determine importance make a - WSRA...Bennett • Page 6 of 16 Showing kids the authentic ways you interact with text will not only encourage them to read more, it will also give them

Bennett • Page 1 of 16

“To find the core of a [classroom], don’t look at its rulebook …. Look at the way the people in it spend their time — how they relate to each other, how they tangle with ideas. Look for the contradictions between words and practice, with the fewer the better. Try to estimate the frequency and the honesty of its deliberations. Though it will always want to spruce up for visitors, its hour-by-hour functioning is what is important. Judge the [classroom] not on what it says but on how it keeps.” —Sizer and Sizer, The Students Are Watching (1999, 18).

Session B2: Friday, February 6, 1-2:30 PM

Adolescent Grit:

Daily Instructional Habits that Help Students (and Teachers) Persevere

WSRA Convention 2015 • Milwaukee, WI Sam Bennett, Instructional Coach • [email protected] • twitter: @sambennett2

Long-term Learning Targets

• Supporting targets

Questions/Reflection:

I can determine importance in order to articulate what matters most to student grit on a daily basis.

• I can make a connection between my beliefs and what the research says.

I can describe patterns of instruction that will help me help students learn.

Foundational Beliefs (Big Ideas) of This Work:

§ Whoever is doing the reading, writing, and talking is doing the thinking. Learning is a consequence of thinking. § Teaching is personal, but not private. § Teachers matter most to student learning. (What we do. What we ask them to do. What we say. How we allow

them to talk to each other. How we listen. How we structure time. How we structure curriculum. How we acknowledge students. How we give feedback. How we ask them to think about themselves and their own learning. Teachers determine the weather. You have to trust yourself and feel trusted to help students learn.) It bears repeating: Teachers matter most to student learning.

§ Teaching is an incredibly complex endeavor. No one has it nailed. There are always ways to get better for students.

§ Everyone does the best they can until they know better, and then they do better. § We are smarter together.


You can see more videos of Cris in action with kids at Heinemann’s Digital Campus (http://www.heinemann.com/digitalCampus/courses.aspx)

Adolescent Reading RX: What to Do When Teen Readers Can’t or Won’t

by Cris Tovani and Samantha Bennett

or in the video series:

Talk to Me: Conferring to Engage, Differentiate, and Assess 6-12 (2012, Stenhouse)

or read more about this work:

That Workshop Book: New Systems and Structures for Classrooms that Read, Write, and Think by Samantha Bennett (2007, Heinemann)

So, What Do They Really Know?: Assessment that Informs Teaching and Learning by Cris Tovani (2011, Stenhouse)

When What 1-1:30

1:30-2:25

2:25-2:30

Opening: Introductions, Reading & Agenda Text-Walk * Developing a “clear and understandable vision” of our work today based

on learning targets -- what do I know? What do I wonder? * Synthesize – Top 3 practices that matter most * Read to find support and build background knowledge: Which researcher’s

got my back? - articulate NOT defend What do students need most on a daily basis in order to develop grit? Mini-lesson: 10,000 hours. Intentional Planning for Use of time – Workshop Pie ; Types of engagement - what do you need to dig into a task or text for an extended amount of time? Worktime: Read: Cris Planning Documents – build your background knowledge – what do you notice about these unit plans – how do they correlate to your list for digging in for extended amounts of time? • Catch: Purpose – what this looks like in action (Cris opening video)

o Write/talk – implications for engagement in worktime • Catch: Towards Mastery – what this looks like in action (Cris conferring)

o Write/talk – implications for engagement in worktime • Catch: Structure for Autonomy - what this looks like in action (Student

conversation) o Write/talk: implications for engagement in worktime

Debrief: What did you figure out? Debrief: Take Aways & Closing

• WRITE: big take away from today? Implications for your planning, assessment, instruction this spring and next school year?


