We dove into depth of knowledge and text complexity!
Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
Bloom's Taxonomy vs. Norman Webb's
depth of knowledge
The Common Core Standards
are the cornerstones of the Smarter Balanced and PARCC assessments, Webb’s
Depth of Knowledge (scale of cognitive demand) and Blooms Revised Taxonomy
(levels of intellectual ability) are the framework and the structures that will
be used to evaluate students. Assessing curriculum, developing formative
assessments, evaluation curriculum, and evaluation of student's knowledge at the
highest levels is being shared by two progressive cognitive matrices. Depth of
knowledge, and complexity of knowledge is the heart of the more rigorous
assessments being implemented this year.
They share many ideas and concepts yet
are different in level of cognitive demand, level of difficulty, complexity of
verbs vs. depth of thinking required, and the scale of cognitive demand.
Teachers need to learn how the frameworks are used to develop curriculum and
how to use them to enhance instructions. Teachers and students can use Blooms
Questions Stems and Webb’s DOK questions stems to create higher order thinking
and improve achievement.
Are you ready to use the DOK or Blooms daily in your class?
The links below are great resources of Blooms Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge.
• Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix & Curricular
Examples | Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Common Core State Standards: Rigor | Bloom's
Taxonomy and Norman Webb's depth of knowledge
• Cognitive Rigor: Blending the Strengths of Bloom's
Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Enhance Classroom-level Processes http://standardsco.com
Things to Think About?
1.
How rigorous is your curriculum i.e. your teaching expertise, knowledge and or
skills?
2.
What resources do you use to insure all students are learning at high levels?
3.
What is the quality of the professional development being used in your school
to develop curriculum i.e. teaching expertise, knowledge or skills?
4. How many
rigorous learning characteristics do you see in your school? examples:
Higher/deeper levels of thinking (non-routine), collaborative learning;
constructing knowledge, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, teaching to
others, convey content ideas in multiple formats i.e. speaking, writing,
modeling, incorporating knowledge from other content areas.
Placing the burden of teaching literacy entirely on ELA
I
believe the Common Core standards open a window of opportunity for
systematically building students’ knowledge as teachers shift from “just-right
texts” to complex texts. Another potentially transformative shift of the Common
Core standards is the acknowledgment that literacy extends across all content
areas. This is explicitly recognized by the standards in two ways: 1) the
inclusion of literacy standards for social studies, science, and technical
subjects in grades 6 – 12; and 2) the demand for an increase in informational
texts.
Under
key design considerations in the introduction
to the literacy standards, Common Core’s authors state that the inclusion of social
studies, science, and technical subjects “reflects the unique, time-honored
place of ELA teachers in developing students’ literacy skills while at the same
time recognizing that teachers in other areas must have a role in this
development as well” (bold added).
They
furthermore point out that “because the ELA classroom must focus on literature
(stories, drama, and poetry) as well as literary nonfiction, a great deal of
informational reading in grades 6–12 must take place in other classes”
(bold added).
Critical thinking is a way of deciding, making inference,
and or drawing conclusions whether a claim is true, partially true, or false.
Critical thinking is a process that leads to skills that can be learned,
mastered and used. The Common Core emphasizes development of critical thinking
as a tool by which one can come about reasoned conclusions based on a reasoned
“Socratic Method” process. This critical thinking process incorporates
background knowledge, opinion, fact, passion and creativity, but guides it with
discipline, practicality, pragmatics, and common sense. Critical thinking is an
important component of many fields such as math, education, politics, business,
science and the arts.
How do
we apply, learn or judge values and morals?
Common
Core Critical Thinking Reading Passages - College and Career Readiness
Critical
thinking reading passages are the foundation of Socratic seminars and quality
close reading. Selecting reading passages that inspire curiosity, critical
thinking and can be used for either close reading or Socratic seminars takes
pre-planning and a bit of text analysis. One of the best methods for selecting
Critical Thinking Reading Passages is using a Syntopical examination of how
many great ideas the passages contain. Dr. Mortimer J. Adler created a list of
103 philosophical topics that can be used to analyze text for the quality of
ideas presented. Text selection is key to quality close reading and immersive
Socratic seminars
Common Core Critical Thinking Reading Passages - College and Career Readiness
ONE PAGE CRITICAL THINKING PASSAGES ALIGNED TO the COMMON CORE from Depaul University
http://teacher.depaul.edu
Grade Level Fiction Passages
2nd-3rd Grade Reading Level
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
2nd-3rd Grade Reading Level
After the Chicago Fire sequence and summarize
American Explorers evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Animal Studies infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Grant Park write an extended response about a
nonfiction reading
Learn about Ghana infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Letter to the Mayor evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Natural Gas: An Energy Resource infer and
support the main idea of a passage
A New Park evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Pigeon Creek infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Pioneer Families infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Prairie Ecology analyze information in a nonfiction
text
Read to Learn about Symbols, Maps, and Art evaluate
information, summarize, and identify and support a main idea
Saving Your Family's Energy Dollar infer and support
the main idea of a passage
4th Grade Reading Level
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
4th Grade Reading Level
What is a Fable? evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Learn about Egypt infer and support the main idea of a
passage
The Football Team identify the main idea
A Garden in Lawndale evaluate information, summarize,
and identify and support a main idea (4th grade reading level)
Illinois Pioneers and Prairies infer while reading
a history
Learning about the Solar System identify the
main idea of a passage, write an extended response about a nonfiction
passage
Natural Gas: An Energy Resource infer and
support the main idea of a passage
Pilsen, A Community Changes identify causes
and effects
