In this update students use internet search skills to find more information about their topic. Encourage students to check the reliability of the link they have found by finding out the author and the date it was written, and cross referencing it with other sites and their prior knowledge of the topic. Support individual students to locate and evaluate the information.

However, if this Overt Instruction Update is omitted, students could simply include the reference in the body of the text where it has been used. Source: [Title of text or website].

This Overt Instruction Update occurs in:

• Me the Expert: An Informative/Explanatory Text about Something I Know Well
  
• Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: An Informative/Explanatory Text about a Person Who Makes a Difference
  
• Energy: Writing an Explanation of an Energy Transformation

CCSS Focus

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text or issue under doscussion.

SL.7.1c: Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed.

SL.8.1c: Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others' questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing as as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

W.7.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing, and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

W.6.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information.

W.7/8.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

The focus in this update is about using sections and subsections in the Structure tool in Creator to incorporate notes and quotations, and then develop these into students’ first drafts of their information texts. Typically, many students want to start writing without planning or to cut and paste information from other texts. Encourage them to plan using bullet points based on brainstorming and further research, including reading and viewing a range of print and digital sources. They should also record quotations as evidence. This will support students to write original texts.

Independently, students may read through the note taking advice in this Overt Instruction Update. Alternatively this could be a focused lesson led by the teacher, culminating in a comment in Community, in which students share their tips for good note taking.

Dashboard Tip: Have a look at the number of words students have written in their notes. If it is too few, you may need to advise some students do create more notes. If it is too many, perhaps they have not been selective enough in their note taking.

This Overt Instruction Update occurs in:

• Me the Expert: An Informative/Explanatory Text about Something I Know Well
  

CCSS Focus

W.6.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.

W.7/8.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

W.6/7/8.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

This activity introduces a  text for students to read and respond to. The 'Save the Last Word for Me' tool promotes collaborative thinking and discussion as well as developing the reading skill of determining importance and finding textual evidence to support reasoning. The text may also provides a model of a particular text type that students will be asked to write.

Students can create a hand-drawn or digital version of their table to complete during the 'Save The Last Word for Me' activity.

CCSS Focus

RI: 9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literacy nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high-end of the range for grade 9, and independently and proficiently for grade 10.

SL 9-10.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

SL 9-10.1d: Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.

As students research a topic, they have the opportunity to develop their reading and research skills, focusing on reading strategies such as inferring. Inferring is difficult for many students as it may require knowledge not presented in the text.

Select a text related to the topic. This may be a literature or an informational text. The text may be posted to Shares or the link included in an extra Community Update. It is important that students read and respond to the whole text so that they understand the text at the literal level. Provide an example of evidence and an inference from the text as a model for students as they complete the table. Encourage students to make inferences based on the visuals as well as the print text.

Inferring can also be explicitly taught through poetic devices such as symbolism, simile, metaphor, personification, irony, understatement and exaggeration.

This Overt Instruction Update occurs in:

• Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: An Informative/Explanatory Text about a Person Who Makes a Difference
  

CCSS Focus

RL.6/7.1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RL.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.6/7.1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

This activity focuses on reading at the inferential level, intertextuality and characterization. The Double Entry Journal is a scaffold to completing the extended blog like post in the Comment. If necessary for accountability, you can request students to submit their completed Double-Entry Journals to Submissions in their specific Community. However, posting the Update to Community may provide sufficient accountability.

CCSS Focus

RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RL.9-10.3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

RL.9-10.9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (intertextuality).

RL.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9/10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high-end of the range for grade 9, and independently and proficiently for grade 10.

This update scaffolds how to summarize the key ideas in a text. Post the assigned texts as files to Shares or create an extra Community Update which includes links to the texts.

The comparison matrix is used to scaffold summaries of the main ideas in a text and to prompt students to find multimodal evidence for these ideas. To further support students, they could underline key words and phrases initially, answer prompts such as who/what/when/where/why/how, and set a word limit for the summary statement/paragraph. The summary statement/paragraph should begin with a topic sentence about the text’s main idea.

Students use their comparison matrices to record information from their research and to plan their argumentative texts. Working in pairs will enable students to share the workload and promote collaboration and discussion, which in turn will deepen their understanding of their reading.

