Welcome to the Educator Enhancement Academy

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Welcome to the Educator Enhancement Academy

• English Language Arts and Literacy
• Grades 6-8

We are glad you are here!
Day 2
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Discussion of Day 2Parking Lot Questions
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http//wvde.state.wv.us/smarter-balanced/
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http//www.smarterbalanced.org
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http//www.smarterbalanced.org gtSmarter Balanced
Assessments
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ELA Claims
Claim 1 Reading Students can read closely
and analytically to comprehend a range of
increasingly complex literary and informational
texts. Claim 2 Writing Students can
produce effective and well-grounded writing for a
range of purposes and audiences. Claim 3
Speaking and Listening Students can employ
effective speaking and listening skills for a
range of purposes and audiences. Claim 4
Research/Inquiry Students can engage in
research and inquiry to investigate topics, and
to analyze, integrate, and present information.
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ELA Claims
Overall Claim for Grades 38 Students can
demonstrate progress toward college and career
readiness in English language arts and literacy.
Overall Claim for Grade 11 Students can
demonstrate college and career readiness in
English language arts and literacy.
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Taking a Look at Sample Items http//sampleitems.
smarterbalanced.org/itempreview/sbac/ELA.htm
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WESTEST vs. Smarter Balanced

• Lets look at some differences that we should
  expect in the future.
• How can techSteps skills help with the Smarter
  Balanced test.

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Common Core in Use

• The Old Man and the Sea Analogy/Allusions Video

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After Researching Sample Task

• Task
• After researching ______________(informational
  texts) on _____________ (content), write
  ___________(essay or substitute) that argues your
  position on _____________(content). Be sure to
  acknowledge competing views. Give examples from
  past or current events or issues to illustrate
  and clarify your position. (Argumentation/Analysis
  )

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After Researching Sample Task

• Task
• After researching informational and biographical
  texts on the legacy of Henry Ford and the Wright
  brothers, write an essay that argues your
  position on which of these inventors had the most
  impact on modern American society. Be sure to
  acknowledge competing views. Give examples from
  past or current events or issues to illustrate
  and clarify your position.
• Additional templates can be found at
• http//www.literacydesigncollaborative.org/

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Creating Text-Dependent Questions
Step One Identify the core understandings and key ideas of the text.
Step Two Start small to build confidence.
Step Three Target vocabulary and text structure.
Step Four Tackle tough sections head-on.
Step Five Create coherent sequences of text-dependent questions.
Step Six Identify the standards that are being addressed.
Step Seven Create the culminating assessment.
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Three Types of Text-Dependent Questions

• When you're writing or reviewing a set of
  questions, consider the following three
  categories
• Questions that assess themes and central ideas
• Questions that assess knowledge of vocabulary
• Questions that assess syntax and structure

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Structure and Text-Dependent Questions

• Text-dependent questions can be crafted to point
  students attention to features of text that
  enhance understanding (such as how section
  headers and captions lead to greater clarity or
  provide hints regarding what is most important in
  informational text, or how illustrations add to a
  narrative).

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Structure and Text Dependent Questions

• Examples
• Look at the illustrations on page 31. Why did
  the illustrator include details like the power
  outlets in the walls?
• Dillard is careful to place opposing
  descriptions of the natural and man-made
  side-by-side. How does this juxtaposition fit
  with or challenge what we have already read? Why
  might she have chosen this point in the text for
  these descriptions?

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Reading Strategies and Text-Dependent Questions

• Text-dependent questions generally call on
  students to employ reading strategies.
• Strategies are no longer taught in isolation.
• The text and readers need to comprehend it
  should determine what strategies are activated -
  not the other way around.

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Syntax and Text Dependent Questions

• Syntax can predict student performance as much as
  vocabulary does.
• Questions and tasks addressing syntax are
  powerful.
• Example
• Who are the members of the wolf pack? How many
  wolves are in the pack? To answer this, pay close
  attention to the use of commas and semi-colons in
  the last paragraph on pg. 377. The semi-colons
  separate or list each member in the pack.

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They were a couple in their late thirties,
and they looked unmistakably married. They sat on
the banquette opposite us in a little narrow
restaurant, having dinner. The man had a round,
self-satisfied face, with glasses on it the
woman was fadingly pretty, in a big hat. There
was nothing conspicuous about them, nothing
particularly noticeable, until the end of their
meal, when it suddenly became obvious that this
was an Occasionin fact, the husbands birthday,
and the wife had planned a little surprise for
him. It arrived, in the form of a small but
glossy birthday cake, with one pink candle
burning in the center. The headwaiter brought it
in and placed it before the husband, and
meanwhile the violin-and-piano orchestra played
Happy Birthday to You, and the wife beamed with
shy pride over her little surprise, and such few
people as there were in the restaurant tried to
help out with a pattering of applause. It became
clear at once that help was needed, because the
husband was not pleased. Instead, he was hotly
embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for
embarrassing him. You looked at him and you saw
this and you thought, Oh, now, dont be like
that! But he was like that, and as soon as the
little cake had been deposited on the table, and
the orchestra had finished the birthday piece,
and the general attention had shifted from the
man and the woman, I saw him say something to her
under his breathsome punishing thing, quick and
curt and unkind. I couldnt bear to look at the
woman then, so I stared at my plate and waited
for quite a long time. Not long enough, though.
She was still crying when I finally glanced over
there again. Crying quietly and heartbrokenly and
hopelessly, all to herself, under the gay big
brim of her best hat.
The Surprise Party by Katharine Brush
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Lunch
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Questions?
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Strategies to Use

• Book Pass
• Read Aloud/SSR
• Readicide Kelly Gallagher
• WVDE Unit Plans

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Split into Grade Levels

• Look at individual novel or short story brought
• Research 3 nonfiction tie-in texts
• 3 Text Dependent Questions (slide 14)
• Sample Performance Task
• Speaking/Listening Activity
• Best Practice Handout
• School county time