1. ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS PILOT
Angela Shelton Pre-K-4 ELA Coordinator
Melinda Carr 5-8 ELA Coordinator

2. Establish Routines and Procedures
"Prime time in school is the first few moments in a class. If you blow these moments, you blow the impression, the sale, and the success of a class."- The First Day of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong
"Routines are the backbone of daily classroom life. They facilitate teaching and learning…. Routines don’t just make your life easier, they save valuable classroom time. And what’s most important, efficient routines make it easier for students to learn and achieve more.“ —Learning to Teach…not just for beginners by Linda Shalaway
When routines and procedures are carefully taught, modeled, and established in the classroom, children know what’s expected of them and how to do certain things on their own. Having these predictable patterns in place allows teachers to spend more time in meaningful instruction.

3. English Language Arts Block
120 Minute English Language Arts Block
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
8:30-9:30
Writing Workshop
9:30-9:45
Word Work
9:45-10:30
Reading Workshop

4. TN Core Username: tn-ela-pilot Password: volunte3r
The ELA pilot
As Tennessee moves toward full implementation of Common Core State Standards, the ELA pilot gives districts an opportunity to receive support from colleagues and gain experience with the instructional shifts in the standards. The pilot will help districts become prepared and organized for fuller, state-wide implementation in The ELA Pilot will also give the Tennessee Department of Education an opportunity to learn from leading districts and use promising implementation practices to inform state training efforts.
TN Core Username: tn-ela-pilot
Password: volunte3r

5. The CCSS Requires Three Shifts in ELA/Literacy
Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational
Regular practice with complex text and its academic language
Handout: Key Instructional Shifts
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.

6. Key Instructional Shifts Jigsaw Activity Handout: Instructional Shifts graphic organizer
ELA Shift
Engage NY Video
Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
Shift 1: PK-5—Balancing information/Literature
Shift 2: 6-12—Building Knowledge in the Disciplines
Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational
Shift 4: Text-Based Answers
Shift 5: Writing from Sources
Regular practice with complex text and its academic language
Shift 3: Staircase of Text Complexity
Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary

7. What is Close Reading?
"Close reading is an instructional approach that requires readers to re-read a text several times and really develop a deep understanding of the content contained in the text. The purpose is to build the habits of readers as they engage with the complex texts and to build their stamina and skills for being able to do so independently. However, close reading doesn’t mean that you simply distribute a complex reading and then exhort them to read it again and again until they understand it.  As part of a close reading, students "read with a pencil" and learn to annotate as they go. In addition, they are asked text-dependent questions that require that they produce evidence from the text as part of their responses."
- Dr. Douglas Fisher
Douglas Fisher video

8. Close Reading “Read like a detective…”
Involves reading a text multiple times, each time gaining a deeper understanding.
Read the Exemplar Text and answer the following questions, citing evidence from the text.
What is or isn’t the meaning of popular sovereignty?
Why does Monk claim that this is the form of government in America?
Is Lucy Stone confused she asked who is “we”?
Why does Monk say that this is a question that has troubled our nation?
Briefly discuss your answers with your group.

9. Close Reading “Read like a detective…”
Now read the text a second time, searching for a deeper understanding of the author’s craft and differing points of view using evidence from the text.
Answer the following questions:
What does the phrase “founding fathers” mean?
Why did Marshall mention the “evolving nature” of the constitution?
Briefly paraphrase Marshall’s quote in 2-3 sentences.
Discuss with your group your thoughts on the process of close reading.
Handout: Guide to Close Reading

10. What Are Your Thoughts? Stand up, hand up, pair up.
Discuss with your partner:
Sum up the three Key Instructional Shifts.
Describe Close Reading and discuss how this strategy helps students meet Common Core expectations.
Post any lingering questions in the parking lot. Thank your partner and take a short 5 minute break. Return to your seat when you hear the music change.

11. Shift # 2: Text Dependent Questions
Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational
Regular practice with complex text and its academic language
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.

12. 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.

13. 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 TDQ’s 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.
TDQ’s 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’s are not. The next slide takes a closer look at what TDQ’s are.

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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 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 are dependent on a common text.

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

18. Core Understanding and Key Ideas
Clarify your own understanding regarding the core understanding, themes, and key ideas, so it can serve as your guidepost for creating questions. A coherent sequence 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.
Clarity 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.

19. Vocabulary (Tier 2 words)
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 given 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.

20. 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)
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.
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 second example asks the students to figure out the word in context. Both examples use word knowledge to ask pointed questions about the text.
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.

21. 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 The semi-colons separate or list each member in the pack.

22. 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).

23. 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.

24. Reading Strategies and Text-Dependent Questions
Text-dependent questions generally call on students to employ reading strategies. 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 the text presents. Reading strategies are taught in service to the reader's comprehension of the text, not in isolation.
In fact, the major reading strategies are contained in the Reading Standards 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.
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 the 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.

25. 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?”
Handout: Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions
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.

26. Close Reading and Text-Dependent Questions in Action
5th grade ELA lesson America Achieves Common Core Classroom Project Handout: Lesson plan

27. ELA Writing Assessments
To reflect the instructional shifts in the CCSS, the TCAP writing assessment for grades 5 and 8 will be text-based. Students will be required to read a passage and cite evidence from the text in the response.
Direct instruction and regular practice with Close Reading and Text-Dependent Questions will prepare our students for this new format.

28. ELA Writing Assessments
We will have several opportunities to practice this throughout the school year in grades These practice assessments are embedded within the district writing requirements.
Tentative dates: Nov, Dec, Feb, and March
Released prompts can be viewed online at

29. November Writing Assessment
After practicing Close Reading and Text-Dependent Questions, administer the November text-based writing assessment. Hold on to student work samples, but DO NOT score them. We will come together again and learn how to score the assessments in our next ELA Pilot training session. Handouts: November prompt, Guide to New Rubrics

30. Resources
View Common Core Standards and resources (Appendix A, B, C) View updates regarding the ELA Pilot View videos and articles on Close Reading Watch Common Core lessons in actual classrooms and access resources Access sample Close Reading passages and text-dependent questions Download sample Close Reading passages and text-dependent questions View Common Core lessons and supplemental materials. View updates and resources on assessment with CCSS

31. Final Thoughts
The Common Core Standards exist for all students. We must create new and powerful ways to make this access happen for all students. There is no one right way to have students work with text dependent questions. 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...are all powerful ways to work with students on this kind of evidence gathering and careful reading. Providing for the differing needs of students means providing and scaffolding supports differentially - not asking easier questions or substituting simpler text. 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...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 make this access happen for all students.

32. In Closing…
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