State of Language Arts Education in Florida

Next Generation Sunshine State Standards Language Arts Framers Meeting November 12-13, 2008 Embassy Suites, Tampa, Florida

In the global community of the twenty-first century, the study and practice of the language arts processes of listening, speaking, viewing, writing and information and media literacy in the Florida English/language arts classroom are more important than ever.

United States International Ranking

PIRLS

:

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study

 Overview of PIRLS  2006 administration  4 th graders assessed  Measured trends in reading from 2001 to 2006  40 countries involved  Reading Literacy defined as…

PIRLS Definition of Reading Literacy

   The ability to use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Young readers can construct meaning from a variety of texts.

Students read    to learn, to participate in communities of readers in school and everyday life, and for enjoyment.

The goals of PIRLS

 PIRLS seeks answers to these 6 questions: 1. Compared to students in other countries, how well do our students read? 2. Is reading achievement improving? 3. Do our fourth-grade students value and enjoy reading?

The goals of PIRLS

 PIRLS seeks answers to these 6 questions: 4. Do our students come from homes that foster literacy development? 5. How is early reading instruction organized in our country’s schools? 6. How do our teachers’ instructional practices compare with those of teachers in other countries?

Findings of PIRLS

 Top-scoring Countries  Russian Federation  Hong Kong SAR   Singapore Canada, Alberta  Out of 40 countries, US ranks 14th

Findings of PIRLS

 Top-scoring Countries  Girls outpace boys in reading literacy across all countries.

  Children’s enjoyment, appreciation for reading is on the decline.

Countries can implement changes to improve their students’ performance.

2006 PIRLS

  Other key findings:  In the majority of countries, relatively few students (7% or less) reached the PIRLS 2006 Advanced Level.

 Students reading at this level could: provide and support interpretations,   integrate information across texts, and understand literary and organizational features.

FCAT and NAEP Reading Scores

 Percent of students scoring at or above grade level on 2008 FCAT Reading  Elementary School 

70%

 Middle School  

61%

High School 

42%

2007 NAEP Reading

 Reading abilities were assessed in the contexts of    literary experience, gaining information, and performing a task. 

Florida reflected significant score increase from 2005.

Issues to Consider in Rethinking English Language Arts Standards  NAEP Reading Framework for 2009  NAEP Writing Framework for 2011

Differences: 1992-2007 and 2009 NAEP Reading Frameworks Content 1992-2007:    Literary Informational Document 2009 :

Literary Text

   Fiction Literary Nonfiction Poetry

Informational

  Exposition Argumentation & Persuasive  Procedural text & Documents

1992-2007 and 2009 NAEP Reading Frameworks Cognitive Processes 1992-2007: Stances  Forming a general understanding  Developing an interpretation  Making reader/text connections  Examining content & structure 2009: Cognitive Targets  Locate/Recall  Integrate/Interpret  Critique/Evaluate

NAEP 2011 Writing Framework (December 2006 draft)

1998 Writing Framework Modes

 Persuasive   Informative Narrative

2011 Writing Framework Purposes

 the reader’s point of view or affect the reader’s action  reader’s understanding  To Persuade, in order to change To Explain, in order to expand the To Convey Experience, real or imagined

Writing Instruction in Florida

 In a recent report, the National Commission on Writing stated:  “If students are to make knowledge their own, they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else. In short,

if students are to learn, they must write.”

Facts of FCAT Writing

    Assessment administered for past 16 years.

Essays are graded on a six-point scale.

Students respond to a prompt requiring a specific mode of writing:    Narrative – Grade 4; Expository – Grades 4, 8, and 10; and Persuasive – Grades 8 and 10. Rubric organized around 4 components:  Focus;    Organization; Support; and Conventions.

FCAT Writing Average Essay Scores by Grade

2008 Essay Results

  Grade 8  Increased from 4.1 last year to 4.2 this year Grades 4 and 10  Remained about the same  3.8 for grade 4 and 3.9 for grade 10  Results indicate the percent of students scoring 3.5 and above increased in grade 8

and slightly decreased for grades 4 and 10.

Positive 10-year Trend Data

 Grade 4  77 percent of students scored 3.5 and above   Slight decrease from 78 percent last year Increase of 43 percentage points since 1999 reflecting a positive 10-year data trend

Positive 10-year Trend Data

 Grade 8  88 percent of students scored 3.5 and above   Two percentage point increase from 86 percent last year 37 percentage point increase since 1999 reflecting a positive 10-year data trend.