Choice 1: Research on the Power of Feedback

From Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn by John Hattie and Gregory Yates (meta-analysis/literature review)

In order to maximize the impact of feedback on learning:

1. Focus on how feedback is received rather than how it is given 2. Feedback makes transparent the criteria for success related to the learning goals for the

student 3. Feedback cues a learner’s attention to the task and effective task-related strategies

(away from self-focus) 4. Feedback engages learner at or just above their current level of functioning 5. Feedback challenges the learner to invest effort in setting challenging goals 6. Learning environment must be open to errors and to disconfirmation 7. Peer feedback provides a valuable platform for elaborative discourse. Given

opportunities, students readily LEARN appropriate methods and rules by which respectful peer feedback can be harnessed (check out Austin’s Butterfly on YouTube)

8. Feedback from learners (talk, work, etc.) cues teachers to risks & changes they need to make to improve planning, instruction & assessment

From: How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students by Susan Brookhart (2008)

How to Know Whether Your Feedback is Good

Student response is the criterion against which you can evaluate your own feedback. Your feedback is good if it gets the following results:

• Your students do learn – their work does improve • Your students become more motivated – they believe they can learn, they want to learn,

and they take more control over their own learning. • Your classroom becomes a place where feedback, including constructive criticism, is

valued and viewed as productive

Focus, comparison, function, and valence are choices about what to say in your feedback. You also have choices about how you say things – about clarity, specificity, and tone.

Feedback Focus:

Purpose: • To describe specific qualities of the work in relation to the learning targets • To make observations about students’ learning process and strategies that will

help them figure out how to improve • To foster student self-efficacy by drawing connections between students’

work and their mindful, intentional efforts • To avoid personal comments

• Examples of Good Feedback Focus Examples of Bad Feedback Focus • Making comments about the

strengths and weaknesses of a performance

• Making comments about the work process you observed or recommendations about a work process or study strategy that would

• Making comments that bypass the student (e.g. “This is hard” instead of “You did a good job because…”

• Making criticisms without any insights into how to improve

• Making personal compliments or digs (e.g. “How could you do that?” or


help improve the work • Making comments that position the

student as the one who chooses to do the work

• Avoiding personal comments

“You idiot!”)

Kinds of Comparisons Used in Feedback:

Purpose: • Usually, to compare student work with established criteria • Sometimes, to compare a student’s work with his or her own past

performance • Rarely, to compare a student’s work with the work of other students

Examples of Good Kinds of Comparisons Examples of Bad Kinds of Comparisons • Comparing work to student-

generated rubrics • Comparing student work to rubrics

that have been shared ahead of time

• Encouraging a reluctant student who has improved, even through the work is not yet good

• Putting up wall charts that compare students with one another

• Giving feedback on each student’s work according to different criteria or no criteria

Feedback Function:

Purpose (for Formative Assessment): • To describe student work • To avoid evaluating or “judging” student work in a way that would stop

students from trying to improve

Examples of Good Feedback Function Examples of Bad Feedback Function • Identifying for students the strengths

and weaknesses in the work • Expressing what you observe in the

work

• Putting a grade on work intended for practice or formative purposes

• Telling students the work is “good” or “bad”

• Giving rewards or punishments • Giving general praise or general

critcism

Feedback Specificity:

Purpose: • To give guidance but not do the work for the student • To give suggestions that are specific enough so that the student can take

concrete next steps

Examples of Good Feedback Specificity Examples of Bad Feedback Specificity • Using a lot of nouns and descriptive

adjectives • Describing concepts or criteria • Describing learning strategies that

may be useful

• Using a lot of pronouns (this, that) • Copyediting or correcting every error • Making vague suggestions (study

harder)


Choice 2: RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF READERS

Reading guru Richard Allington lays down the gauntlet for us in his article: “Every Child, Every Day.” (Educational Leadership, March 2012). (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar12/vol69/num06/Every-Child,-Every-Day.aspx)

If you want students to read more and read better, we must intentionally plan for them to do it EVERY DAY. Each day students must:

Allington’s Challenges 1. Read something s/he chooses.

2. Read accurately.

3. Read something s/he understands.

4. Write about something personally meaningful.

5. Talk with peers about reading and writing.

6. Listen to a fluent adult read aloud.

What are the keys to developing readers that have “critical literacy skills?”

Cris Tovani (Education Week Blog, 2012) From: Edweek.org

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2012/02/response_ways_to_help_our_students_become_better_readers_part_two.html

All Readers Deserve to Get Better.

People who read well, read often. Sometimes I get so focused on struggling readers that I forget about the kids who can read well, but choose not to. Students who don't show growth over time aren't always the strugglers. Even good readers improve when they are exposed to the following teaching behaviors.

Carve out reading time during class in all content areas.

Good readers make time to read every day. People who don't read well often wait for others to tell them what the reading is about. If we have kids who won't read on their own, we have to make time in class for them to practice. As students read, the teacher is then freed up to confer with individuals or work with small groups. In essence, make differentiation manageable.

