How To Use Informational Text In Your Classroom

Whether you are reading this at the beginning or end of your work day, take a moment and do a mental "reading list" inventory.  What works of fiction are you currently reading?  During the day, how many news articles, websites, journal articles, non-fiction books, emails, documents, directions, graphs, charts, maps and diagrams will you be looking at to gather information?  What kind of writing and talking will you do? Will any of it require you to go back into the "informational text" materials to find information to support what you are writing or talking about?  I suspect that many of you spend a great deal of your professional and personal time focusing more on the "informational" side of text then the "literary" side of text - maybe by choice, maybe by necessity.  I know I carry my Kindle around just to grab a few minutes of "story time" for myself during the day.   Students in grades k-12 also need to experience a blend of literary and informational text, in many forms and across all subject areas, to help them access knowledge and ideas they will need to be successful in life.

Ohio's New Learning Standards for ELA/Literacy, drawing from the Common Core ELA Standards for Literacy, include the use of informational text in all grades and content areas as a way for students to gather and build knowledge.  Another way of looking at this it to consider yourself a teacher of the language of your content area.  What skills do students need to be able to read and write like a scientist, a historian or an artist? What strategies might you help them learn to access features of informational text - like charts, infographics, maps, diagrams, tags, interactive data tables?  One of our Bay Village Schools District-Wide Goals focuses on the use of Informational Text across our district. To help you with your understanding of this goal, and to begin to share instructional strategies that will help your students access the "language" of your content area, I have compiled some resources for you.

Define  Informational Text:
What informational text will students be able to use to build knowledge in your classroom?  How will you provide access to a variety of informational text?  What strategies might you help your students learn?

• Using Close Reading skills 
• Understanding content vocabulary in context
• Using a variety of rich, complex text

What might this look like in a classroom?
Mr. Hossak's 5th grade Classroom (EngageNY)
Exemplar Lesson Plans - scroll down to see Informational Text (achievethecore.org)

Guiding Questions For Instruction Using Informational Text.  (based on achievethecore.org - Instructional Practice Guides)

• How does the unit allow students to persist in efforts to seek evidence for their responses by returning to the info text when discussing or collaborating?
• What opportunities are provided for students to build on each other's observations or insights around a piece of informational text - including charts, maps, primary docs etc.?
• What tools/strategies will students be able to use to help them gain content knowledge from informational text?
• How are questions and tasks designed to help students build academic vocabulary (content or domain specific vocabulary and syntax)?
• How are questions and tasks designed to require students to use details from the text to demonstrate understanding and support their ideas about the text?
• What factors have been considered to make sure the text used is at or above the complexity expected for the grade level?

Resources
STANDARDS

• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Reading Informational Text k-5 
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Reading Informational Text 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Social Studies Literacy gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Science and Technical Subj. gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Content Area Writing - Gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Writing gr k-5

ARTICLES

• Engage NY - NY Dept of Ed - Selecting Authentic Texts Resource Page
• ASCD Article - The Case for Informational Text (Neil Duke. EdLeadership. March 2004)
• ASCD Article - Closing In On Close Reading (Nancy Boyles. EdLeadership. Dec 2012)
• University of North Carolina Teacher Resources - Reading Info Text k-5
• Informational Text Resource Toolkit - INFOhio
• Building World Knowledge - Getting Children To Read and Enjoy Info Text - Reading Rockets
• Literacy Implementation Guidance for ELA/Literacy Standards - International Reading Association
• Reading Skills - An Introduction to Visual Literacy ( University of North Carolina)
• The Fine Arts 21st Century Skills Map  ( National Art Education Association)

INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING

• Reading Like A Historian - Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) 
• What's In A Graph? Science NetLinks
• Writing Technical Instructions - ReadWriteThink
• ASCD Book Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction - C2 Reading In the Mathematics Classroom (Diane Metsisto)
• Guide For Writing Text Based Questions - achievethecore.org
• k-8 Lexiled Reading Passages - informational text  readworks.org
• Text Rater website - need to cut/paste in a text sample to assess complexity
• Reading Through the Arts - Kennedy Center ArtsEdge
• Pennsylvania Dept of Education - Phys Ed and Literacy Resource Page
• Think Literacy - Cross Curricular Ideas for Phys Ed developed by Calif. Dept of Ed
• Exemplars of Close Reading - Achievethecore.org gr 3-12
• Exemplar Units For Close Reading - EngageNY gr 6-12

ADDITIONAL BLOG POSTS

• Char's Blog Post on Finding A Balance Between Fiction and Non-Fiction - with lots of Reading and Vocabulary Strategies.
• Char's Blog Post on How To Teacher Readers To Read For A Purpose - with lots of Close Reading Strategy links

Fiction vs Non-Fiction How Do You Find A Balance In Your Classroom?