Plants and Places infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Prairie Changes identify an author's purpose, write an
extended response
Prairie Changing the Ecosystem with Multiple Choice
Questions analyze
information in a nonfiction text
Space Food infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Staying in Phoenix infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Today's Telephone infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Transportation Workers evaluate information, summarize,
and identify and support a main idea
What is a Fable? evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Working at the Television Station evaluate
information, summarize, and identify and support a main idea
Working at the Hospital evaluate information, summarize,
and identify and support a main idea
The Working Tools of Insects infer and
support the main idea of a passage
5th Grade Reading Level
Columbus and the Egg historical fiction
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
5th Grade Reading Level
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I can infer the
author's purpose
Election Choices infer and support the main idea of a
passage
From Many Places evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Learn about Ethiopia infer and support the main
idea of a passage )
How Have Students Made Community Progress? analyze a
problem and solution in a text, identify and support the main idea
Prairie Keepers analyze information in a nonfiction text
Seasons on the Prairie analyze information in a
nonfiction text
Settlement infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Valley Forge infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Who Am I sequence events, infer motive, and
write about nonfiction
6th Grade Reading Level
A Good Student realistic fiction about starting high
school
His First Dollar historical fiction about Abraham
Lincoln
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
6th Grade Reading Level
Nutrition Lesson evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Plants and Food infer and support the main idea of a passage
Prairie Ecology evaluate information, summarize, and
identify and support a main idea
Settlement analyze information in a nonfiction
text
Seasons on the Prairie infer and support the main idea
of a passage
Traveling West infer and support the main idea of a
passage
7th Grade Reading Level
Columbus and the Egg historical fiction about an event
showing Columbus as a smart person
A Good Student realistic fiction about starting high
school
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
7th Grade Reading Level
Honest Abe infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy evaluate
information, summarize, and identify and support a main idea
Labor Day Address--Barack Obama Speech infer and
support the main idea of a passage
Learn about Kenya infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Learning about the Solar System infer and
support the main idea of a passage
Today's Telephone infer and support the main idea of a
passage
8th-10th Grade Reading Level
Grade Level Nonfiction Passages
8th-10th Grade Reading Level
Changing the Ecosystem infer and support the main idea
of a passage
Chicago is a City of Possibilities: Deval Patrick, Leader
for Chicago analyze a text and write an extended response based on
it
Deval Patrick's Acceptance Speech infer and
support the main idea of a passage
Honest Abe infer and support the main idea of a
passage
Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy evaluate
information, summarize, and identify and support a main idea
Labor Day Address--Barack Obama Speech infer and
support the main idea of a passage
Learn about Physical Therapists evaluate
information, summarize, and identify and support a main idea
How to find Lexile® Scores
One website that helps determine the Grade
Level Equivalency (GLE) of a passage is called STORYtoolz. You simply
copy and paste your text into the box, and it averages several different GLE
programs to provide an overall GLE score.
The other website provides information about
the percentage of words in a passage that are high frequency words. This vocabulary profiler website looks
daunting, but it's really quite easy to use. You simply copy and paste your
text into the box and click the submit window. You will then be shown the
percentage of words in the text that fall within the 1,000 most high frequency
words and the 2,000 most high frequency words.
Use these websites to check readability levels
of passages your ESOL students read to ensure that you're providing students
with readings that are level appropriate. As a rule of thumb, ESOL students
should know 90% to 95% of the words in a passage to be level-appropriate.
Helps you read more,
understand difficult English faster, and learn words in new ways.
Another resource
that I discovered recently is the Readability Calculator at Online-Utility.org. The tool allows you to either enter a URL or directly copy
and paste text into a text box. Their algorithm is more or less spelled out in
the analysis, and the results are estimated for several different metrics
including the Flesh-Kincaid. This is a must bookmark for any teacher.
Lexile.com
Another web-based resource available to determine a Lexile® score. A Lexile® score takes into account the frequency of the vocabulary used within the text, as well as sentence length. This is an alternative to a Grade Level Equivalency measure.
The Lexile® Analyzer is a tool
developed by MetaMetrics that
you can use to determine a Lexile® score for text that you write or select to
ensure that the text is at an appropriate reading level for your students.
After submitting your text on the Lexile® Analyzer, the tool will generate
a Lexile® measure. To do this, you first have to register on the Lexile® website with your email address
and password. Then you prepare your text by saving your text as a plain text
file (using a ".txt" extension). Then you upload the file, and the
analyzer tool will generate the Lexile® score.
Literacy Leveler – Quickly Determine a Book’s Reading Level
Literacy Leveler
is a an iOS app (iPhone and iPad versions available) that allows you scan a
book’s ISBN barcode and discover the reading level of the content of that book.
Literacy Leveler supports Lexile®, DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment®), and
Guided Reading leveling systems. If you don’t have a book’s ISBN barcode
available, you can search for books by title or author. After discovering the
reading level of a book’s content you can add it to a library in Literacy
Leveler. Literacy Leveler’s database is focused on books that are appropriate
for elementary school and middle school students.
These are the two video clips I showed during this session:
Organize Your Thinking to
Critically Analyze Text
Grade 5 / Social Studies / Reading
CCSS: ELA.RI.5.2 ELA.SL.5.1Learning From Mistakes
I originally saw this video at my friend's presentation at the CTA Good Teaching Conference - South in Anaheim, CA
Her name is Barbara and she has a blog on Math Lesson Study:
commoncorecohort.wordpress.com
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