Positive 10-year Trend Data

 Grade 10  78 percent of students scored 3.5 and above   Slight decrease from 79 percent last year Increase of 18 percentage points since 1999 reflecting a positive 10-year data trend.

Improvement Still Needed!

2008 Gr.10 Scores 3.5 and above Total Students White Black Hispanic Female Male ELL 78 % 83% 70% 74% 83% 73% 39%

Sunshine State Shines Nationally in Writing…

 Florida has the second greatest number of Hispanic students writing at or above the Proficient level on the NAEP  Florida has the fourth greatest number of African-American students writing at or above the Proficient level on NAEP  Ninth in nation for the number of eighth grade students writing at or above the Proficient level on NAEP

National Effort to Improve Adolescent Writing

Writing Proficiency Crisis

 Every school day 7,000 young people drop out of high school (Alliance for Excellent Education 2006)  Of these students, many lack basic literacy skills to meet growing demands of the high school curriculum (Kamil, 2003; Snow & Biancarosa, 2003)  Because the definition of literacy includes both reading and writing skills, poor writing

proficiency should be recognized as an intrinsic part of this national literacy crisis.

Cause for Alarm

Seventy percent (70%)of students in grades 4–12 are low-achieving writers.

(Persky et al., 2003)

Cause for Alarm

Nearly one third of high school graduates are not ready for college level English composition courses. (ACT, 2005)

Writing differs from reading

While readers form a mental representation of thoughts written by someone else, writers formulate

their own thoughts, organize them, and create a written record of them using the conventions of spelling and grammar.

(from Writing Next)

Writing differs from reading

Therefore, although writing and reading are both vital aspects of literacy, they each require their own

dedicated instruction.

 (From Writing Next)

Writing Next :

A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York

 Writing Next Purpose  Provides guidance for improving writing instruction for adolescents  Topic that has previously not received enough attention from researchers or educators.

Writing Next

 Findings  Thirty-five percent of high school graduates in college and 38% of high school graduates in the workforce feel their writing does not meet expectations for quality (Achieve, Inc., 2005)  Writing remediation costs American businesses as much as $3.1 billion annually (National Commission on Writing, 2004)

Writing Research Base

The writing instruction research base has grown more than 600 percent in just 20 years!

(Writing Next: A Report to Carnegie

Corporation of New York)

Writing Next Research



Elements to Improve Writing Achievement in Grades 4 to 12

 Writing Strategies  Summarization    Collaborative Writing Specific Product Goals Word Processing

Writing Next Research



Elements to Improve Writing Achievement in Grades 4 to 12

 Sentence-Combining      Prewriting Inquiry Activities Process Writing Approach Study of Models Writing for Content Learning

Recommendations

 Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction  Writing Strategies  Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions   Summarization  Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts Collaborative Writing  Instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions

Recommendations

 Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction    Specific Product Goals  Assigning students specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete Word Processing  Using computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments Sentence Combining  Involving teaching students to construct more complex, sophisticated sentences

Recommendations

 Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction  Prewriting  Engaging students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition   Inquiry Activities  Engaging students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task Process Writing Approach  Interweaving various writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that emphasizes extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing

Recommendations

 Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction  Study of Models  Providing students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing  Writing for Content Learning  Using writing as a tool for learning content material

Final Note on Writing

 Important outcomes of improved writing instruction  Students’ ability to use it as a tool for understanding and analyzing subject matter information.

 Setting high standards through implementing effective writing instruction sends adolescents a message that higher level thinking about substantive material is important.

ADP: American Diploma Project

 Achieve initiative  Created to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared to face the challenges of work and college  33 states, including Florida, are members.

All State Commitments

 Take four actions:     Raise high school standards  To level required to succeed in college or in the workforce Require all students  To take rigorous college and work-ready curriculum Develop tests  For college and work readiness for all students Hold high schools accountable   For graduating all students ready for college and work To hold colleges accountable for success of students admitted

ADP English and Communication Benchmarks



Grades 4 – 12

 Organized into Eight Strands         language communication writing research logic informational text media literature

Resources Used in Development

   

College Board Standards for College Success:

English Language Arts (College Board, 2006);

Standards for the English Language Arts

(National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association, 1996); New Standards (National Center on Education and the Economy and the University of Pittsburgh, 1997);

The K–12 Speaking, Listening, and Media Literacy Standards and Competency

Statements, 1998);

Resources Used in Development

   

Standards for Middle and High School Literacy

Coaches (International Reading Association, 2006);