Once upon a time, there was a teacher who had a magic clock.  Everyday, she would carefully take the polished brass clock down from the classroom wall and whisper the secret words (they are secret...so no, I am not telling them to you)  Gently, she would hang the clock back on the wall before her students arrived for the day.  This clock adjusted time during the school day...giving her exactly the right amount of time she needed to complete all of her activities, and still send the students home promptly at the end of the day.   Don't we all wish that we had a magic clock?  But, we don't, so the struggle begins to figure out how to include time in our teaching day for extended reading of fiction and non-fiction content materials while still meeting all the other content standards we are responsible for.

Here is my secret for "time stretching".
First, begin to plan your units on a web rather than a linear unit plan.  Put your main theme in the middle. Around it add specific content area standards you will address in the unit. From there, look at ways to integrate rich reading experiences. This may include finding a fiction book that has a theme, setting, plot line or character that connects to your content standards.  Then, look beyond your textbooks for content based textual reading for your students.  Sources include websites, e-zines, traditional magazines, and Infohio Gale Data bases.   Use a combination of reading strategies to expose students to the broadest range of materials.  I used jigsaw reading, providing a selection of 4-5 articles on a similar topic.  Students worked out of a "home group" with each student choosing a different article.  They then grouped with students who had read the same article to talk about key points and discuss questions or ideas they had while reading. They get back together with their" home group" to each share again.  This encourages Close Reading.  What other reading strategies can you think of to use with your class?  You can even extend the web planning idea to include related standards for other content areas.  I worked with the English teacher on my team to plan an integrated science unit on genetics around the novel Ghost Boy by Ian Lawrence.  The lead character has Albanism. The supporting characters, members of a circus freak show, exhibit a variety of other genetic disorders. The novel was a good starting point for lessons on genetic mutation. In addition, we looked at biodiversity and ethics.  The ELA teacher focused on the strong character development, identifying plot conflict and descriptive language.  The unit also included a research project that covered standards for ELA and science. Students were given credit in both of our classes.

Here is a sample of a unit web using a 4th grade Social Studies Topic - Heritage.  The book and article resources surround the colored standards.

Resources:

• My 4th grade Unit Plan - with hyperlinks to books and article resources
• List of Children's Books By Theme (Reading Rockets)
• Scholastic Book Search Wizard (Search by Lexile, reading level, theme)
• Books by Theme (Apples4theTeacher)
• Boston Public Library Book Lists for Kids (Magazines Too)
• Carnegie Public Library - All Teen Book Lists (fiction and non-fiction)
• Cuyahoga County Library Teen Page
• Integrating Literacy with Content (ASCD EdLeadership 2002)
• Using Graphic Organizers in Literature Based Science Instruction (Carol Cox, Reading Rockets)
• Top 10 Resources On Literacy in the Content Area (Reading Rockets)
• Changing Our Minds - Keith Oakley  (Research on benefits of reading fiction - UC Berkely)
• Teacher Blog - Why and How I Teach with Historical Fiction (Tarry Lindquist)
• eMints Homepage for Theme Based Units - include many resources for fiction/non-fiction ideas

Article Resources

• Infohio Resources (requires a password if you are accessing this from home)
• Science News for Kids
• National Geographic News for Kids
• George Mason University - History News Network
• Sciencedaily.com 

How Do We Teach Readers to Read For A Purpose?

I am reading a number of books right now.  The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey is a book I am reading for pleasure. The story is set in Alaska in the early 1900s. In my mind, I can picture the struggles of the childless couple who are homesteading in the Alaskan Wilderness. As I read, I notice details the author has included to help me form mental pictures of the characters and their motivations. I look for the "bread crumb" plot trail that is being left through the story that keeps me guessing about what might be coming next.    Reading for pleasure is the first level of reading. It is an invitation from the author to listen in on his thoughts, interact with his ideas and come to our own conclusions.   Most of the reading our students will be expected to do needs to go beyond reading for pleasure.  As teachers, we need to provide our students with multiple purposes for reading. This will help  our students to see that sometimes it is ok to read for a simple purpose, for example to identify basic ideas or find specific information. Reading for information teaches students to become better skim readers, hunting for key words and dates. Skim readers may not even begin at the beginning!   We also need to show them that sometimes they need to become more "reflective" readers so that they will not miss out on that opportunity to really process the ideas being shared by the author or make connections between concepts to form big ideas.

