Common Core- Text Structure

Digging deeper into Common Core: RI5

One of my goals this school year is to REALLY learn the ELA standards; what they mean as well as how to take them to a more rigorous level.  In an earlier post, Digging Deeper into each Standard, I dove into the world of RL6.

In this post, I want to look at RI5 which deals with text structure.  I find it helpful to look at the College Career Readiness standard first because that is our ultimate end goal.

CCR: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (a section, chapter, scene, stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

Now for the standards K-8.  Looking at the vertical piece is extremely helpful because you can see how the standards build upon each other.

Now to dive deeper...  

A great start would be a quote from Lucy Calkins' Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement.  I am currently reading this book and it has some great information about the ELA standards.

"To analyze structure, do this: Look back over the text, and ask yourself if you could divide it into parts.  Look at the text as if you were in a plane, flying above it.  Instead of seeing fields divided by a ribbon of roads, you see paragraphs.  Think about the meanings in those paragraphs, about the different sort of work that is being done in one part of the text, another, and another.  Ask what each part does."

- Lucy Calkins

I really liked this analogy. :)

So text structure is more than identifying whether it is a compare, chronology, problem/solution, etc.  It is about how a text is shaped to help a reader better understand the information.  It is about preparing your brain to take in knew information by looking at structure (cover to cover, text features, sections, paragraphs etc.)  Authors are very strategic in how the set up their information.  There is a purpose to what is included and how it is arranged which, when carefully thought about, plays a huge role in comprehension of nonfiction texts.

Here are some resources I provided for my teachers to help them understand and teach text structure.

Teaching Text Structure

Hope this information is helpful.  I would love to hear from all of you.  How have you taught this standard?  What resources help you understand the new Common Core State Standards?

Antoinette :)

Common Core- Digging Deeper into each Standard

The BIG talk in the world of education is the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  It is such a big thing that 48 out of 50 states have adopted these standards at some level.  At least that what was said at the last training I attended.

Why have we moved to CCSS?  What do these standards really mean?
Upon reading some information from the CCSS website I found some lines that I felt really spell out why we are moving in this direction.  Here they are:

"As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century."
"As specified by CCSSO and NGA, the Standards are (1) research and evidence based, (2) aligned with college and work expectations, (3) rigorous, and (4) internationally benchmarked."

The rigorous piece is what I'd like to really speak about today.  How do we take these standards and teach them to the higher level in which they were created to be taught?  That's what I am hoping to find out through this journey that I would like to take with all of you.

So how to do this??  Fabulous question... My thought is to dive deeper and really look at what each standard is truly intended to teach.  I thought about starting with the first standard, but then right now I am working with a group of teachers on RL.6 so as crazy as it might seem, I'm starting there.

Hello RL.6!!!
The best way, I think, to begin tackling this standard is to understand where it starts and where it is going.  So Let's look at it vertically.

K-  With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
1-  Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
2-  Acknowledge difference in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
3-  Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
4-  Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narratives.
5-  Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
6-  Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
7-  Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
8-  Analyze how difference in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

This website gives a nice snapshot of the vertical alignment of the standards as well as a nifty (who uses that word... really? lol) highlighting feature for the difference amongst grade levels. http://rt3nc.org/objects/standards/cclitmap/ela.html

Here's a good video from YouTube which gives basic information about Perspective and Point of View:

I really liked this comment, but somehow lost the site I found it on.  Sorry site!!!  "In other words, how does where a writer or narrator is coming from (point of view) and going towards (purpose) affect what he/she writes (content and style)?"

So to me,

POV at K-2 is simply...

*  identifying that an author and/or illustrator tells a story

*  sometimes the person telling the story changes.

*  Dialogue also comes into play at this age level because that is   how we identify who is speaking.

POV at 3-5 goes into...

*  how POV of characters differ from each other as well as from the reader.

*  1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-person are introduced identified and elaborated on as to what role this plays in how the story unfolds.

Some thoughts I have been putting out there for teachers are...

*  How would the story have unfolded if told by another character's POV?

*  How would the story have been different if told in 1st person as opposed to 3rd?

*  Based on your POV, how would you have told the story differently?

*How did understanding the past experiences of the character help you understand his/her point of view in the story?

ABSOLUTELY LOVE this quote from ReadWriteThink.
"One of life's biggest challenges is accepting that there are numerous interpretations and that there is rarely oneright way to view the world. Literature can introduce characters who have learned to accept that different viewpoints exist, demonstrating how they persevere when faced with difficulties. Books can also change readers' perspectives about what they already know and extend their knowledge through new ways of seeing familiar things."
Doesn't that wrap RL.6 up in a nutshell??

Common Core website shout out time...  These sites have been VERY helpful to me with each standard.

Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System

Read Tennessee

What are your thoughts on Point of View and RL.6?  What are some things you are doing in your classrooms to teach this standard?  I would really appreciate hearing all of your teaching ideas as well as knowledge of this standard.  I really want these posts to be educational for everyone, including myself.
THANKS :)

Although this journey has been stressful and time-consuming thus far, I REALLY feel like we, as a nation, are moving in the right direction. 
Antoinette :)

Rigor and Relevance: Quad D Moments AND a Pinterest Find!!

After 6 full days of Rigor and Relevance training, I should be an expert, right??  Not so much!  I learned a tremendous amount during that time, but it is a little intimidating to know that I am one of 4 responsible for training my schools in Rigor and Relevance.  I have a decent handle on it, but one area that has always perplexed me is Quad D lessons.  When people think Quad D, they think projects (which in part, it is) and cross-curricular.  That type of teaching is wonderful and I encourage it as often as possible, but let's be realistic here... you can't do huge cross-curricular projects on a daily basis.  So... When I saw a full day class offered on Quad D, I signed up.  I needed to know more about this quadrant that so many of us are trying to strive towards.

You know me... I love a good quote.  Unfortunately, I am not sure who it belongs to.  I tried using Google, but no luck.

"Teaching is only as good as the learning that takes place."

With that being said, we learned that Quad D moments are experiences integrated into daily practice through short, quick activities.  That's just what I wanted to hear; incorporating Quad D into our daily teaching.  We also learned that it is instructional activities that raise the level of rigor (thinking) and relevance (application) and are aligned with the Rigor and Relevance Framework.  Click on the link to read Emily's post regarding this.

So I'm sitting there thinking, "Give me some examples.  I need to see some examples of Quad D moments."  Ask and you shall receive... Here are some quick activities to boost the Rigor and Relevance in your classroom:

A few others I liked:

Write to learn

Fix It

What if?

(What If? is my particular favorite because it is so quick and easy to use with everything.)

I consulted my good friend Google to see what I could find on Quad D moments.  Google is my friend because it has the answers to EVERYTHING (Well maybe except for the author of that quote. Or maybe it was just me searching the wrong things he he)!!  Google is also where I find a large percentage of what I teach in the classroom.

I stumbled upon this video clip which goes into Quad D moments briefly, advertises a resource which I am interested in finding more information on, and gives some examples.  Click on the image below to watch the video.

So I am out to learn as much as I can about the wonderful world of Quad D; especially the short, quick moments.  Do you all have any tips for me and the followers of 4321Teach?  What helpful information do you guys have on Rigor and Relevance and Quad D?

A PINTEREST FIND!!!

Still feeding my addiction to Pinterest, I found a poster of the writing conference acronym I posted about the other day.  Click here to view that post.  It was TAG with a very slight variation.  Click on the image below to go to the Pinterest page.

Thanks,