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Watch Dr. Jana Echevarria discuss the Common Core State Standards and the impact on English Language Learner instruction in the classroom.

If you do not see the video above, click this link to watch: http://youtu.be/RQdKd5zeM9Y

Blocked from YouTube? Watch it on SchoolTube: http://bit.ly/XerkGS

#ccss #ell #english language learners #education #common core #echevarria #reading #instruction #speaking #listening #siop #elementary

Dr. Shanahan Answers Your Questions

Your questions... answered! After watching Dr. Timothy Shanahan's webinar about the CCSS Instructional Shifts here, many of you sent in questions. We sent them on to Dr. Shanahan and he responded.

Read Dr. Shanahan's responses here →

Questions include:

With the huge emphasis on increased text level, it seems that the amount of reading done will decrease significantly. What are your thoughts on this?

David Coleman suggests reading 50% informational and 50% literary text. When we present students with "reach" texts, would you suggest we put more informational than literary texts in their hands?

What would be the accuracy percentage you'd recommend when you suggest students read at their frustration level/"reach" level?

What is the role of literary nonfiction?

What are your thoughts about using gradated texts? Texts on a variety of levels as a scaffold?

And many more!

#ccss #education #common core #shanahan #reading #language arts #literacy #nonfiction

PowerPoint from Dr. Timothy Shanahan's Webinar

Many of you have asked for the PowerPoint Dr. Shanahan used during his webinar on the CCSS Instructional Shifts. Great news, Dr. Shanahan was gracious enough to post the file to his blog for you!

Download the PowerPoint File Today →

#ccss #common core #shanahan #timothy #text complexity #reading #education #mcgraw-hill #instruction #shifts #text #close reading #re-reading

Dr. Timothy Shanahan talks CCSS Instructional Shifts.

#common core #ccss #education #text #shifts #instruction #mcgraw-hill

CCSS Reading Recommendations

Another question from the Ask the Experts voice mail line:

We are moving toward guided reading and we're developing our book room. I need some recommendations for guided reading books for grades 4 and 5. Hope you can help me. Thank you!

Hi there and thanks for your question. Of course we can help you! We sent this question off to our expert Kathy Bumgardner. Here's what she had to say...

Kathy Bumgardner's Response

"I definitely recommend a balance of informational (nonfiction) texts and literature (fiction) texts for using with guided reading groups. As guided reading provides the opportunity to teach and support students with strategies they can use with mostly slightly challenging texts, it can also provide an opportunity to balance with direct support for navigating complex texts and close reading as appropriate for the groups.

Besides using books, it is also possible to find excerpts from texts on Appendix B (CCSS) and even whole texts found online. Poetry, editorials, journal entries, articles, and other texts that are appropriate for students can be found and implemented with students in the supportive environment of guided reading groups. Also don't forget that it can be appropriate and highly productive to use consumer texts (menus, travel brochures, labels, advertisements, flyers, etc.) with students when providing reading strategies for navigating informational consumer texts.

I recommend short stories - including appropriate picture books - when using fiction (literature) so that the text can be completed in a reasonable number of sessions. However; when chapter books are used they can be started with support in guided reading sessions for the first several chapters and then released to students to finish in independent reading as students show understanding as appropriate. Checking back in with students as their reading progresses can be helpful as well. Poetry is also a great choice to add in to the mix as it adds a layer of challenge and interesting choices.

There are some suggested titles that are listed on Appendix B (Common Core Text Complexity Exemplar Lists) as well as others used effectively in many 4th and 5th grade classrooms across the country. Any titles used should meet the specific instructional needs of the students that they are used with based on assessments and data of the students."

Kathy's Recommendations

Titles I recommend for 4th and 5th grade include:

LITERATURE / FICTION / STORIES

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Curtis

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin

Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli (Spinelli is an excellent author to study and has multiple titles that are great to use)

Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes

The Cay, Theodore Taylor

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg

A Wizard of Earthsea: The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1, Ursula Le Guin

Redwall #1, Brian Jacques

Hotel for Dogs, Lois Duncan

Frindle, Andrew Clement

Pushcart War, Jean Merrill

Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary

Picture Books

There are so many that are excellent to use. These are just a few...