There are no short cuts here. No one gets better at something by watching someone else do it. Ironically, the kids who need to read the most get the fewest school opportunities to do it. In the haste to cover content, kids are robbed of reading chances. Simply reading the required text aloud or telling students what the content is about won't grow readers.

Model how to construct meaning.

All readers need mentors to learn from, and to some degree, every teacher can be a mentor when it comes to comprehension instruction. Take a minute to consider what you do to comprehend. Do you reread the entire text or only selected parts based on a specific purpose? Do you hold your thinking by filling out worksheets or by annotating text? Do you demonstrate your comprehension by turning in a graphic organizer or do you actually use it to complete a task? Do your questions drive what you read or do you read to answer someone else's questions?


Showing kids the authentic ways you interact with text will not only encourage them to read more, it will also give them power and independence to think in your class.

Provide some choice.

Choice drives engagement. People who like to read have some choice in the matter. Struggling readers are often told what and how to read. Providing choice in the classroom doesn't mean that everyone has to be in a different book all the time. Sometimes choice comes in the form of letting kids pick from two different articles. Maybe students get to choose how they group themselves when it's time to share. Perhaps choice comes in the way students show their understanding.

All students deserve to grow as readers. Creating conditions where kids have time to read and opportunities to learn how experts construct meaning is a good start. In addition, we honor the learner's individuality by providing some options for choice. Who knows? These three suggestions might be the spark that reignites students' desire to read that will ultimately lead to better comprehension


Choice 3: Research on the Needs of English Language Learners Principles and Goals for Succeeding with English Language Learners

Aida Walqui, WestEd Quality Teaching for English Learners Project

Principles •goals

Explanation • Can look like…

1. Sustain Academic Rigor

• Promote deep disciplinary knowledge

• Engage students in generative disciplinary concepts and skills

Do not “dumb down” academic challenge & complex subject matter – support access and engagement to complexity by: • Using a variety of accessible text (i.e. Dorling Kindersley books, Time Magazine, Joy Hakim,

Seymour Simon, etc.) • Use of long-term targets that sit at the CORE OF THE DISCIPLINE (see Wigging/McTighe Four

Filters) and assessments with outside-world purpose and audience • Ensure no day lives in isolation – every day builds to deepen understanding of long-term

targets – stay focused on central ‘core of the discipline’ ideas (represented by long-term targets of the unit)

• Balance of daily learning targets: verbs that attend to knowledge acquisition, skill building, and synthesis/application towards demonstrating understanding

2. Hold High Expectations • Engage students in

tasks that provide high challenge and high support

• Engage students (and teachers) in the development of their own expertise

• Make criteria for quality work clear to all

• Practice empathy when planning a unit/lesson: if you were learning this same topic in a foreign language. what materials and supports might you need to make meaning and learn the content/skills?

• Confer with students to figure out what they get and what they need next to grow – allow them to surprise you

• Use a variety of texts to provide access to the topic • Build in time for talk – if you have 24 students in the room, you have 25 teachers • Learning targets are the same for ALL learners – materials to access the targets are NOT the

same • Have clear criteria for success – models of product and process that meet the learning

targets • Time used for self-assessment and peer-critique

3. Engage Students in Quality Interactions

• Engage students in sustained interactions with teachers and peers

• Focus interactions on the construction of knowledge

• Build in time for talk – if you have 24 students in the room, you have 25 teachers • Time used for self-assessment and peer-critique • Design performance-based activities to build background knowledge and synthesize ideas

like Socratic seminars, science talks, debates, • Provide time for feedback and analysis after the performance based events – self-

assessment to knowledge, skill, and understanding based learning targets. • Along with self and peer assessment, add a layer of teacher feedback - label the

processes/thinking students did that helped build their understanding (See Cris Tovani’s Group Talk Feedback Graphic Organizer as an example” +/Quotes/-“) Check out the work of Maria Nichols and Peter Johnston too!

4. Sustain a Language Focus

• Promote language learning in meaningful contexts

• Promote disciplinary language use

• Amplify rather than simplify communications

• Address specific language issues judiciously

• Students need models of process and product (whole group, small group and individually) in order to apprentice into the English language

• Focus on language issues in meaningful contexts and activities – i.e.: • during conferring when discussing a text, • have students keep personalized vocabulary lists and a system/structure to go

back to them overtime • Provide students with access to a variety of texts that USE the disciplinary vocabulary in

context – with as many textual/graphic supports as possible – charts, diagrams, graphics, photos, etc., i.e. the term “short” circuit will need to be read about, discussed, drawn, discussed, constructed, discussed, and so forth.

