1 What To Look for in Curriculum and Teaching IF CCSS DOES NOT REDUCE THE ACHIVEMENT GAP IT WILL FAIL THE CCSS AND THE SHIFTS ARE DESIGNED TO ADDRESS THIS
2 The Common Core and the Achievement Gap: Three Possible OutcomesThe Achievement Gap is reduced or eliminated The Achievement Gap stays the same The Achievement Gap expands
3 Essential Question What does research tell us about the causes of, and cures for, low student achievement? MAY NOT GET TO THE CURES
4 Glutton for research?
5 A Difficult Question A TRANSITION SLIDE
6 Five Essential StudiesHernandez 2011 – Students who are not proficient in 3rd grade are 4 times less likely to graduate on time. Lesnick et al 2010 – 3rd grade scores predictive of 8th grade scores, high school, & college enrollment. Fletcher and Lyon 1998 – 74% of 3rd graders who read poorly will still be struggling in 9th grade Snow et al 1998 – “A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by the end of third grade is quite unlikely to graduate from high school.” Juel 1988 – 1st grade reading scores are a “reliable predictor of later reading scores.” FROM 1988 TO FROM FIRST TO THIRD GRADE – GETTING A FAIR AMOUNT OF ATTENTION NOW
7 Why? How is it that tests so early can predict results so many years later? What are we doing in our curriculum and teaching that might explain this? What are we possibly not doing? TURN AND TALK AND SHARE OUT
8 What are Not the Causes? Lack of critical thinkingFailure to know or use comprehension strategies Failure to practice the standards CRTIICAL – DO IT IN OTHER AREAS – NOT MUCH ON EARLY TESTS – WE CAN’T BE THAT BAD AT IT COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES – SINCE THE MID 90’S -- NO SPITTING STANDARDS – SINCE THE 90’S - KNOW THE HISTORY OF THIS BILL CLINTON
9 Maybe this is just the result of differences in early life experiences, and home environment?PROBABLY CAME UP IN YOUR TALKS –MANY PEOPLE THINK THIS –SOME PEOPLE SAY WHY STANDARDS NOW WITH INCOME INEQUALIYY From PISA STUDY: Poverty rates alone do not explain low U.S. test scores. In a telephone briefing, Andres Schleicher explained that the OECD attempted to adjust test scores for income and put all the students of the world on a level playing field. It turns out that the US has slightly lower poverty and diversity than other OECD countries on average. The average U.S. test score dropped after making this adjustment.
10 Hart & Risley (1995) “The 30 Million Word Gap”And it’s true that students do come in with big differences in their levels of literacy. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley. Brookes Publishing, 1995 (4th printing, January 2003) Before having entered school, low-income children in this study heard more than 30 million fewer words than higher-income peers and had vocabularies half or less the size of wealthier peers.’
11 But if that was the only issue….THEN WHY NOT JUST UNIVERSAL PRE-K TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM?
12 Why Does the Gap Expand Every Year Students are in School?The Matthew Effect: Stanovich (1986, 1992, 1993) See also: Pfost et al (2014), McNamara et al (2011), Sideridis, (2011) This is called… CAREFULY EXPLAIN THIS ALSO OVER A QUARTER CENTURY OF RESEARCH
13 The Matthew Effect
14 First part of the solution must lie with Foundational Skills.EXPLAIN WHY
15 What to Look For Students reading with automaticity by January of first grade (Adams 1990, Juel 1988). Students reading grade level complex texts with fluency by end of second grade. Fluency needs to be assessed for accuracy, rate and expression. More to come… LOOK AT BOTH AND PAPER – FEW EARLY READING PROGRAMS PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR NEEDIEST STUDENTS – ENOUGH SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS - ENOUGH WROK IN CONTEXT AND OUT OF CONTEXT CKLA – ARC – EL TO COME SOON
16 What else causes the Mathew Effect?
17 The “30 Million Word Gap” Students from less educated families enter kindergarten knowing far less words (Biemiller 2010, Hart and Risley, “30 Million Word Gap”
18 How Important are Words?Nearly a century of research (Whipple 1925, NAEP 2012) Feature of complex text that likely causes greatest difficulty (Nelson et al 2012) Vocabulary assessed in grade 1 predicts 30% of grade 11 comprehension (Cunningham & Stanovich 1997) APPARENTLY VERY IMPORTANT SLOWS READRES UP AND IS DEBILITATING FAR GREATER PROBEM WITH COMPLEX TEXT
19 After much research…
20 How Vocabulary Is LearnedWords can be learned directly through instruction in school But, BY FAR most vocabulary is learned indirectly through listening and reading. In K-2 most words are learned through listening in any medium and generally not what they read themselves The more words you know the more you learn (Biemiller 2010, Stanovich 1986) Thus if you start off at a higher point you move faster at each point along the continuum
21 Hart & Risley (1995) “The 30 Million Word Gap”And it’s true that students do come in with big differences in their levels of literacy. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley. Brookes Publishing, 1995 (4th printing, January 2003) Before having entered school, low-income children in this study heard more than 30 million fewer words than higher-income peers and had vocabularies half or less the size of wealthier peers.’