Snowflake Bentley, Jacqueline Briggs Martin

George Washington's Teeth, Deborah Chandra, Madeleine Comora

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Mordicai Gerstein

The People Could Fly: The Picture Book, Virginia Hamilton

Tuesday, David Weisner

My Great Aunt Arizona, Gloria Houston

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

Poetry

Casey at Bat, Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Fog, Carl Sandburg

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Roald Dahl

They Were My People, Grace Nichols

Autumn, Emily Dickinson

Shel Silverstein poetry... so many to choose from

INFORMATIONAL / NONFICTION

Biographies are excellent choices - choose as appropriate for level

Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend, Will Moses

Benjamin Franklin: A Man of Many Talents, TIME for Kids Editors

Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin, Gene Barretta

Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini, Sid Fleischman

Jesse Owens Fastest Man Alive, Carole Boston Weatherford

Bad News of Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Wilma Unlimited, Kathleen Krull Minty

Content Informational Examples

Your Skin Weighs More Than Your Brain, Barbara Seuling

Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave, Monty Roessel

Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, Ken Mochizuki

Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley, Stephen Kramer

Follow the Trail: A Young Person's Guide to the Great Outdoors, Jessica Loy

Friendship 7: First American in Orbit, Michael D. Cole

Discovering Mars: The Amazing Red Planet, Melvin Berger

Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms, Patricia Lauber

Good Pet, Bad Pet, Elizabeth Schleichert

Horses, Seymour Simon

Telescopes, Colin A. Ronan

Underground Railroad, Henrietta Buckmaster

Thanks to Kathy Bumgardner for this terrific list! Don't miss her excellent website here - www.kbumreading.com

Thanks so much for your questions! Call anytime! 331-248-CCSS (2277)

#ccss #guided reading #common core #literacy #instruction #education #mcgraw-hill #kathy #bumgardner #picture book #informational #literary #appendix b #toolbox

What is Close Reading?

From the Ask the Experts voice mailbox:

I’d love to hear Doug Fisher talk about close reading. We are a group of literacy specialists debating back and forth about what that means. We’ve read Tim Shanahan’s Blog and would love to hear more.

Thanks for the question! At your request, we asked one of our experts on close reading, Dr. Douglas Fisher, to answer this question for you.

"Close reading is an instructional approach that requires readers to re-read a text several times and really develop a deep understanding of the content contained in the text. The purpose is to build the habits of readers as they engage with the complex texts and to build their stamina and skills for being able to do so independently. However, close reading doesn’t mean that you simply distribute a complex reading and then exhort them to read it again and again until they understand it. As part of a close reading, students "read with a pencil" and learn to annotate as they go. In addition, they are asked text-dependent questions that require that they produce evidence from the text as part of their responses."

- Dr. Douglas Fisher

Don't miss Doug Fisher discussing close reading on YouTube here and here. Scroll through the posts on this website to find transcripts of these YouTube videos.

Do you have a question about the CCSS? Leave a voice message!

331-248-CCSS (2277)

---------------

www.mhecommoncoretoolbox.com

Share your thoughts on Twitter: Use the hashtag #closereading

#close reading #ccss #literacy #instruction #education #mcgraw-hill #doug #fisher #shanahan #re-read #pencil #habit #good habit #reader #read #text #text-dependent #common core #standards

Did you ever wish you could pick Tim Shanahan's brain about text complexity? Want to know more about close reading from Doug Fisher? Need to ask a question about the CCSS that no one else can seem to answer?

Now you can! Pick up your phone and dial 311-248-CCSS (2277). Then ask your question after the tone.

We'll send your question to our experts and then post their responses right here on this website.

