Similar to NY, this resource has offers many great examples and rubrics to follow in regards to close/critical reads. During our last group session, we studied this and continued to search for and evaluate texts we have collected:
http://www.criticalreading.com/
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Academic Vocabulary: What our Students Need to Know
As we are evaluating resources for exemplary close read texts, we are seeing an increased demand on students to be able to read at a higher level than they typically may be accustomed to. Through professional development we have been provided with throughout the school year as well as specific training in common core, we are working towards understanding academic vocabulary more, how it helps with the success of our students, and interventions to help students with the rigorous texts they are being faced with.
As a group, we read through "Words as Tools: Learning Academic Vocabulary as Language Acquisition" by William Nagy (Seattle Pacific University) and Dianna Townsend (University of Nevada, Reno). The abstract states:
There is a growing awareness of the importance of academic vocabulary, and more generally, of academic language proficiency, for students' success in school. There is also a growing body of research on the nature of the demands that academic language places on readers and writers, and on interventions to help students meet these demands. In this review, we discuss the role of academic vocabulary within academic language, examine recent research on
instruction in academic vocabulary, considering both general academic words and discipline-specific words, and offer our perspective on the current state of this research and recommendations on how to continue inquiry and to improve practice in this area. We use the metaphor of 'words as tool s' to reflect our understanding that instruction in
Academic vocabulary must approach words as means for communicating and thinking about disciplinary content, and must therefore provide students with opportunities to use the instructed words for these purposes as they are learning them.
Clearly, as educators, before we can introduce our students to great texts to dissect and understand, we have to make sure they have the confidence to handle the language they are, and will be, exposed to. The article is extremely helpful in guiding teachers to help students understand the characteristics of academic language, interventions to help students struggling with difficult texts, and what we're continuing to learn in the field of education in regards to language acquisition in our students.
The following table has helped us to critically review texts for appropriate close read materials and ensure we are preparing our students to be able to read, analyze, and communicate about them:
Interpersonal Stance Does the way this is written tell us anything about the
author or what they believe? Why or why not?
Information Load How many pieces or chunks of information are in
this sentence?
Why is there so much information packed into this?
Organization of Information What clues, words, and pieces of information did the
author give us so we can follow where this
paragraph is going?
Are there some clues/words that tell us about
relationships?
Are smaller ideas part of bigger ones?
Lexical Choices Do we see phrases we don't often use when we
speak?
Why are they here? Are there many different words
in the passage? Why do you think that is necessary?
What do the challenging words tell us that the easier
words may not?
Representational Congruence Do you see any words that represent a process or
something happening? Why would the author use
one word and not explain the whole process?
*Taken from: Reading Research Quarterly. 47, pp. 91-108. International Reading Association
As a group, we read through "Words as Tools: Learning Academic Vocabulary as Language Acquisition" by William Nagy (Seattle Pacific University) and Dianna Townsend (University of Nevada, Reno). The abstract states:
There is a growing awareness of the importance of academic vocabulary, and more generally, of academic language proficiency, for students' success in school. There is also a growing body of research on the nature of the demands that academic language places on readers and writers, and on interventions to help students meet these demands. In this review, we discuss the role of academic vocabulary within academic language, examine recent research on
instruction in academic vocabulary, considering both general academic words and discipline-specific words, and offer our perspective on the current state of this research and recommendations on how to continue inquiry and to improve practice in this area. We use the metaphor of 'words as tool s' to reflect our understanding that instruction in
Academic vocabulary must approach words as means for communicating and thinking about disciplinary content, and must therefore provide students with opportunities to use the instructed words for these purposes as they are learning them.
Clearly, as educators, before we can introduce our students to great texts to dissect and understand, we have to make sure they have the confidence to handle the language they are, and will be, exposed to. The article is extremely helpful in guiding teachers to help students understand the characteristics of academic language, interventions to help students struggling with difficult texts, and what we're continuing to learn in the field of education in regards to language acquisition in our students.
The following table has helped us to critically review texts for appropriate close read materials and ensure we are preparing our students to be able to read, analyze, and communicate about them:
Domains of Academic Language and Guiding Questions for Teachers
Language Domain Questions to Drive InstructionInterpersonal Stance Does the way this is written tell us anything about the
author or what they believe? Why or why not?
Information Load How many pieces or chunks of information are in
this sentence?
Why is there so much information packed into this?
Organization of Information What clues, words, and pieces of information did the
author give us so we can follow where this
paragraph is going?
Are there some clues/words that tell us about
relationships?
Are smaller ideas part of bigger ones?
Lexical Choices Do we see phrases we don't often use when we
speak?
Why are they here? Are there many different words
in the passage? Why do you think that is necessary?
What do the challenging words tell us that the easier
words may not?
