Students must comprehend and explain that the hatchet
provided Brian with tools, food, and shelter. The hatchet symbolizes
the new strength in Brian.
Concluding Prompt
• Explain how Brian has changed both mentally
and physically from when the plane crashed to
the end of the novel. Use information from
the story and your own ideas and conclusions
to support your answer.
The purpose of this question is to challenge the students to think about
how the main character has changed from the beginning of the novel
to the end. How does the new Brian compare with the old Brian mentally
and physically?
Assessment
• Responses will be assessed on content only
• Developmental expository writing does not happen overnight, but rather
with practice over time.
• Diagnostic assessment will take place as the student begins to write. Has
comprehension taken place? Is the student on task, engaged, thinking,
and responding in writing?
• Formative assessment takes place as the student writes, not just on one
occasion, but over time. Is there improvement? Is information from the
text used to support the answer? Are connections being made?
• Summative assessment will take into consideration progress over time
when conferencing with the student and comparing expository writing
samples with those completed earlier in the year. Are we where we want
to be in November, then January, and finally in February for the ISAT’s in
March?
Keep in Mind While Assessing
Student Work
• “The written response, like the reading
process, is a way for readers to work through
their understandings and interpretations of
text in personally significant ways where the
uniqueness of their responses is accepted.”
(Pantaleo,p.78)
• Today we call this term voice
Also Keep in Mind
• “Good teachers don’t complain about
students’ lack of ability. They build on a
foundation.” Anonymous College Professor
Grades
• One to two writing grades can be recorded each nine
weeks depending on the number of extended response
questions assigned. The teacher and student will
review the student writing folder for progress in
meeting the criteria on the rubric when responding to
literature in writing.
• A = good understanding, progress, and effort
• B = average understanding, progress, and effort
• C = average understanding and progress with less than
adequate effort
• D = minimal effort
One final inspirational thought
• Allow your students to experience success
while writing! Acknowledging successful
writing is a great intrinsic motivator.
• Involve technology and play.
• Morrow, 2005
For fun-a survival game!
• http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/alaska/frontieralaska/frontier-alaska.html
• In Hatchet Brian had to survive in the
Canadian wilderness. Think carefully before
making decisions for survival in the Alaskan
wilderness.
State Goals for including Extended
Response Questions for Hatchet
• 1.4.15 Demonstrate understanding by using
graphic organizers to represent passage content
• 1.4.17 Determine the answer to a literal or simple
inference question regarding the meaning of a
passage.
• 1.4.19 Identify the main idea of a selection when
it is not explicitly stated
• 1.4.22 Draw inferences, conclusions, or
generalizations about text, and support them
with textual evidence and prior knowledge
State Goals for including Extended
Response Questions for Hatchet
• 2.4.03 Identify events important to the
development of the plot and subplot
• 2.4.06 Compare stories to personal
experience, prior knowledge, or other stories
• 2.4.08 Determine what characters are like by
what they say or do by how the author
portrays them
• 2.4.09 Determine character motivation
Reflection
• An important concept I have gained throughout this class is a deeper
understanding of the connection between comprehension and personal
responses to literature, or interactions with text. My goal is to use
expository writing during novel reading to enhance comprehension,
extend students’ thinking about what they have read, and prepare for the
ISAT exam. To teach students to respond in writing to what they have
comprehended during reading takes considerable time and effort on the
students and teacher’s part. Practice needs to start early in the school
year. Teachers must communicate what is expected and guide students
toward this goal by reading what the student has written and
communicating back to the student through written responses and
conferences. Expository writing must be practiced on an ongoing basis. My
plan is to include three to four extended response, or open ended
questions with each novel. Examples have been given for Hatchet. Perhaps
one of the most difficult parts is thinking up the questions! The time and
effort involved in this project is well worth the reward of developing
students who can and do read, write, listen, speak, and think.
More reflection……
Another important concept I have gained is the
technology available to help engage students
by improving their visualization and
knowledge, and thus comprehension through
online games and educational YouTube videos.
My exit question is: How can I project these
images and ‘how to’ videos in my classroom
without a smartboard. A visit to the building
tech specialist is at the top of my list on
August 17th!
References
• Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching
comprehension to enhance understanding. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse
• Keene, E. & Zimmermann, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought, Second
Edition: The power of comprehension. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann
• Morrow, L. (2005). Literacy Development in the Early Years. Pearson
Education
• National Board Resource Center at Illinois State University.
Analyzing Student Work: Using ISAT Reading Extended Response
Rubrics.
• National Board Resource Center at Illinois State University. Using
the ISAT Reading Extended Response Rubrics.
• Pantaleo, S. (1995). What do response journals reveal about
children’s understandings of the workings of literary texts? Reading
Horizons, 36,76-91.