LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Bridge to Practice Reflection As a review from the last PLC session, discuss your experience with the culminating assessment you developed. Make sure to specifically address any questions you have from the design process. 1

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Text-Based Questions 2

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh What Are Text-based Questions and Tasks? Text-based questions and tasks: are focused on the text. are generally text-specific rather than generic questions that could be asked of any text. don’t get students off of the text (e.g., tell me about a time you went camping…). require students to re-read the text closely to do such things as draw inferences, develop interpretations, and analyze ideas and language. may promote convergent (comprehension) and divergent (interpretation/analysis) thinking about a text. 3

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Text-based Questions: Meeting the Common Core Standards for ELA Please take a moment to read the quotation from the Publishers’ Criteria with the following questions in mind: How do Coleman and Pimentel define high-quality text- based questions in the quotation from the Publishers’ Criteria? What are they saying about the benefits of using sequences of high-quality text-based questions? 4

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Text-based Questions: Meeting the Common Core Standards for ELA “High-quality sequences of text-dependent questions elicit sustained attention to the specifics of the text and their impact. The sequence of questions should cultivate student mastery of the specific ideas and illuminating particulars of the text. High-quality text-dependent questions will often move beyond what is directly stated to require students to make nontrivial inferences based on evidence in the text. Questions aligned with Common Core State Standards should demand attention to the text to answer fully. An effective set of discussion questions might begin with relatively simple questions requiring attention to specific words, details, and arguments and then move on to explore the impact of those specifics on the text as a whole. Good questions will often linger over specific phrases and sentences to ensure careful comprehension and also promote deep thinking and substantive analysis of the text. Effective question sequences will build on each other to ensure that students learn to stay focused on the text so they can learn fully from it. Even when dealing with larger volumes of text, questions should be designed to stimulate student attention to gaining specific knowledge and insight from each source” (Coleman & Pimentel, 2011, p. 7). 5

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Studying Sequences of Questions for a Sequence of Complex Texts Look now at the “Ain’t I a Woman” unit outline, and talk with a partner about the following: What do you notice about the relationship among the questions as you move vertically through each text’s sequence and horizontally through the different texts? How do the question sequences organize instruction and scaffold students’ learning toward the overarching questions and culminating assessment? In what ways does the organization of questions help students meet the CCSS? 6.

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Sequencing Text-based Questions for Instruction: Types of Questions Prior Knowledge (P) (non-text-based) Comprehension (C) (includes vocabulary work) Significance (S) Interpretive (I) Analytic (A) StepBack (SB) (non-text-based) Retrospective (R) (text-based and/or non-text-based) See resource for detailed explanations of the different types and possible sequence. characteristics of effective text-based questions. 7

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Developing Sequenced, Text-Based Questions 8

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Designing Sequences of Text-based Questions for Complex Texts Working in pairs or trios, develop a sequence of text- based questions for the “How Much Sleep Do I Need” text. Use the “Ain’t I a Woman” unit plan as a model for your questions. Please chart and post when you are done. 9

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Gallery Walk & Feedback Take a few minutes to review the posted charts. Use sticky notes to provide feedback to the group to help them revise their questions. As a group, reflect on the process of creating text-based questions: –What did you find challenging? Easy? –What questions do you have? 10

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh Bridge to Practice Completed by Feb. 12th Using a text from the textbook or other sources, create at least 3 sequenced text dependent questions. Be prepared to share your questions or observations about the writing process during the next PLC. 11