Literacy Design Collaborative: Building Agency for Teachers and Students GaDOE ELA Summer Institute Kennesaw State University June 4, 2014 Kelley York, Metro RESA Mary Lynn Huie, LDC

Session 1 The Teaching Task Drives Everything

What is LDC? LDC has evolved from: An Idea: Rely on the “Wisdom of Teacher Practice” Basic tools: 29 Template Tasks and Frameworks for Instruction Today LDC is a professional learning process and system composed of teacher-created tools and resources that guide the teacher through thinking about and developing instructional design and delivery to manifest the common core instructional shifts in myriad ways. What LDC is not: LDC is not a narrow curriculum solution.

Framework Overview: LDC Module Structure Section 1: Task Student Performance Task Standards Core Subject Content Texts Student Scoring Rubric Extensions Section 2: Skills What sequence of skills will enable the student to complete the task? Section 3: Instruc- tional Ladder: Mini-Tasks What mini-literacy tasks will build and manifest student mastery of the skill or sub-skill? Section 4: Results What student Product would demonstrate student mastery of the perf. teaching task? Teachers reflect on successes and challenges. Incorporate reflections into module and instructional revisions/ planning

What Does LDC Look Like in a Classroom?  As you watch the video, prepare to answer these questions:  Where do you see evidence of good teaching?  Where do you see evidence of significant student learning?  Literacy Matters video 

Framework Overview: LDC Teaching Task Teachers fill in the template to create a teaching task—a major student assignment to be completed over two weeks. The content can be science, history, language arts, or another subject.

How It Works TASK TEMPLATE 21 — INFORMATIONAL & ANALYSIS (Insert Question) After reading content, write essay or substitute that addresses the question and analyzes content, providing examples to clarify your analysis. What conclusion or implications can you draw? A bibliography is/is not required.

A High School ELA Task TASK TEMPLATE 21 — INFORMATIONAL & ANALYSIS How do characters in Macbeth use deception to further their goals, and what lessons do these characters teach us about the uses of deception? After reading William Shakespeare's Macbeth and other informational articles on deception, write an essay that addresses the question and analyzes how deception affects both people and society, providing examples to clarify your analysis. What conclusion or implications can you draw? A bibliography is required.

Evaluating Teaching Tasks  Examine the ELA Teaching Tasks on the handout.  Select three you think are good tasks; what makes each good?  With a partner, list four criteria for a good Teaching Task.

Filling in a TT Template  What content?  What reading materials? (Memoirs, informational articles, fiction, etc.)  What product? (Essay, editorial, letter, speech, lab report, etc.)  What cognitive process? (Cause/effect, Problem/Solution, Analysis, etc.)

Writing a Teaching Task Using Template Task 2, write a Teaching Task that would be appropriate for one of the courses you teach.

Template Task 1: Argumentation/Analysis After researching ______ (informational texts) on ________ (content), write a _______ (written product) that argues your position on _________ (content). Support your position with evidence from your research.

Session 2 The LDC Framework for Instruction

Framework Overview: LDC Instructional Ladder The standard instructional ladder construct: Identify skills and sub-skills necessary to complete the teaching task Create and explicitly teach individual “mini-student performance tasks” that would enable students to develop/master the skill and/or sub-skills necessary to perform the teaching task Score and reflect upon whether students’ mini-task performance reveals student development/mastery of sub-skill

Framework Overview: LDC Mini-tasks Mini-tasks always include the following components: A scorable product that students will develop or produce A prompt that gives students clear direction on what they are to produce A scoring guide that sets criteria for what kind of work indicates that students have developed the needed skill—scoring guides enable formative assessment The instructional strategies that the teacher will use to help students complete the mini-task Teachers also define the mini-task’s pacing and provide resources to support the mini-task (student handouts; sample student work; teacher resources; etc.)

What is in a Complete Module?  A rigorous Teaching Task  Supporting Texts that are tightly aligned with the demands of the Teaching Task  Sequenced mini-tasks designed to explicitly teach skills necessary to complete the Teaching Task  Supporting materials to support mini-tasks  Formative assessments to check student progress  Rubrics for evaluating student work

Quick-Write (10 minutes)  How are friends important in your life? What do friendships do for you?

Task Analysis  Read the Teaching Task and highlight important parts.  List important features of a good response to this task.  What information do you need from each text?

Session 3 The Reading Process

Active Reading and Note-Taking  Label the boxes at the top of the Note-Taking Guide: Aristotle, Todd May.  Read the first two paragraphs of the first text and identify Aristotle’s definitions of friendship.  Read the rest of the article, noting important ideas about friendship.

Group Discussion and Synthesis  With your team, discuss one type of friendship described in the article and create a definition that includes at least one example to clarify your definition.

Active Reading and Note-Taking  As you read the excerpt from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, annolight parts of the text that help you understand the relationship between George and Lennie. After reading, write a response to the text in which you describe the friendship between George and Lennie and determine which definition (from Aristotle or May) best fits this friendship. Include evidence from both texts to support your discussion.

Session 4 Designing a Mini-Module What is in a Full Module

What’s in a Mini-Module?  A LDC Teaching Task  The basic framework for instruction (3-4 clusters)  1-2 texts  3-4 mini-tasks that target a few skills  Evidence-based reading and writing

Designing Your Own  Open the New York Times Learning Network at  Select a content area and browse.  Select an idea, read the informational texts, and write a Teaching Task.  Adapt or create a Note-Taking Guide.  Write 3-5 complete mini-tasks that fit into LDC skills clusters.

Sharing Out Leave your mini-module with a pad of sticky notes Move around the room and read as many modules as possible (Teaching Task and Instruction) Leave notes and suggestions for improvement!

What is missing in the mini-module?  Sustained study of a topic  Significant chunks of reading/writing instruction  Formative assessment of diverse skills  Time for reflection on and synthesis of complex ideas  Learning content through reading

What Happens in the Four-Day Training?  Developing two complete modules (each for 2-4 weeks of instruction);  Analyzing, evaluating, and designing rigorous and relevant Teaching Tasks that connect evidence-based reading to evidence-based writing;  Analyzing and selecting texts to align with Task;  Identifying content-literacy skills necessary for completing a task;  Designing instruction that develops necessary skills for completing the task;  Analyzing rubrics for how skills are evaluated; scoring student work and using results to evaluate previous instruction and to plan and design subsequent instruction.

How do you Sign Up?  Metro RESA (Kelley York  Northwest Georgia RESA (Cathy Myers

Other Resources  LDC website:  Georgia Department of Education LDC site: Core/Pages/LDC.aspx Core/Pages/LDC.aspx  Module Creator  CoreTools