Tag Archives: close reading

Prepare for PARCC without Test Prep!

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Many of us are counting down to the beginning of our first PARCC Assessment or have already begun.  I have heard of a lot of colleagues scrambling to find PARCC practice or other test preparation materials.  Here is the scoop on test prep: it doesn’t work. With all of the criticisms about the amount of time that schools are spending on standardized testing, it is even sadder that we are piling on top of that with exorbitant time preparing students to take these tests. There may be short-term improvements, but large amounts of time and effort devoted to having students take practice items is a waste of instructional time.

What do we do instead? I propose something novel: teaching students the skills and strategies they will need  to be successful thinkers, readers, writers, and mathematicians. This is the goal of PARCC and other tests–to measure how well students think and can do.  If we create successful thinkers, they will be able to read and write and problem solve whatever PARCC throws at them.

Here are some things you can do with your students to prepare for PARCC without test prep:

  • Read complex text independently
  • Orally paraphrasing texts, questions, or writing prompts
  • Answer text-dependent questions
  • Close reading
  • Quote and paraphrases evidence from text
  • Read multiple texts
  • Write from sources
  • Produce extended writing and on-demand writing (2 pages in a single sitting in grade 5 and 1 page grade 4)
  • Write an essay
  • Edit for conventions: capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
  • Keyboard quickly and accurately
  • Use online tools to Drag & Drop,
  • Read on a Screen/ Electronic Device
  • Use note-taking
  • Scroll multiple windows
  • Navigate multiple screens
  • Use online writing tools (spell check, etc.)
  • Use online math tools (calculator, ruler, etc.)
  • Consume media (viewing video clips, websites, listening to podcasts, etc.)

Download the PARCC Learning Activities  handout here.

The Beauty of “Brief-Search”

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Research and media skills are featured prominently in the Common Core State Standards.  They are found throughout the strands of Reading. Writing, Language, and Listening & Speaking.  The Standards describe two types of research: long term research, which is most commonly found in schools, and short term projects. According to the Common Core State Standards Initiative (2012), “Research—both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and longer term in-depth research —is emphasized throughout the standards but most prominently in the writing strand since a written analysis and presentation of findings is so often critical.” The short, focused projects described are what I like to call “Brief-Search”. I see Brief-Search as being a real world, engaging way to get students to dig deeply into text and write about it.

Do you remember any of the research reports your classmates did in school?  Most of these are forgotten soon after completion.  Instead of a traditional research report, try a fun way to present information that students will remember.  Barry Lane (2003) wrote a delightful book about weird, wonderful ways for students to share what they have learned, Wacky We-Search Reports: Face the Facts with Fun.  Trading Cards, Cartoons, or other creative products will keep students engaged and help them express what they learned.  The key is for students to not only share the information, but to express themselves in a unique way as well. By making the presentation fun, it makes it more likely that students will retain the material.  Here are other some engaging, unique ways for your students to present their information:

  • Talk Show
  • Trading Cards
  • Podcast or Webcast
  • Prezi—an online tool for creating multimedia presentations

Historically, schools have concentrated on in depth research—the research report: five paragraphs on Mexico or Kookaburras or some other topic.  Studying topics like these in-depth require students to think critically about a topic, sifting through a great deal of information to synthesize just the right details to include in a report to support a thesis or opinion.

Research projects, however, do not really mirror real-world research experiences.  In our adult lives, most of us do “mini-research”—quick investigations focused on a precise topic that take a few minutes to a day or two, from start to finish.  For example, last week, my refrigerator died.  I spent a few hours online researching different brands on consumer websites, looking at features and reliability and comparing brands and prices.  In the workplace as well, we often are called upon to research a topic and share our findings quickly with the boss or our team. The Common Core recognize that we need to prepare our students for these brief research opportunities as well as longer, more developed projects.

Brief-Search topics can be found anywhere.  Did you just finish reading Dear Mrs. Larue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague?  Students could brief-search whether dogs see in color, or dog training techniques.  Are you teaching about weather in science?  Students would be very interested in brief-searching the biggest storm your area ever had or how much rain fall your region gets.  Let your students take the lead and tell you what they would like to know more about.

Try this Brief Search Organizer for a quick and easy Brief-Search. 

Paraphrasing Power

The internet explosion has made it so much easier for students to copy and paste than to read, ponder, and then retool the information in their own, original language.  This has led to a plagiarism boom. It’s not that students are natural cheaters; often they don’t know what else to do—how to rephrase or quote a source—so they end up simply copying. Therefore, the skills of paraphrasing and citing sources are found throughout the standards.

We know as teachers that paraphrasing is one of the most difficult skills for students to master. Paraphrasing is not only important for students to learn how to borrow information from a source, it is also helps students link the information to their own understandings and firm it their memory paths.

 

A Lesson on Paraphrasing

1)      Display an original text on the document camera.

2)      Read the text to the students.  Have them help you highlight or underline key ideas presented by the author.

3)      In a different color, highlight or underline distinctive phrases or specific data that the author included that are unique to this piece of writing.

4)      Discuss synonyms for some of the key words and phrases.

5)      Have students work in small groups to paraphrase the original text.

6)      Compare students’ paraphrased versions to the original.

 Don’t forget to use quotes if you use exact language, such as a memorable way of phrasing something or specific data.