• Confer with individuals to figure out what they get and what they need next to grow – being “judicious” means the teacher understands that not every single learner needs the same vocabulary list/language supports

• For teacher feedback: focus on fluency in production first: does the student understand the purpose of the assignment and the genre format? Then focus on ideas and logical presentation, then issues of complexity (sentence combining, transitions, etc.) and lastly: spelling and other small editing goals.

5. Develop Quality Curriculum

• Structure opportunities to scaffold learning, incorporating the goals above

• Design units with compelling contexts: problem-based with connections to the ‘outside world’ and an authentic purpose and audience for student work

• Learn, honor and build on the knowledge students bring from their families and their communities

• Confer with students to learn their individual stories • Track multiple measures of data – student talk and student work as well as test data to build

a complete picture of them as learners, thinkers, and humans


Choice 4: RESEARCH ON MOTIVATION AND ENGAGEMENT

From Drive by Daniel Pink (2009, Riverhead Books)

Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money – the carrot and stick apporach. That’s a mistake. The secret to high performance and satisfaction – at work, at school, and at home – is the deeply human need to direct our own lives (autonomy), to learn and create new things (mastery) , and to do better by ourselves and our world (purpose).

Autonomy Our “default setting” is to be autonomous and self directed. Unfortunately, circumstances – including outdated notions of “management” – often conspire to change that default setting. To encourage the type of behavior that enables high-performance…people need autonomy over task (what they do), time (when they do it), team (who they do it with), and technique (how they do it). Companies that offer autonomy, sometimes in radical doses, are outperforming their competitors. (p. 207)

Mastery Only engagement can produce mastery – becoming better at something that matters. And the pursuit of mastery, an important but often dormant part of our third drive, has become essential to making one’s way in the economy. Mastery begins with “flow” – optimal experiences when the challenges we face are exquisitely matched to our abilities. Mastery is a mindset: It requires the capacity to see your abilities not as finite, but as infinitely improvable. Mastery is a pain: it demands effort, grit, and deliberate practice. And mastery is an asymptote: it’s impossible to fully realize, which makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring. (p. 208)

Purpose The first two legs of the Type I tripod, autonomy and mastery, are essential. But for proper balance we need a third leg – purpose, which provides a context for its two mates. Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more. The most deeply motivated people – not to mention those who are most productive and satisfied – hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves. …From the moment that human beings first started into the sky, contemplated their place in the universe, and tried to create something that bettered the world and outlasted their lives, we have been purpose seekers. “Purpose provides activation energy for living,” psychologist Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi told me in an interview. “I think that evolution has had a hand in selecting people who had a sense of doing something beyond themselves.” (pp.133-134)

From 4 Secret Keys to Student Engagement by Robyn Jackson and Allison Zmuda: (Ed Leadership, September 2014)

1. Provide Clarity 2. Offer a Relevant Context 3. Create a Supportive Classroom

Culture 4. Provide the Appropriate Challenge


From Motivating Young Adolescents by Rick Wormelli (Ed Leadership, Sept. 2014) Top 12 Demotivators

1. Being told how important today's lesson will be in high school and beyond. (Instead, help kids live this one week of their lives powerfully.)

2. Teachers who talk the whole class period or who speak in long paragraphs when disciplining. 3. Complex assignments that you don't have the skills to complete and that have no clear

evaluative criteria. 4. Being told what you're probably feeling and thinking, even if it's accurate. 5. Teachers who see teaching middle school as just something to do until a high school position

opens up. (Students can tell when they're not a teacher's preferred age group.) 6. Fs, zeroes, and other indicators of failure. 7. Spending the day working on weaknesses, without identifying and using strengths. 8. Being treated like elementary school students. (No more requiring students to march to the

cafeteria with their fingers pressed to their lips or clapping hands at the front of the room in a cute rhythm that students must repeat.)

9. Anyone belittling your strong emotional response to something minor in your life. 10. Classes that claim to be relevant to your life but that deny you access to personal

technology during lessons. 11. Unwavering adherence to pacing guides or program fidelity, regardless of individual needs

and talents. 12. Sarcasm.

