Understanding Text-Dependent Questions Delivering on the promise by the Common Core State Standards of higher student achievement for all students requires significant shifts in practice. The key area in ELA/Literacy to focus on in the classroom in 2012-13 is ensuring that students think about the text and the evidence in the text that is necessary for inferring meaning and achieving overall comprehension. In this session, we’ll review the shifts in practice required by the Common Core State Standards in ELA/Literacy and dive deeply into what it means to recognize and create excellent text dependent questions for use in the classroom. Existing questions in many reading programs were designed for a different set of standards. This session is designed to give you the information to recognize high quality text-dependent questions aligned to the expectations of the CCSS, where they exist, and create quality questions, where they do not.

The CCSS Requires Three Shifts in ELA/Literacy Regular practice with complex text and it academic language Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and instructional Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction The shifts are a high-level summary of the biggest changes signified by the adoption of the CCSS. They represent the most significant shifts for curriculum materials, instruction, student learning, and thinking about assessment. Taken all together, they should lead to desired student outcomes. Communicate the shifts to everyone who will listen! Everyone working in your school and district should have a solid understanding of the shifts required in both ELA/Literacy and Mathematics. They are a great starting point for learning about and understanding the CCSS. You can test any message or effort regarding the CCSS against these touchstones. From state, district, school, or classroom – how does X support the ideas of the shifts? They are meant to be succinct and easy to remember.

Shift # 2: Text-Dependent Questions Regular practice with complex text and its academic language Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Great text-dependent questions are key to building knowledge from content-rich text. Text-dependent questions will point students toward parts of the text most important to pay attention to. Teachers can use questions to highlight and scaffold key knowledge and information from texts, and provide the necessary practice with complex text. However, most clearly – and as highlighted here on this slide – text-dependent questions are in direct service of the 2nd shift toward reading and writing grounded in evidence from the text. Answering text-dependent questions requires students to examine and use evidence from the text.

Time – In and Out of the Text More instructional time spent outside the text means less time inside the text. Departing from the text in classroom discussion privileges only those who already have experience with the topic. It is easier to talk about our experiences than to analyze the text—especially for students reluctant to engage with reading. The CCSS are College and Career Readiness Standards. 1st bullet – The shifts require experience within the text – building knowledge primarily through reading, using evidence that can only be found in text, and exposure to academic vocabulary found in those very texts. 2nd bullet – For example, reading about tornadoes, then asking students to talk about a time when they were in a tornado only allows the students who have had this experience to engage. The expectations outlined by the CCSS are requirements for ALL students. By grounding the discussion in the text itself, all students are given an equal opportunity to engage. The text becomes a shared experience in learning about any topic. 3rd bullet – As texts and reading becomes challenging – it’s easier for students to disengage with the text and go to what they know (or think they know, based on their experience.) Requiring students to persevere through difficult text builds critical reading muscles. 4th bullet – Those reading muscles are what students will need to be successful in college and career – reading difficult subject matter or technical job-related information without anybody to support them is the critical skill necessary for success.

Text-Dependent Questions are not… Low-level, literal, or recall questions Focused on comprehension strategies Just questions… Low-level referring to Bloom’s Taxonomy or Webb’s Depth of Knowledge; good TDQs can be very complex and inferential. Questions are meant to point towards the most salient aspects of the text; questions are not meant to test the skill or strategy of the week. TDQs are not just questions; they can be powerful. Along with high quality complex text – they will drive the CCSS in the classroom We know what TDQ’ are not. The next slide takes a closer look at what TDQ’s are.

Text-Dependent Questions... Can only be answered with evidence from the text. Can be literal (checking for understanding) but must also involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation. Focus on word, sentence, and paragraph, as well as larger ideas, themes, or events. Focus on difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency. Can also include prompts for writing and discussion questions. TDQ’s should not require background knowledge (stores of background knowledge can be added to by collecting the evidence from the text to further build knowledge, or can be tapped into to make meaning of the text.) Questions that involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation actually point towards the most difficult parts of text. Literal question do not. TDQ’s will drive the CCSS in the classroom if questions are asked about words, sentences, paragraphs, big ideas, themes, relationships, etc. TDQ’s are an opportunity to address the academic (tier two) vocabulary and syntax that are features of complex text – the features that make text difficult for students. This means that good questions actually make students stronger and more capable readers.

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

Non-Examples and Examples Not Text-Dependent Text-Dependent In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote? What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous? What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received? “The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech? Text-dependent questions require students to pay attention to the text at hand and to draw evidence from that text. What does this look like in the classroom? Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary argument both in conversation, as well as in writing, to assess comprehension of a text. Students have rich and rigorous conversations and develop writing that is dependent on a common text.

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. This is not a formula – not every text will require the same process. These are guidelines. Questions that directly address difficult sections of the text help with breaking down complexity. Help student to extract and create meaning where they otherwise wouldn't. How many questions is enough? It varies from text to text. Check “alignment to the standards" last, but use the language of the standards in the questions as much as possible. Over the next few slides we’ll see examples of text-dependent questions that address various features of the text. Refer to the handout – “Long Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions”

Core Understanding and Key Ideas Reverse-engineered or backwards-designed Crucial for creating an overarching set of successful questions Critical for creating an appropriate culminating assignment When reading a text, clarify your own understanding regarding the core understanding, themes, and key ideas, so it can serve as your guidepost for creating questions. A coherent sequences of text-dependent questions will lead students towards understanding these ideas for themselves. In literature the core understandings and big ideas can focus on the theme, interactions of characters, events in the story, important events, or any other features that are central. In informational texts the core understandings and big ideas can be closely aligned to the important ideas, the author’s purpose, claims, or arguments.

