1. Reading and the Common Core
Common Core Parent Night
February 2014

2. Parent Questions
What can I do to help my child succeed in reading with the CCSS in place?
What should I be looking for when selecting books?
What reading strategies can I be doing with my child to ensure deep comprehension when reading complex literary and informational texts?

3. Common Core Anchor Standards for Reading
* Text Complexity Band

4. Text Complexity
What is this?

5. Research
What students can read, in terms of complexity is the greatest predictor of success in college.
K-12 texts have actually trended downward in difficulty in the last half century.
The difficulty of college textbooks has not decreased; in fact, it has increased since 1962.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science , and Technical Subjects. Common Core State Standards Initiative. English Language Arts Appendix A, Web. 7 Feb. 2014

6. How is Text Complexity Determined?
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Standard 10: Range, Quality, Text Complexity. Measuring Text Complexity: Three Factors. Web. 7 Feb. 2014
Quantitative - word length, word frequency, word difficulty, sentence length.
Qualitative - levels of meaning, levels of purpose, structure, organization, language conventionality, and language demand.
Reader & Task- How well is your child matched to the text s/he is reading? Are they interested in the text? Did they play a role in choosing it? Do they possess the necessary background knowledge to comprehend it?

7. Balance
The more difficult the skill or complex the concept, the less complex the text should be.
The more accessible the skill or concept, the more complex the text should be.
Be sure your child is reading a variety of text so they have the opportunity to transfer and build upon their learning. E.g. nonfiction, fiction, poems, visual devices, films, graphic novels.
Simplifying Text Complexity. Perf. Sarah Brown Wessling. Teaching Channel, n.d. Teachingchannel.org

8. Reading Strategies to do with your child:
Predicting
Discuss what good readers do when they read. They predict. They think about what may happen next. They see if they are correct, and if not, they change their thinking as they continue to read.
Suggested Text: Possum Magic by Mem Fox

9. Reading Strategies to do with your child
Inferencing
Readers use their prior knowledge (schema) and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations of the text.
Readers know to infer when the answers to their questions are not explicitly stated in the text.
Suggested text: A Child’s Anthology of Poetry edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword with Victoria Flournoy McCarthy

10. Reading Strategies to do with your child:
Questioning
Good readers ask questions - have inner conversations - as they read because it helps them understand what they are reading.
Nurture children's desire to wonder - it promotes active questioning.
e.g., discussions, reading aloud, coding text, burning questions, reading question books
Suggested Text: Where Fish Go in Winter and Answers to Other Great Mysteries by Amy Goldman Koss

11. Reading Strategies to do with your child:
Determining Importance with nonfiction text
* Make predictions with what they expect to learn
* activate their schema
* Use nonfiction conventions/features of nonfiction text to help us pull out “important” information
(labels, photographs, captions, comparisons, cutaways, maps, types of print, close ups, tables of contents, index, glossary)
Suggested Text: Local Newspaper, Child’s Magazine

12. Reading Strategies to do with your child:
Annotating Text
“Reading with a pencil” - making notes to oneself
Why?
use for discussion
use to help with writing
What does it help the reader do?
focus on the text
find evidence
keep track of thinking
Annotating Poster

13. Apply Reading Strategies:
* Your turn to practice using some of the reading strategies touched upon this evening.
Strategy Practice

14. Thank you for attending! Have a nice night!
This presentation and parent resources /strategy practice can be accessed on the Parent Resources Tab found at the DUSD Home Page.
Please write your questions on an index card and they will be answered on the Parent Resources Tab.
Thank you for attending! Have a nice night!