From Engaging Schools by the National Research Council / National Academy of Sciences (2004)

An Engaging Learning Context is characterized by:

1. Promoting Perceptions of Competence and Control 2. Promoting Academic Values and Goals 3. An Emphasis on Higher Order Thinking (complex & sophisticated) 4. Active Participation 5. Variety 6. Collaborative Activities 7. Meaningful Connection to Students’ Culture and Lives Outside School 8. Promoting a Sense of Belonging


Choice 5: RESEARCH ON STUDENT ENGAGED ASSESSMENT PRACTICES

(also the ONLY practices that have been shown to close the achievement gap!):

Stiggins’ Seven Strategies of Assessment FOR Learning:

Where am I going?

1. Provide a clear and understandable vision of the learning target 2. Use examples and models of strong and weak work

Where am I now?

3. Offer regular descriptive feedback 4. Teach students to self-assess and set goals

How can I close the gap?

5. Design lessons to focus on one aspect of quality at a time 6. Teach students focused revision 7. Engage students in self-reflection, and let them keep track of and

share their learning

from Motivated to Learn: A Conversation with Daniel Pink in Educational Leadership (September 2014)

Research by Carol Dweck and others has shown that there's a difference between learning goals and performance goals. A learning goal is, "I want to master algebra." A performance goal is, "I want to get an A in algebra." The research shows that reaching performance goals doesn't necessarily mean that you have hit a learning goal. If people are single-mindedly focused on performance goals—and they achieve them—it doesn't mean they've learned anything, improved their capabilities, or mastered something complex. The kid is less likely to retain what she learned to get the A, less likely to persist when the going gets tough, and less likely to understand why algebra is important in the first place.

However, if a kid is single-mindedly focused on a learning goal—mastering algebra—chances are he's going to do pretty well. In the process, he'll probably attain that performance goal and get his A. So it's best to simply go for the learning goal and use the grades and scores as feedback as the student works toward mastery.

So how do we write great learning goals/targets that help students WANT to engage?

Here are a few tips from Leaders of their Own Learning by Ron Berger et. al. (2014)

The Foundation of Student-Engaged Assessment (pp. 21-22)

The process of learning shouldn’t be a mystery. Learning targets provide students with tangible goals that they can understand and work toward. Rather than the teacher taking on all of the responsibility of meeting a lesson’s objectives, learning targets, written in student-friendly language and frequently reflected on, transfer ownership from the teacher to the student. The seemingly simple work of reframing objectives written for teachers to learning targets, written for—and owned by—students, turns assessment on its head. The student becomes the main actor in assessing and improving his or her learning.


Learning targets are goals for lessons, projects, units, and courses. They are derived from standards and used to assess growth and achievement. They are written in concrete, student-friendly language – beginning with the stem “I can” – shared with students, posted in the classroom, and tracked carefully by students and teachers during the process of learning. Students spend a good deal of time discussing and analyzing them and may be involved in modifying or creating them. (see Table 1.6,)


A Model: Tovani Unit Plan: High School English- 11th Grade American Literature

What Are We Fighting For? Unit Plan

Cris Tovani & Samantha Bennett

Unit Summary:

What Are We Fighting For? is a quarter-long unit during which students will read The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to uncover some truths of war and delve into the power of story. The guiding questions of this study are:

• How does “what I carry” affect how I view the military and the U.S. involvement in current conflicts?

• Should U.S. military service be compulsory or voluntary? • Does it take more courage to go to war or to protest it? • What “truths” affect a person’s decision to enlist?

In order to answer these guiding questions, students will read both fiction and a variety of non-fiction texts and demonstrate their understanding with three performance tasks/summative assessments. They will create a concept map, write a commentary to send into the OpEd section of our local newspaper and/or on-line venues, and then host a roundtable discussion event with US Military stakeholders (soldiers, recruiters, friends and family members of soldiers, veterans, and politicians).

Long Term Targets Supporting Targets Summative Assessments • Formative assessments

I can describe how war affects individuals and society as a whole.

I can describe how the war in Vietnam affected the individuals who fought. • I can organize my

background knowledge into a visual map to help a reader learn about the effects of war. (product target)

I can describe how the war in Afghanistan affects the individuals who fight. • I can organize my

background knowledge into a visual map to help a reader learn about the effects of war. (product target)

Concept Map • Concept map draft • Annotations on non-

fiction texts • Double Entry Diaries • Journal Reflection

(content knowledge growth)

• Final Quiz on The Things They Carried (k)

I can craft an argument backed up by facts about United States’ involvement in international conflicts that will educate and/or influence an audience.