22 But We Also Know That Reading or listening to a series of text on the same topic can yield as much as four times the vocabulary growth (Landauer and Dumais 1997); See also Adams (2009) Topics not themes If we are to attack the gap we can’t afford not to take advantage of this. TURN AND TALK – EXPLAIN WHY THIS IS THE CASE THROUGH BECOMING AN EXPERT CLEARLY EXPLAIN THEMES VS TOPICS AND WHY TOPICS WORK BETTER FOR VOCABULRARY VERY IMPORTANT – SERIES OF TEXTS WITHIN A TOPIC MEANS THEY HAVE TO BE TEXTS STUDENTS CAN READ HOWEVER WHEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT A TOPIC YOU CAN READ MORE COMPLEX TEXT ABOUT IT
23 Topics vs. Themes Topics Themes Sea Mammals Explorers CourageVampires Health Insects Native Americans Transportation Children in Vietnam Immigrants Courage Friendship Survival Growing Up Decisions Family Respect “We Help Each Other”
24 The Achievement Gap at WorkBelow Level: Shelter, splattered, fixed, rescue On Level: Journal, tremors, traction, interval, volunteered, retrieve Above level: Generation, abandoned, languished, terrified, warble, galvanized, debris, hoisted, shuddered The top row are the vocabulary words for the lowest level readers in a current basal; the middle row for readers on grade level; the bottom for readers above grade level. The most recent estimate is that 60 percent of students learned to read or not with basals. This work with these differences goes on 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 10 months a yea However it is no different with leveled readers In both cases the Mathew effect is at play. Worth it to point out that despite the vast rhetoric about students moving groups it doesn’t happen and those students who
25 Importance of KnowledgeSimilar history of research (Kintsch 1998, most of John Guthrie's work, Adams 2009, Cervetti and Hiebert 2015) Recht and Leslie, 1988 – Baseball study Makes sense as knowledge of words and knowledge of the world go together Quarter of a century of research – explain Guthrie’s work and the conclusion from the baseball study . Note the baseball study has been replicated. If you want to hear more about the baseball study you can hear it in the Text Sets Session.
26 Knowledge builds on knowledge, just as vocabulary builds on vocabulary.“Let’s look at what meets these requirements” So we know knowledge is essential, but we also know students from less affluent families come with less knowledge But knowledge builds on knowledge in the same way vocabulary builds on vocabulary. So again proficient readers gain more knowledge compared to less proficient readers. Its deja vu all over again
27 Knowledge Builds on KnowledgeWhen she was twenty-six, Eliza bought tickets to faraway Alaska. Few tourists had ever been there. Eliza wrote reports for the newspapers back home. She loved sharing the fascinating things she saw, such as huge glaciers, spouting whales, and the native people. Eliza even wrote a book – the first guidebook about Alaska. When Eliza went back to Washington, it wasn’t long before she started thinking about traveling again. She decided to visit her older brother, who was working in Japan. Eliza sailed across the ocean. If a student this age has no sense of what a tourist is but a decent sense of Alaska they learn a little more about tourists or begin to learn tourists are people who go to far away places like Alaska. If they have no real sense of either they are beginning this text somewhat lost but also losing the opportunity to grow more vocabulary. This sense might also help them infer what guidebooks are as mentioned in the last sentence i.e. something that is written to guide tourists, those people who go away to far away different places. If they have a sense of “reports for newspapers back home” they learn a little more about Alaska or begin to get a sense of it as place not only faraway but somehow different and interesting because people are writing “reports for newspapers”. This would reinforce the sense of what tourists are as well. Fascinating is an academic word so not really knowledge but clearly helps students get a mental sense of the paragraph if they have a good sense of that word. If you know something about Alaska you might know about “glaciers, spouting whales and native people” If you don’t know what a glacier is but you know Alaska is cold you might be able to infer it has something to do with that. If you are not sure of native peoples but you know Alaska is very different, very cold, people are interested in hearing about it from “reports” than you infer that it must be the kind of place that has native peoples. If you know something about native peoples this is much easier. Many times this learning can from term to term in different directions as we see here. This is just one paragraph of one text, think how it is multiplied over the thousands of pages students read over the course of a year. And the more they read WITH COMPREHENSION the more the better this virtuous cycle works.