National Assessment for Educational Progress

(NAEP) Reading and Writing Frameworks (ACT, pre-publication versions)

ACT College Readiness Standards for Reading

(ACT)

Sequence (Core Knowledge)

Resources Used in Development



The District of Columbia Reading/English Language Arts Pre-K through Grade 12

Standards (District of Columbia)  The Indiana Reading List (Indiana Department of Education, 2006)  The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks / Appendix A: Suggested Authors

Alignment Analysis

 Comparison  Florida’s 2007 SSS in Reading and Language Arts and ADP English Benchmarks  Result  Generally aligned with ADP English Benchmarks

Criteria for Quality Review I

      Rigor Coherence Focus Specificity Clarity/Accessibility Measurability

Alignment Analysis

 SSS strands well-aligned to ADP strands     Language Writing (including work-related texts) Research Literature

Alignment Analysis

 SSS strand less closely-aligned to ADP  Communication (listening and speaking)  Major gap  Area of working in teams

7 ADP Communication Benchmarks

  

B1

 Give and follow spoken instructions to perform specific tasks, to answer questions or to solve problems

B2

 Summarize information presented orally by others

B3

 Paraphrase information presented orally by others

7 ADP Communication Benchmarks

 

B4

 Identify thesis of speech and determine essential elements that elaborate it

B5

 Analyze ways in which style and structure of a speech support or confound its meaning or purpose

7 ADP Communication Benchmarks



B6

 Make oral presentations that  Exhibit a logical structure appropriate to audience, context and purpose;       Group related ideas and maintain consistent focus; Include smooth transitions; Support judgments with sound evidence and well chosen details; Make skillful use of rhetorical devices; Provide a coherent conclusion; and Employ proper eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, inflection and gestures to communicate ideas effectively

7 ADP Communication Benchmarks



B7



Participate productively in self-directed work teams for a particular purpose, such as:

 Posing relevant questions;     Listening with civility to the ideas of others; Gaining the floor in respectful ways; Tolerating ambiguity and a lack of consensus; and Selecting leader/spokesperson when necessary.

Alignment Analysis

 SSS weak alignment areas   Logic Specifics of analyzing and evaluating arguments

9 ADP Logic Benchmarks

    E1. Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence and inferences. E2. Identify false premises in an argument. E3. Describe structure of a given argument; identify its claims and evidence; and evaluate connections among evidence, inferences and claims. E4. Evaluate the range and quality of evidence used to support or oppose an argument.

9 ADP Logic Benchmarks

   E5. Recognize common logical fallacies E6. Analyze written or oral communications for false assumptions, errors, loaded terms, caricature, sarcasm, leading questions and faulty reasoning E7. Understand the distinction between a deductive argument and inductive reasoning

9 ADP Logic Benchmarks

  E8. Analyze two or more texts addressing the same topic to determine how authors reach similar or different conclusions. E9. Construct arguments (both orally and in writing) that:    develop thesis that demonstrates clear and knowledgeable judgment; structure ideas in a sustained and logical fashion; clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence.

Alignment Analysis

 Some alignment in  Informational Text and Media  Recommendation  These areas need to be made more explicit and comprehensive within the Grades 9-12 statements.

4 ADP Media Benchmarks

 G1. Evaluate aural, visual and written images and other special effects used in television, radio, film and the Internet for their ability to inform, persuade and entertain.

 G2. Examine intersections and conflicts between the visual (such as media images, painting, film and graphic arts) and the verbal.

4 ADP Media Benchmarks

  G3. Recognize how visual and sound techniques or design carry or influence messages in various media. G4. Apply and adapt the principles of written composition to create coherent media productions using effective images, text, graphics, music and/or sound effects and present a distinctive point of view on a topic.

11 ADP Informational Text Benchmarks

 F1. Follow instructions.

 F2. Identify main ideas of informational text.  F3. Summarize informational and technical texts.  F4. Distinguish between a summary and a critique.  F5. Interpret and use information in maps, charts, graphs, time lines, tables and diagrams.  F6. Identify interrelationships between and among ideas and concepts.

11 ADP Informational Text Benchmarks

     F7. Synthesize information.

F8. Draw conclusions.

F9. Analyze ways in which a text's organizational structure supports or confounds its meaning or purpose. F10. Recognize the use or abuse of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox, irony, incongruities, overstatement and understatement.

F11. Evaluate informational and technical texts.

Question and Response

How does this inform the Framers tasks?

A Final Word



If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must

write it.

 Toni Morrison