#common core #ccss #education #k-12 #reading #language arts #literacy #shanahan #fisher

Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 2 (transcript)

Transcript from this video with Dr. Douglas Fisher.

What does close reading look like in the classroom?

There are a variety of ways to teach students through close reading in a classroom. Most of the time that involves selecting a short passage of text; having students encounter the text first, without any kind of pre-teaching or any kind of frontloading… maybe pointing out a couple of really complex words… but really letting students encounter that text the first time, inviting them to read that text, asking them some text-dependent questions - which might be about the key details, the general understanding, the structure, the vocabulary, the author’s purpose - but inviting them back into that text several times.

One of the things we know with a close reading is that students read with a pencil. Well, not literally with a pencil, but with argumentation. The students are regularly taking notes as they read. They are extracting ideas and concepts that they want to remember from the text. And that reading with a pencil helps students go back into the text over and over again to really get a strong sense of what they author is trying to say.

In a close reading, students also talk about what they’re thinking about. They share their evidence with their peers, they use argumentation, they agree, they disagree, they ask for evidence, they provide evidence, they offer counter claims. It’s that give-and-take of discussion in which the text serves as a primary tool for forwarding that conversation. That’s what we’re looking for in a classroom that has close reading.

In addition, teachers can model during a close reading. Students notice things that are confusing for them. They notice things that they understand and they notice things that are difficult. When the teacher notices that a lot of the students have the same misunderstanding, the teacher can build that into some of the modeling and talk about how the teacher thinks the text is working, how the teacher is noticing vocabulary or structures, or general ideas. And then ask another text dependent question to drive the students back to the text to look for additional evidence. It’s an ongoing and recursive process where students go back to the text based on the questions they are asked – including up to inferencing questions - where students go back to the text to look for evidence and really grasp a deep level of understanding of that text.

#ccss #education #close reading #common core #fisher #teaching #pre-teaching #inferencing #questions #text

Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 2 with Dr. Douglas Fisher

#ccss #education #standards #common core #close reading #fisher

"Reading with a pencil, helps students go back into the text over and over to get a strong sense of what the author is trying to say."

- Dr. Douglas Fisher on close reading

#education #fisher #close reading #pen in hand #reading with a pencil #text #rereading #author #teaching #common core #ccss #standadrs #standards

"Most of the time that involves selecting a short passage of text."

- Dr. Douglas Fisher on what close reading looks like in the classroom

#education #fisher #ccss #common core #standards #close reading #short text #text

"There are a variety of ways to teach close reading in the classroom."

- Dr. Douglas Fisher

#fisher #ccss #common core #standards #close reading #classroom #education #teaching

Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 1 (transcript)

Transcript from this video with Dr. Douglas Fisher.

How would you describe close reading? How would you define it?

A close reading is a careful and purposeful reading. Well actually, it’s rereading. It’s 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.

It really is getting to what Louise Rosenblatt talked about as a transaction between the reader and the text. Louise Rosenblatt, the originator of Reader-Response Theory, really talked about understanding what the author had to say and not impugning those authors words, but really getting what the author had to say and bringing some of your own ideas to bear on that text.

In a close reading, we have to have students reread the text. We give them questions; text dependent questions that require that they go back into the text and search for answers. These aren’t simply recall questions, just the facts of the text, but rather questions that allow students to think about the text, and the author’s purpose, the structure, and the flow of the text.

Close reading requires that students actually think and understand what they are reading.

Is close reading part of addressing the Common Core State Standards?

Close reading isn’t in the Common Core State Standards. However, an analysis of the Common Core State Standards really says you’ve got to learn the text well. The Common Core State Standards require that students provide evidence and justification for their answers. The only way we know how students can do this - that they really learn to provide evidence and justification - is if they closely read.

When we have students really read carefully, they pay attention to the words, the ideas, the structure, the flow, and the purpose of that text, they’re ready to answer more complex questions that require that they really think about what the author said, and compare that with what they know, what they believe, and what they think.