28 Topics and References in Third Grade SBAC and PARCC Sample TestsBabe Ruth Smithsonian Alaska Native peoples Japan & Japanese art National Geographic Society Indonesia Animal communication U.S. Congress Animal mating Gills Animal traits Vertebrate Amphibian Larva Pupa Lifecycle Mammals Mass-produced DON’T NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING – TURN AND TALK TURN AND TALK – 1) WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS 2) IS THIS FAIR WHY OR WHY NOT
29 SAT Test Passage TopicsBurgess Shale Controversy Surrounding Question of Earliest North American Settlements Self Discovery via Early 20th Century Shakespearean Theatre Tour Integrity of Modern Film Remakes Sleep Research Role of Chinese American Women during WWII Honore de Balzac Controversy Surrounding the Architecture of the Getty Museum The Politics of Environmental Reporting KIPP STORY Is this more of a reading test or a knowledge test? Paleontology, archeology, Shakespeare, Film Studies, Psychology of Sleep, Chinese American history, European literature, Architecture, Environmental journalism Each passage 5-7 questions in about 12 minutes You can’t start growing this knowledge in 11th grade. And no matter how good you are at making inferences using comprehension strategies they won’t help you here This is why in LSAT prep they do not do the reading section ( from Luke who took it and taught it) What makes motivated students with good reasoning skills score better is the chance nature of the topics on the test
30 What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge“Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture…” Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture. At a curricular or instructional level, texts—within and across grade levels—need to be selected around topics or themes that systematically develop the knowledge base of students. Within a grade level, there should be an adequate number of titles on a single topic that would allow children to study that topic for a sustained period. The knowledge children have learned about particular topics in early grade levels should then be expanded and developed in subsequent grade levels to ensure an increasingly deeper understanding of these topics. Children in the upper elementary grades will generally be expected to read these texts independently and reflect on them in writing. However, children in the early grades (particularly K–2) should participate in rich, structured conversations with an adult in response to the written texts that are read aloud, orally comparing and contrasting as well as analyzing and synthesizing, in the manner called for by the Standards. Preparation for reading complex informational texts should begin at the very earliest elementary school grades. What follows is one example that uses domain specific nonfiction titles across grade levels to illustrate how curriculum designers and classroom teachers can infuse the English language arts block with rich, age-appropriate content knowledge and vocabulary in history/social studies, science, and the arts. Having students listen to informational read-alouds in the early grades helps lay the necessary foundation for students’ reading and understanding of increasingly complex texts on their own in subsequent grades
31 What to Look For Read aloud 60 minutes a day in K-2.At least half of texts read aloud should be a series of texts on a topic. Texts students read in grades 3-5 should be a text set (i.e., a series of texts on a topic). Schools using basals should develop text sets based on basal topics. Subject teachers in grades 6-12 need to use text sets or additional topic based readings. Vocabulary instruction needs to include full word study. Vocabulary in context needs to be addressed – but not too much.
32 Text Set Resources Text Set Project Zaption Newsela WatchknowlearnReadworks Reading A-Z Wonderopolis Education.com Hidden Resources Webinar
33 Complete Text Sets on AchievethecoreK Icky Insects Washoe K-1 Animals, Animals Everywhere! Providence K-1 Human Body, Five Senses Clark County K-2 Wild Weather Washoe 2 All Eyes on the Moon Providence 2 Desert Animals Washoe 2-3 Building a House Milwaukee 2-3 Muscles Clark County 2-3 Show Me The Money! Clark County spending and saving 3 Money: Saving and Spending Providence 4-5 Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of Teens Achievement First 4-5 Human Body, Circulatory Systems Clark County 4-5 Life During The Great Depression Scholastic 4-5 The Goldilocks Zone DC 4-5 The Internet Clark County 4-5 Wind Energy Milwaukee 5 Evolution of TV and Movies Providence 5 Salem Witch Trials Washoe 5 Growing Up in the Early Colonies LearnZillion 5 Spies of the Revolutionary War Washoe 5-6 Real Zombies in Real Life?! Providence 7 Immigration and Citizenship
34 In the Pipeline 4-5 Grossology 4-5 History of toys4-5 Harlem Renaissance 7 Harlem Renaissance 3 Entrepreneurship 5 Bacteria and viruses K Transportation 5 Women in the American Revolution 3 Understanding earthquakes and plate tectonics 3-5 Statue of Liberty 6 Magnetism 2-3 Gold Rush 4-6 The Constitution 3-4 7-8 Who invented the internet 1 Animal Adaptations 2-3 Strange and unusual sea creatures 5-6 Stargazing 3 The Iditarod 5 The Underground Railroad 4 Voting 3-4 Watersheds 2-3 Properties of Matter 3-5 Saving the Tropical Rainforest 3 Inheritance and variable traits 4-5 Solids, liquids, gases Desert Adaptations 4 Animal camouflage 6 Alexander the Great
35 Resources for Direct Vocabulary Instruction“Wordly Wise” published by Educators Publishing Service (EPS) Bringing Words to Life, Beck and McKeown Marzano Six Step Program Frayer model (all over the internet) Words Their Way Zaner Bloser Publishing has a variety of programs addressing this https://www.zaner-bloser.com/ Many other publishers do as well Words Their Way also good