Representational Congruence Do you see any words that represent a process or
something happening? Why would the author use
one word and not explain the whole process?
*Taken from: Reading Research Quarterly. 47, pp. 91-108. International Reading Association
Friday, March 23, 2012
Great Science Texts
Beyond the databases....
As we ventured onto the web to search for some exemplary texts related to science specifically, we found many great ones to use. Here's just a few we'd like to share:
As we ventured onto the web to search for some exemplary texts related to science specifically, we found many great ones to use. Here's just a few we'd like to share:
Ready, Unplug, Drive
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2008/10/ready-unplug-drive-2/
Topic: Efficiency and alternative energies
Flu River
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2009/10/flu-river-2/
Topic: Drug Resistance
Oil Spills in Marine Environment
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2009/10/flu-river-2/
Topic: Environment, Energy Resources, Oil Spill
In conjunction with:
The Gulf Oil Spill: One Year Later
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3756049
Getting the Dirt on Carbon
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2009/03/getting-the-dirt-on-carbon-2/
Topic: The carbon cycle; elements
Implantable Device propels itself Through bloodstream
Topic Electricity and Magnetism
Galileo
http://library.thinkquest.org/29033/history/galileo.htm
Topic: Nature of science, gravity, falling bodies, planetary motion
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Information at our Fingertips: Databases
We have learned this week that New York State provides our schools with excellent resources for teachers and students to use. The databases are available to us through our school library website at http://nvhslibrary.weebly.com
We chose to really focus on and dissect three of the five available databases this week: Ebsco, Grolier, and GaleInfotrac. The databases provide a wealth of information for teachers to pull from and are guaranteed credible, reliable, and current information. Each company hosting and supporting the information (Scholastic, Gale) are working hard to ensure their content is aligned with the new standards. All three databases allow students and teachers to read directly from the screen, print a copy, and/or listen aloud to the text selected. Students and teachers can create their own accounts through two of the databases where they can store their research materials and quickly go back to retrieve the resources at any point. In addition, here are more of the great aspects we found when searching through the databases for great informational texts:
We presented this information to our Social Studies department during our Superintendent's conference day Friday, March 16th. They were extremely enthusiastic learning about the information they have access to and were anxious to get started in picking out materials they could use from the databases for close reads.
We also presented to our Middle School faculty during their meeting time on Wednesday, March 21. We created a site for them to go to where they could easily access the databases that are relevant to their grade levels. The site can be found at: http://nvmschool.weebly.com Many expressed that their frustrations with the common core included not knowing where to begin to find great informational texts.. The website was very well received and the teachers were appreciative of the space they could go to and search for informational text to use for close reads. Many teachers shared examples of what they could use and how they could see a place for the databases in their classes.
We chose to really focus on and dissect three of the five available databases this week: Ebsco, Grolier, and GaleInfotrac. The databases provide a wealth of information for teachers to pull from and are guaranteed credible, reliable, and current information. Each company hosting and supporting the information (Scholastic, Gale) are working hard to ensure their content is aligned with the new standards. All three databases allow students and teachers to read directly from the screen, print a copy, and/or listen aloud to the text selected. Students and teachers can create their own accounts through two of the databases where they can store their research materials and quickly go back to retrieve the resources at any point. In addition, here are more of the great aspects we found when searching through the databases for great informational texts:
- Each article that appeared provides a quick abstract for teachers and students to easily read through for main ideas/key words and subjects
- Each article provides a Lexile reading level which is crucial for us to ensure our students are being challenged as well as fitted with texts that will boost their confidence in reading. Although our school is more familiar with the language of Fontis and Pinnell, we have found a chart that compares the two different leveled readings to one another for teachers to use as a guide: http://weblink.scsd.us/~liblinks/Reading_Grade-Level_Comparison_Chart.pdf
- The databases provide varied resources related to the search topic: journal articles, magazine articles, pictures, videos, websites. This allows for information beyond the text to strengthen what has been read and to check for understanding.
- The articles provide links to additional resources from magazine, websites, etc. that are directly linked to the search term and are already checked for credibility.
We presented this information to our Social Studies department during our Superintendent's conference day Friday, March 16th. They were extremely enthusiastic learning about the information they have access to and were anxious to get started in picking out materials they could use from the databases for close reads.
We also presented to our Middle School faculty during their meeting time on Wednesday, March 21. We created a site for them to go to where they could easily access the databases that are relevant to their grade levels. The site can be found at: http://nvmschool.weebly.com Many expressed that their frustrations with the common core included not knowing where to begin to find great informational texts.. The website was very well received and the teachers were appreciative of the space they could go to and search for informational text to use for close reads. Many teachers shared examples of what they could use and how they could see a place for the databases in their classes.
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