By posting their comments concurrently, students post the key idea they have identified and then will be motivated to check how their comment is the same and different from other students’ comments.

This Overt Instruction Update occurs in:

• Debating Zoos and Circuses: An Argument about How Humans Should Live with Animals
  

CCSS Focus

RI.6.2: Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text as distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

RI.6.7: Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

RI.7.2: Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of a text: provide an objective summary of the text.

RI.8.2: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of a text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

Purpose

Readers Theater provides an opportunity to practise fluent reading and for students to immerse themselves more deeply in the texts they created and/or the original text. High school students do not have many opportunities to read aloud and to focus on fluency as they read.

Teaching Tips

Select short stories, dramas or poems for Readers Theater. Students may also write their own scripts. As students work out the script, they are analyzing a piece of writing which will support them in their own writing.

Readers Theater provides some thinking challenges in working out roles while the rehearsals of the presentations provide opportunities for reading aloud. During the performance students can use voice and gesture to enhance their presentation.

The setting, props and actions of the students should be kept to a minimum - limit these so they have to make choices. The best arrangement is one where the group forms a semi-circle. As students perform, they should try to maintain eye contact with the audience. This is possible if they have had sufficient rehearsal time to become less reliant on reading the script closely.

It is also recommended that groups are scheduled to perform over a period of days rather than in one setting. Instead of performing to the whole class, they could perform to another group and then evaluate each other.

See guidelines for allocating roles and presenting Readers Theater at MyRead and Reading A-Z.

CCSS Focus

RL.4/5/6/7/8.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, poems, in the grades 4-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

This activity supports students to explore vocabulary and spelling in context, and practice their scanning reading strategy.

Ask students to set up an ‘Interesting Words’ file. This can be a digital file or a vocabulary/spelling journal that is a record of frequently used words, personally significant words, topic or domain specific words. To use this file effectively, students need modelling and overt instruction through ‘think alouds’ in which the teacher pretends to be a student as he she/he tries to work out the meaning of a word from context, looks up sources to define words, and uses spelling strategies. This overt instruction can be with a whole class or small groups, and should be limited to five to 10 minute sessions. Students may work collaboratively with their peers to discuss definitions and spelling strategies, and do partner testing of spelling words. This will enable the teacher to offer further individualized support and focused mini lessons for students who require it.

Model how to use contextual clues such as looking at words, phrases and sentences that immediately follow the word, which might provide a definition through a restatement, example, contrast, comparison, cause/effect relationship or condition. A word's position or function in a sentence can be a clue. Transition words such as similarly, on the other hand, and if can also be clues.

Model and display spelling strategies such as using spelling patterns, generalizations, sounding out, chunking, visual memory, and analogy. Use ‘think alouds’ to identify and highlight the difficult part or special feature that will help students to remember how to spell a particular word. Teach students to use a Look, Say, Cover, Visualize, Write, Check strategy in partner testing of spelling words.

Use word study to explore word origins and discover generalizations about English spelling. Word study also increases specific knowledge of words – the spelling and meaning of individual words. Focus on word origins, base words, prefixes, suffixes, morphemes and uncommon plurals.

This Overt Instruction Update occurs in:

• A Journey: A Narrative about Real or Imagined Experiences of Events
  

CCSS Focus

L.6/7/8.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4/5/6/7/8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

L.4.4a: Use context (e.g., definitions, examples or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

L.5.4a: Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

L.6/7/8.4a: Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

L.4/5/6/7/8.4b: Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g.,telegraph, photograph, autograph (grade 4); photograph, photosynthesis (grade 5); audience, auditory, audible (grade 6); belligerent, bellicose, rebel (grade 7); and precede, recede, secede (grade 8)).

L.4/5.4c: Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of keys words and phrases.

L.6.4c: Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

L.7/8.4c: Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

L.6/7/8.4d: Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

L.4.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) and that are basic to a particular topic (e.g., wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation).

L.5.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships (e.g., however, although, nevertheless, similarly, moreover, in addition).

L.6/7/8.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

RL.4.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).

RL.5.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

RL.6/7/8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative and technical meanings (grades 6-8); analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone (grades 7 & 8), including analogies or allusions to other texts (grade 8).