Teaching Students to Read Like Detectives: The Common Core Way

Douglas Fisherwww.fisherandfrey.com

YouTube Channelfisherandfrey

4 Domains• Reading• Writing• Speaking and Listening• Language

Anchored K-12

Where to start . . . .

• Reading standard 1• Reading standard 10• Speaking and Listening

standard 1

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-10 11-12

State standards were forward-mapped

Existing State Standards

K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-10 11-12

Anchor standards are backward-mapped

Backward design of CCSS-ELA standards

Assessing Texts

• Quantitative measures• Qualitative values• Task and Reader considerations

• Background• Prior• Cultural• Vocabulary

• Standard English• Variations• Register

• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text Features• Graphics

• Density and Complexity

• Figurative Language

• PurposeLevels of Meaning Structure

Knowledge Demands

Language Convention and Clarity

Levels of Meaning and Purpose

• Density and complexity

• Figurative language

• Purpose

Levels of Meaning and Purpose

Is it about talking animals, or the USSR?

Is it entertainment, or political satire?

Is it straightforward, or ambiguous?

1370LGrades 11-12

530LGrades 2-3

Author’s Purpose• Allegory for tolerance• Mirrored events of early Civil

Rights movement (1961)

“Now, the Star-Belly SneetchesHad bellies with stars.The Plain-Belly SneetchesHad none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so smallYou might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all..”But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly SneetchesWould brag, ‘We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.’With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,They’d hike right on past them without even talking.”

730LGrades 2-3

Complex themes • Relationship

between love and pain

• Masculinity• Loyalty and war

Structure

• Genre

• Organization

• Narration

• Text features and graphics

Structure

Changes in narration, point of view

Changes in font signal narration changes

Complex themes

560LGrades 2-3

870L (grades 4-5)

• Stream of consciousness narration

• Unreliable narrators

• Nonlinear structure

• Time shifts written in italics

Structure

Language Conventions

• Standard English and variations

• Register

Language Conventions

Non-standard English usage

“Out in the hottest, dustiest part of town is an orphanage run by a female person nasty enough to scare night into day. She goes by the name of Mrs. Sump, though I doubt there ever was a Mr. Sump on accounta she looks like somethin’ the cat drug in and the dog wouldn’t eat.”

(Stanley, 1996, p. 2) AD 660L (Adult-directed)

ATOS 4.4Grades 2-3

British slang circa 1982

“The doorbell went. I put the blind back to how it was, checked I'd left no other traces of my incursion, slipped out, and flew downstairs to see who it was. The last six steps I took in one death-defying bound. Moron, grinny-zitty as ever. His bumfluff's getting thicker, mind. "You'll never guess what!" "What?” "You know the lake in the woods?" "What about it?" "It's only"--Moron checked that we weren't being overheard--"gone and froze solid! Half the kids in the village're there, right now. Ace doss or what?"

Bumfluff- light facial hair (“peach fuzz”)Ace doss-easy and fun

Knowledge Demands

• Background knowledge

• Prior knowledge

• Cultural knowledge

• Vocabulary

Knowledge Demands

Domain-specific vocabulary (radioactive, acidity, procedure, vaccination)

Background knowledge (diseases, safety risks, scientific experimentation)

1100LGrades 6-8

1010LGrades 6-8

Cultural Knowledge Demands

• Buddhist philosophy• Search for spiritual

enlightenment• Eightfold Path to Nirvana

• Background• Prior• Cultural• Vocabulary

• Standard English• Variations• Register

• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text Features• Graphics

• Density and Complexity

• Figurative Language

• PurposeLevels of Meaning Structure

Knowledge Demands

Language Convention and Clarity

It’s not enough to have complex text in the room. Students need to read and discuss complex text.

Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

Focused Instruction

Guided Instruction

“I do it.”

“We do it.”

“You do it together.”Collaborative

Independent“You do it alone.”

A Structure for Instruction That Works

In Some Classrooms…Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

“I do it.”

Independent“You do it alone.”

Focused Instruction

In Some Classrooms…Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

Independent“You do it alone.”

And in Some Classrooms…Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

Guided Instruction

“I do it”

“We do it”

Independent“You do it alone”

Focused Instruction

Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

Focused Instruction

Guided Instruction

“I do it.”

“We do it.”

“You do it together.”Collaborative

Independent“You do it alone.”

A Structure for Instruction That Works

The established purpose

focuses on student learning,

rather than an activity,

assignment, or task.

Students understand the

relevance of the established

purpose.

…making connections between the subject and its application outside

of the classroom walls.

Relevance requires…

Relevance requires…

…opportunities to learn about oneself

as a learner.

Relevance requires…

… learning for learning’s sake.

Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI2)

• Tier 1: Quality core instruction• Tier 2: Supplemental intervention• Tier 3: Intensive intervention

Tier 1: 70+%

Tier 2:20–30%

Tier 3:5–15%

Manipulate variables…

Homework is NOTa progress monitoring

tool!

26%Number of high school

teachers who “often or

very often” run out of time in class and assign the content

for homework.

(Markow, Kim, & Liebman, The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: The Homework Experience,

2007)

Cleavers

Cheaters

Slackers

Bewildered

Goals of Homework

• Fluency building• Application• Spiral review• Extension

(Fisher & Frey, “Homework and the Gradual Release of Responsibility: Making Responsibility Possible,

English Journal, 2008)

Close Analytic Reading

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