Building Deep Understanding of Diverse Texts Across Genres

1. Scholastic Summer Reading Summit
Austin, Texas
July 16, 2019
Building Deep Understanding in Diverse
Texts Across Genres
Before our session starts, take
time to introduce yourself to
those at your table. Find out
where your tablemates are
from and what they do as an
educator.

6. Every student should have access to thoughtful,
highly engaging, relevant, compelling texts. Texts
that delight, inform, pique curiosity, and bring about
change in the reader; newfound knowledge, fresh
attitudes, growing values, a call to action.

7. What’s really important?

8. Effective teachers understand the importance of
adolescent choice and ownership, as well as the
importance of helping teens develop a sense of
their own reading lives.
(Kittle, 2013; Miller, 2009; Tatum, 2013; Guthrie, 2008; Gallagher 2009; Atwell, 2007)

9. “Reading engagement is more important than students’ family
background consisting of parents’ education and income.
Reading engagement connects to achievement more strongly
than to home environment.”
(Guthrie, 2014)

10. “Literature helps children develop their cultural identities as it
allows them to understand and appreciate the cultures of
others. It’s often the first step toward “eliminating
stereotyping and prejudice and helping students develop
cultural identity.”
(Craft, Al-Hazza & Bucher, 2008)

11. A Quick Fix?

12. Responsive Teaching

13. What kind of thinking is
required and how will I
know when kids are able to
do that kind of thinking?

15. INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING
Intentional, systematic planning requires me to--
• Deconstruct the standards
• Analyze the type of thinking required for transfer
• Plan the reading, speaking, listening, writing tasks that align to
standards and state assessments
• Choose the inclusive texts that engage and challenge (picture books,
excerpts, poems, articles, media)
• Design formative assessments

16. Listen and Observe
Interests
Needs
Misconceptions

17. MULTI-GENRES/Multi-Modes
• Articles
• Poetry
• Media
• Plays
• Interviews
• Picture books
• Art

19. https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/22/americas/mexico-migrant-family-crosses-river-weir/index.html

20. SILENT DISCUSSION
• Whose voice is represented/heard in this news account?
• Are the individuals being respectfully and fairly represented?
• How do you know?
• Whose voices are not represented here?
• Why does that matter?
• Where might we find out more?

21. Home by Warsan Shire
TPFASTT
FIGURATIVE DEVICES
Look beyond the literal at
figurative devices.
Give examples.
How do they help you step into
the refugee’s experience?

22. LET’S TALK
• People should know about this because…
• I think __________is getting in the way of solving
this.
• I would also like to
say_______________________.As your group discusses, please capture a statement that you think should be
shared with the whole class. The speaker’s name goes at the top of the note, their
quote with any evidence they provide and your name is written at the bottom.
See the chart for an example.

23. EVIDENCE OF GOOD DISCUSSIONS

24. HOW WILL IT BE ASSESSED?

25. Provocative
Compelling
Leads to inquiry

26. According to the Tennessee
Office of Refugees, “it is a badge
of strength, courage and victory
to be called a refugee”. Think
back over all that you’ve read
over these few weeks. Explain
what you think about this based
on the text and media
selections you have seen.

27. ABDULLAH’S WRITING

30. http://spatulatta.com/desserts/sweet-potato-p

32. Eleven by
Sandra Cisneros

33. Teaching students to recognize the underlying
structure of content-area texts can help students
focus attention on key concepts and
relationships, anticipate what’s to come, and
monitor their comprehension as they read.
What’s the author done here? How has she
organized this selection to help the reader better
understand the topic?

34. As readers interact with the text to construct
meaning, their comprehension is facilitated
when they organize their thinking in a manner
similar to that used by the author. Readers who
struggle with text comprehension often do so
because they fail to recognize the organizational
structure of what they are reading, and they are
not aware of cues that alert them to particular
text structures.
(Cochran & Hain)

35. DISCUSSION
https://boingboing.net/2017/06/02/useful-a-cheatsheet-for-criti.html

36. DIVERSE TEXTS
• We Need Diverse Books https://diversebooks.org/
• Teaching Tolerance https://www.tolerance.org/
• Tricia Ebarvia #DisruptTexts @triciaebarvia
• USBBY http://www.usbby.org/oibl.html

37. SHARING
Reflect on your learning
Write three thoughts you
have about what you’ve
experienced today.
Choose one and share with
someone sitting near you.
What action will you
commit to?

38. World Changer
That’s you.
Go out and change your world.