I am also reading  Rubbish, The Archaeology of Garbage by William Rathie and Cullen Murphy. This is a non-fiction book detailing the research conducted by the University of Arizona's Garbage Project.  It is giving me new insights into my own spending practices and making me much more aware of what I am throwing away and why.  The book is full of data tables and data analysis. This type of information serves as a series of  "reading speedbumps", forcing the reader to stop and reread, question and process the information being presented before moving on in the text.  By offering our students material that introduces them to new points of view or scientific research, we give them a chance to compare the author's world view to their own and make decisions about how to stretch and change their thinking based on this new information.  By exposing students to content that is unfamiliar to them, we allow them to process the new information and make connections to their own knowledge. In order to be a truly productive reader, students must learn how to make a commitment to the author, understanding their own purpose in reading and the author's purpose for writing.

By middle school, students should be reading 50% literature and 50% non-fiction. By high school this ratio jumps to 30% fiction and 70% non-fiction.   Teaching Close Reading strategies will help our students understand their own purpose for reading and begin to consider the author's purpose for writing.

Resources

• The Art of Close Reading - Part 1 (CriticalThinking.org)
• Reading for a Purpose - in the Content Area (ReadWriteThink)
• Reading for a Purpose - a lesson for secondary reading instruction
• Teaching Students To Identify Author Purpose (Learner.org)
• Determining an Author's Purpose Chart
• Ohio Resource Center - lessons and articles related to teaching how to identify Author's Purpose
• Helping Young Readers Become Thoughful Readers  The importance of modeling Close Reading for young readers by "thinking outloud"
• Critical Reading vs Critical Thinking (Dan Kurland)
• Close Reading Exemplars - from Achievethecore.org (grades 3-11)

How to Write Text Based Questions...and Why We Need To Start Doing This Now!

Shifting.   There is a lot of shifting going on in education - shifting content, shifting funding, shifting expectations, shifting responsibilities, shifting blame, shifting accountability.   The most important shift, the one that each of us actually has some control over, is the shift in thinking about how we teach our students.  The authors of the  Common Core Curriculum have identified 12 shifts in thinking that must occur if the true intent of the depth of understanding and rigorous learning embedded in the Common Core are to be realized.  Many teachers are waiting to see what the "new assessments" will look like.  They are also waiting to see the final model curriculum or the finalized standards.   The message from the ODE is DON'T WAIT...start changing the way you teach now and your students will be prepared for the new assessments.

For the next few weeks I will focus on some of these shifts, beginning with the ELA focus on Text Based Questions and Close Reading Skills.   Starting in elementary school, students need to be given opportunities to read literary and content based materials.  The shift is in how, as teachers, we "tee up" this reading experience for our students.  Instead of giving students a summary of the reading before they read it, we should instead offer up some "essential questions" to help guide their reading. This allows students to struggle with the reading to begin to build their own understanding of the content.  Instead of asking students to "take notes" on the reading, we should model how to identify patterns in the text, question what the author intended by including a passage or word in the text, and make inferences based on prior knowledge.  This is a shift from the teacher as interpreter to the teacher as moderator in the discussion between the author and the student.  The kinds of questions that we ask about the text also needs to shift away from questions that encourage students to draw on their own opinion or personal experience without making any direct connection to the text to questions that require students to go back into the text to support their answer.  I chose the HS sample to include in the blog because almost everyone is familiar with the Gettysburg Address.  In the resource links that follow, you will find similar examples for elementary and middle school classrooms as well.

The Gettysburg Address - Sample HS Lesson Using Text Based Questions and Close Reading 
Text Specific Essential Question - To Guide the Teacher 

• What did those who fought at Gettysburg do that those who have gathered cannot?

Text Based Student Question - to Guide the Student

• What does Lincoln describe as the impact of those who fought at Gettysburg?

Non-text Specific Essential Question - Requires NO knowledge of the Gettysburg Address, focus is on individual opinion and student experience.  The second question doesn't even really go with the theme of the Gettysburg address.

• Lincoln says that the nation is dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.” 
• Did Lincoln think that the North was going to “pass the test” that the civil war posed?

Non-text Specific Student Question - Does not require the student to go back into the passage to answer this. Student doesn't even have to know about the Gettysburg Address.

• Why is equality an important value to promote?

Resources:

• Common Core in ELA - Shift 4  Text Based Answers -Video and Discussion Guide ( Engage NY)
• Curriculum Exemplars - by grade band. Each lesson is a Close Reading Lesson with vocabulary included in the lesson.   The HS Lesson on The Gettysburg Address was used by Michael Cohen( Achieve) as an example of how to begin to think about Text Based Questions - and the Appendix 1 of this lesson includes examples of non -text based questions.
• Common Core Instructional Shifts 1-6 to teach ELA  pdf with a brief description of the 6 shifts in instructional practice that need to occur to teach Common Core effectively.
• How to Do Close Reading -  The Writing Center at Harvard
• How to Do Close Reading - The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Focus is more on having a conversation with the author - asking questions as you read, noticing details and facts, drawing conclusions.
• Example of Close Reading - YouTube Video using Oh The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss
• Ohio Resource Center - Close Reading Resource Links