The Adventures Of A Preservice Teacher

CCSS Chapter 6: Standard 10 - students should be able to read on grade level and be able to read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

 

Students should be able to:

• the ability to read and comprehend complex literary texts independently and proficiently

• the ability to read and comprehend informational texts independently and proficiently

 

Complex Literary Texts:

 

Complex Informational Texts:

• sizable amount of data

• present difficult concepts that are not explicit in the text

• use demanding words and phrases whose meanings must be determined from context

• likely to include intricate explanations of processes or events

 

Text Complexity: this is based on 3 dimensions

1. Qualitative Dimensions - refers to the kinds of background knowledge of text structure, vocabulary, and language any reader must have to be able to comprehend the text

   1. can only be measured by an attentive human reader

   2. includes concepts such as levels of meaning or purpose

   3. the way the text is structured

   4. how clear the language is

   5. types of knowledge demands the text makes on the reader

2. Quantitative Dimensions - refers to the measured reading of a level text which is measured by Lexiles as mentions in CCS’s

   1. typically measured by computer software

   2. includes components such as word length or frequency

   3. sentence length

   4. text cohesion

3. Reader & Task Considerations - refers to knowing students’ abilities, experiences, interests and possible motivation for reading a particular text before making a determination that the text is appropriate for a particular group of students.

4. must be evaluated by a teacher employing his/her professional judgement, experience and knowledge of the students and the subject

 

Exemplar Texts:

• texts samples that exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the standards require all students in a given grade band to engage with

• serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity quality and range for their own classroom

 

What is Not Covered by the Standards:

• no set of grade specific standards can fully reflect the great variety in abilities, needs, learning rates, and achievement levels of students in any given class

• standards set grade specific standards but do not define the intervention methods or materials necessary to support students who are well below or above grade level expectations

• this means that the standards are set to the average students and the teacher has to come up with the differentiation

 

3 Considerations in Supporting Students:

1. students’ ability to read complex text does not always develop in a linear fashion. every student is different and should be able to experience the satisfaction of easy, fluent reading.

2. students reading well above or well below grade-band level need additional support.

3. even students on course for college and career readiness are likely to need scaffolding as they master higher levels of text complexity, but instruction must move generally towards decreasing scaffolding and independence.

 

Instructional & Informational Texts - literature should comprise 50% of instructional text and the elementary level and students should be reading stories, dramas, and poetry in the text bands

Informational text should comprise 50% of instructional texts in grades K-5. these include history, social studies, science, magazine articles, newspaper articles, documents, etc.

 

Connection to ELA Standards:

• for literature:

  • Reading Literature Standard 1: focuses on reading narrative texts closely and teachers can engage the students by reading the text closely and complexly. Teachers want to invite students to ask and answer questions about key details and main ideas.

  • Reading Literature Standard 2: focuses on retelling the author's message and idea as well as sharing their personal opinion. Teachers need to encourage the students to infer the theme of literary texts by exploring the actions of the characters, the setting, the theme, etc. It is important to analyze the dialogue in the text and the thoughts that the author may have had.

• for informational text:

  • Reading Informational Text Standard 1: focuses on reading informational texts closely and teachers can engage the students by reading the text closely and complexly. Teachers want to invite students to ask and answer questions about key details and main ideas. Students want to be looking back on the article or story for text evidence to support their statement and information.

  • Reading Informational Text 2: focuses on retelling the author's message and idea as well as sharing their personal opinion from informational texts. Teachers need to encourage the students to infer the idea and message from informational texts by using text based evidence. It is important to analyze the facts in the text and the thoughts that the author may have had. Teachers need to ask about key details refer back to the text, draw inferences and teachers need to invite them to discuss the main idea.

 

Accommodations:

• provide stories in the ELL students native language

• allow students to use bilingual dictionaries

• assign peer tutors

• provide written and translated directions

• allow students to draw pictures instead of having to write long paragraphs

 

Guided Reading - using guided reading in your classroom is the best way to meet with every child where they are at their cutting edge of learning. The most important aspect of guided reading is giving kids increased time to read appropriate level text. There is no correct length of time to spend with each group but you just want the kids to be doing something. They want to constantly be practicing reading and when you work with the student individually, you can analyze where they specifically need help.

 

Activities:

Story Boxes - after reading a story, take out the story boxes page and go over with your students. Have them talk through the story and discuss each of the boxes. Use the sentence starters to help begin the discussions but make sure to point out the elements of literature text (characters, setting, problem, etc.) This can be used for a quick discussion as a class.

Comprehension Questions Cards - before reading, spread out the cards and allow each student to take one card. Before you begin, ask who has the predict card and then have them make a prediction about the story. Stop the group during the reading and ask who has the picture card. Then have the student describe what that they are thinking and picturing in their heads. Every reader imagines what the room is setup like or what the character is wearing and you want the kids to describe this and paint that picture for us. Then discuss the summary of the story, what happened at the beginning, middle and end and have a class discussion about the book.