Core Understanding and Key Ideas: Example Core Understanding and Key Idea: Two people of very different ages may still have much in common and become friends. Synopsis: Opal has just moved to a new town in a new state and has no friends yet. Through a series of comic mishaps inadvertently started by her very special dog, Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny, the town librarian. Opal realizes they have much in common and a friendship is ignited. Example from Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo

Vocabulary Which words should be taught? Essential to understanding text Likely to appear in future reading Which words should get more time and attention? More abstract words (as opposed to concrete words) persist vs. checkpoint noticed vs. accident Words which are part of semantic word family secure, securely, security, secured By teaching your students the meaning of a word that is the member of a larger family of related words, you are giving them the power to learn many words from a focus on one. Little in reading is better documented than the links between word knowledge and successful reading and learning outcomes. Concrete words are mastered much more quickly than are abstract words. Academic words are far more likely to be abstract and will need as much attention as you can provide. These words are also the ones that students are likely to encounter over and over again.

Vocabulary and Text Dependent Questions From “Hot and Cold Summer” - 5th grade fictional text “To avoid someone means to keep away from them so that you don’t have to see them and they don’t have to see you. How did the boys avoid meeting Bolivia at first?” (pg. 23) Re-read the last two paragraphs on page 39. Rory had a “strong suspicion”. What is a suspicion? What details in the story made Rory suspicious of Bolivia? The first example provides the definition since there aren’t enough contextual clues provided in the text for student to figure it out on their own. The second example asks the students to figure out the word in context. Both examples use the word knowledge to ask pointed questions about the text.

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.

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).

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?” Text structure can be addressed through text dependent questions. See the examples in the slide.

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. The text itself is the driver for what strategies would logically be employed to comprehend it fully. Text-dependent questions and tasks need to be created in such a way that they activate the reading strategies that would be useful and appropriate to solve some comprehension challenge a specific text presents. Reading strategies are taught in service to the reader's comprehension of the text. In fact, the major reading strategies are contained in the Reading Standards 2 -9 for both literature and informational text. Other high value strategies such as, comprehension monitoring and rereading for understanding, are activated throughout the process of answering the questions because the demand for text evidence pushed the reader back to the text and constantly asks for a check on understanding. (If participants are getting stuck on this point - since it represents such a shift from current practice - it may be useful to take the anchor standards for reading and either name each one for the group or ask people to work in small groups to do it for themselves. This should help reassure teachers that by creating questions that are aligned with the standards they will get frequent opportunities to have students practice using reading strategies and can build in their customary teaching and modeling of strategies into those same organic opportunities.)

Increased Ability to Use Text Evidence Increasing Range and Complexity Bands 11-CCR 9-10 6-8 4-5 2-3 K-1 Standard One Standard Ten Bands 11-CCR 9-10 6-8 4-5 2-3 K-1 Standards Two through Nine Increased Ability to Use Text Evidence Increasing Range and Complexity Standard 1 – use of evidence, and Standard 10 – appropriately complex text and the range of text called for at each grade level - should accompany the other Standards. They are always present on the K-12 continuum, but they themselves are not standards that drive question- making. The search for text evidence should activate key strategies such as re-reading and monitoring for comprehension, but more specific strategies are present when Standards 2-9 are present in the questions. Good, text-dependent questions will always keep Reading Standards 2-9 in play. Which Standards in particular are activated depends on the text at hand.

Culminating Tasks Should relate to core understanding and key ideas. A coherent sequence of text dependent questions will scaffold students toward successfully completing the culminating task. Example: “The title of this selection is ‘Because of Winn-Dixie.' Using your answers from the questions above and class discussion, explain why this is an appropriate title for the selection. Be sure to clearly cite evidence from the text for each part of your answer.” “Officer Buckle’s final safety tip is 'ALWAYS STICK WITH YOUR BUDDY.' How did he and Gloria each learn this lesson for themselves throughout the story?” Standards-aligned culminating tasks must be text-centered since they take more time than any other individual part of the work with the text. If done well, the sequence of questions, and students' notes from discussion and written answers to them, should provide lots of raw material for developing a solid response to a culminating writing assignment or other appropriate ending activity. This is another way text-dependent questions provide scaffolding that will help students build their capacity to approach complex and challenging text independently.

Final Thoughts There is no one right way to have students work with text- dependent questions. Providing for the differing needs of students means providing and scaffolding supports differentially - not asking easier questions or substituting simpler text. Listening and speaking should be built into any sequence of activities along with reading and writing. “Re-read it, think it, talk it, write it” The CCSS require ALL students to read and engage with grade appropriate complex text regularly. This requires new ways of working in our classrooms. A variety of approaches is best: small groups working together question by question, pair/shares, tackling some independently through a written response, whole class discussions... These are all powerful ways to work with students on this kind of evidence gathering and careful reading. The Common Core Standards exist for all students. We must create new and powerful ways to allow this access to all students.