Op/Ed Commentary (submitted to Newspaper)

• Annotations on model commentaries

• Commentary drafts with response to feedback


• Writers’ Conference Appt.

Roundtable Discussion Participation

• Roundtable Discussion Prep

• Roundtable Discussion Reflection

I can use thinking strategies to make meaning of complex fiction and non-fiction texts.

• I can pay attention to how Tim O’Brien structures the text to help me understand the story through the narrator’s point of view.

• I can ask questions while I read to build my background knowledge on Vietnam in order to understand the text better.

• I can monitor my understanding so that I can recognize and repair my confusion using thinking strategies.

• I can build background knowledge for a novel by reading non-fiction.

• I can pay attention to non-fiction text structures and use them to guide me to information I need to read to build my background knowledge.

Learning Target Reflection Essay on My Growth as a Reader

• Sticky Note Annotations on The Things They Carried

• Inner Voice Sheets • Reading

Check/Quizzes along the way on The Things They Carried

I can articulate the power of story.

Use of story in:

• Op/Ed Commentary and

• Roundtable Discussion Event

Unit Organization Using Case Study Structure

Case Study One: Vietnam and The Things They Carried

Key Project(s):

• Vietnam/Afghanistan Concept Map o Double Entry Diaries o Journal Reflections o Annotations in novel o Reading checks

Key Lessons:


• I can articulate how Tim O’Brien structures the text to help me understand the story through the narrator’s point of view.

• I can ask questions and make connections to help me start a book. • I can ask questions I care about to sustain my reading. • I can ask questions to isolate confusion. • I can ask questions while I read to build my background knowledge on Vietnam in order to

understand the text better. • I can build background knowledge for a novel by reading non-fiction. • I can combine textual evidence with my background knowledge to infer meaning. • I can describe how the war in Vietnam affected the individuals who fought. • I can go beyond the pictures and words to construct meaning. • I can hold my reading thinking in an organized fashion so that it is useful when it’s time to write. • I can identify unknown words and decide which ones I need to figure out. • I can make a connection to something I know to help me understand something new. • I can make connections to something I know to help me make a picture in my mind. • I can monitor my understanding so that I can recognize and repair my confusion using thinking

strategies. • I can organize my background knowledge into a visual map to help a reader learn about the

effects of war. • I can pay attention to non-fiction text structures and use them to guide me to information I need to

read to build my background knowledge. • I can recognize when my inner voice is wandering. • I can reread confusing parts differently. • I can sift and sort the nonfiction I read based on my purpose. • I can synthesize information from multiple texts to show new thinking.

Case Study Two: The Afghanistan Conflict

Key Project(s):

• Vietnam/Afghanistan Concept Map o Journal Reflections o Annotations on non-fiction texts

Key Lessons:

• I can ask questions I care about to sustain my reading. • I can ask questions to isolate confusion. • I can ask questions while I read to build my background knowledge on Afghanistan in order to

understand the text better. • I can build background knowledge for a novel by reading non-fiction. • I can combine textual evidence with my background knowledge to infer meaning. • I can describe how the war in Afghanistan affects the individuals who fight. • I can go beyond the pictures and words to construct meaning. • I can hold my reading thinking in an organized fashion so that it is useful when it’s time to write. • I can identify unknown words and decide which ones I need to figure out. • I can make a connection to something I know to help me understand something new. • I can make connections to something I know to help me make a picture in my mind. • I can monitor my understanding so that I can recognize and repair my confusion using thinking

strategies. • I can organize my background knowledge into a visual map to help a reader learn about the

effects of war. • I can pay attention to non-fiction text structures and use them to guide me to information I need to

read to build my background knowledge. • I can recognize when my inner voice is wandering. • I can reread confusing parts differently. • I can sift and sort the nonfiction I read based on my purpose. • I can synthesize information from multiple texts to show new thinking.

Case Study Three: Crafting a Compelling Argument


Key Project(s):

• Commentary Essay on involvement in Afghanistan, and/or future conflicts for Publication in Newspaper

• Military Roundtable Talks Roundtable Preparation, Discussion, and Reflection Key Lessons:

• I can craft an argument backed up by facts about United States’ involvement in international conflicts that will educate and/or influence an audience.

• I can read stories of others and use their first-hand experience to inform my argument. • I can use a mentor text to inspire and influence my writing. • I can use the thinking I’ve held to begin my first draft commentary.
