Session 2: Informational Text

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Module 1Common Core Instruction for ELA
Literacy

• Session 2 Informational Text
• Audience 6-12 ELA Teachers

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Expected outcomes

• Become familiar with the 6-12 CCSS Informational
  Text Reading Standards
• Identify a few of the standards that may be new
  (or a new emphasis) for Oregon teachers
• Become aware of relevant resources in K-12
  Teachers Building Comprehension in the Common
  Core, a resource aligned with the CCSS and the
  Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework.
• http//www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/subjects/ela
  rts/reading/literacy/have-you-ever.pdf

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Distribution of text types in NAEP

• The Standards follow NAEPs lead in increasing
  the proportion of informational text students
  read at each grade level.

Grade Literary Text Informational Text
4 50 50
8 45 55
12 30 70
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Why more informational text?

• Provides an ideal context for building language,
  vocabulary, knowledge, and reasoning
• Is challenging and complex and has deep
  comprehension-building potential
• Is an opportunity for students to learn how to
  engage, interact, and have conversations with
  the text in ways that prepare them for the type
  of experiences they will encounter in college and
  careers.

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Informational text prominent in CCSS

• In Reading standards (RI 1 10, RH 1 10, RST 1
  10)
• In Writing standards
• Students conduct research, draw evidence to
  support arguments and analyses, compare texts,
  etc.
• In Speaking and Listening standards
• Students prepare for conversations and
  collaborations, present findings and supporting
  evidence, etc.
• In Language standards
• Students acquire academic and domain-specific
  vocabulary, use context to determine meaning,
  etc.

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What is informational text in ELA?

• Literary nonfiction. For purposes of CCSS,
• Biographies, memoirs, speeches, opinion pieces
• Essays about art, literature, journalism, etc.
• Historical , scientific, technical, or economic
  accounts written for a broad audience
• Distinguished by literary techniques and artistic
  vision
• Emphasis is on text structure other than
  narrative
• Arguments (such as those in the Founding
  Documents) are emphasized throughout the
  Standards.

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Activity Progression of difficulty

• Read through the 6-11/12 continuum of several of
  the Reading Informational Text standards (1
  10) on the Handout CCSS Reading Informational
  Text Standards 6 11/12.
• Remember that each step up in task difficulty
  is matched by a step up in text complexity.
• Identify the step up in task difficulty at each
  grade 6 11/12 for several standards.

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Standard 8 progression of difficulty

• 7 assessing whether the reasoning is sound and
  the evidence is relevant and sufficient to
  support the claim
• 8 recognize when irrelevant evidence is
  introduced
• 9-10 valid reasoning identify false
  statements and fallacious reasoning
• 11-12 seminal U. S. texts constitutional
  principles and use of legal reasoning
  premises, purposes, and arguments in works of
  public advocacy

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Activity Whats new at your grade level?

• Identify grade-specific standards that are new at
  your grade(s) or represent a new emphasis in
  classroom instruction at your grade(s).
• Think about the instructional strategies and
  approaches that you will apply to these standards.

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Results of a crosswalk comparing CCSS to
Oregons current ELA standards

• Standards at the 11/12 grade band are all new.
• Some of the additions or changes (6-10)
• Standard 3, analyze development, interaction of
  ideas, events
• Standard 5, analyze text structure
• Standard 8, evaluate argument
• Complete Crosswalks are posted on the ODE
  website at http//www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/
  ?id3356

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Analyze how ideas are developed

• Standards 2, 3, 5. For example,
• 9-10.RI.2 Determine a central idea of a text and
  analyze its development over the course of the
  text, including how it emerges and is shaped and
  refined by specific details .
• 9-10.RI.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an
  analysis or series of ideas or events, including
  the order in which the points are made, how they
  are introduced and developed, and the connections
  that are drawn between them.
• 9-10.RI.5 Analyze in detail how an authors
  ideas or claims are developed and refined by
  particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger
  portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

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Activity Standards 2,3,5

• Close read
• Working with partners, examine Reading
  Informational Text Standards 2, 3, 5 at your
  grade level.
• Differentiate
• Put into your own words how each standard is
  different from the other two.

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Raising the level of achievement

• The Common Core State Standards tell us WHAT all
  students should know and be able to do.
• The Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework suggests HOW
  districts and schools can succeed in helping all
  students read well. Its purpose is to ensure
  students are
• Reading grade-level text or above by the end of
  first grade
• Developing grade-level or above reading skills
  K-12 across all classes
• Receiving intensified instruction to help them
  read at grade level, if they are
  not.http//www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id2
  833

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Classroom snapshot You would see

• Students using note-taking organizers, question
  charts, prompt sheets, etc.
• Teachers explicitly teaching discipline-specific
  as well as generic comprehension strategies.
• An emphasis on subject-area reading strategies
  for students struggling with reading.
• Teachers collaboratively planning and preparing
  text and materials.
• Task-based accountability built into every lesson
  task.
• More at K-12 Teachers Building Comprehension
  in the Common Core

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Classroom snapshot You would hear

• Teachers modeling generic as well as
  discipline-specific comprehension strategies.
• Teachers modeling reasoning by thinking out loud.
• Students expressing opinions with explained
  positions and reasoning.
• Students using knowledge of text structure and
  genres to predict main and subordinate ideas.
• Students and teachers summarizing a discussion
  when it closes.
• More at K-12 Teachers Building Comprehension
  in the Common Core

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How did we do?

• Approximately what percentage of instructional
  time and materials will be devoted to literary
  nonfiction in your grade(s)?
• What is one standard new or new in emphasis at
  your grade(s) that will impact your instruction?
• What is one strategy, approach, or classroom
  context that supports learning to read
  informational text?

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Suggested follow-up activities

• Check out the resources on informational text in
  K 12 Teachers Building Comprehension in the
  Common Core on the ODE website.
• Follow one of the hyperlinks in the above
  document to the Instruction chapter in the K-12
  Oregon Literacy Framework to see more concrete
  examples and resources.
• Cross-grade level groups select one standard and
  develop a short lesson at each grade level,
  illustrating the 6-11/12 progression.