Reading Standards for Informational Text

This is a chapter excerpt from Guilford Publications. Teaching with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, PreK?2.

Edited by Lesley Mandel Morrow, Timothy Shanahan, and Karen K. Wixson. Copyright ? 2013. Purchase this book now: p/morrow6

ChaptEr 3

Reading Standards

for Informational Text

ress Nell K. Duke

P Juliet L. Halladay

rd Kathryn L. Roberts

he Guilfo DEFINING STaNDaRDS FOR REaDING INFORmaTIONaL TExT 3 T Informational text plays a prominent role in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). 1 Standards involving informational text are found in all four major strands of the English 0 language arts standards (reading, writing, language, and speaking and listening), and 2 informational text is implicitly or explicitly entailed in many of the standards for literacy

in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. In fact, the overall approach to

? literacy in the standards was driven in part by concern about informational text: "Part of t the motivation behind the interdisciplinary approach to literacy promulgated by the Stan h dards is extensive research establishing the need for college and career ready students to ig be proficient in reading complex informational text independently in a variety of content r areas" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief y State School Officers, 2010, p. 5). The CCSS recognize that literacy extends well beyond p English class to mediate learning in all content areas and ultimately in college and career.

Co If the CCSS followed a traditional approach, standards involving informational

text would begin in fourth grade, when children are conventionally expected to shift from learning to read to reading to learn (Chall, 1983, 1996). However, in the CCSS, standards for informational text begin in kindergarten. Can kindergarten-age children really learn from and about informational text? Research strongly suggests that they can (Duke, Bennett-Armistead, & Roberts, 2003). For example, kindergarten children can learn to approximate the typical language of informational text if it is read aloud to them (Duke & Kays, 1998; Pappas, 1993).

The CCSS ask for a 50/50 split of literature and informational text in grades K?5 (p. 5). This is quite a bit more use of informational text than is likely to be found in K?5

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Reading Standards for Informational Text

47

classrooms presently (Duke, 2000; Jeong, Gaffney, & Choi, 2010; Wright, 2011). How ever, we have no indication that such an increase would have negative consequences for children. For example, an intervention in which grade 1 teachers aimed for one-third informational text (defined more narrowly than in the CCSS), one-third narrative text, and one-third other genres (including biography, which the CCSS categorize as informa tional text) throughout the school day showed no negative impacts on children compared with a comparison group. Children made equivalent progress in decoding and encoding (in fact, children in classrooms with relatively low initial alphabet knowledge did better when more informational text was employed) and in narrative writing. Their informa tional writing and attitudes toward reading were actually higher than those of children in the comparison group (Duke, Martineau, Frank, Rowe, & Bennett-Armistead, 2012).

s There is also some evidence that young children can develop content knowledge, vocabu s lary, and fluency through informational text (Fingeret, 2008; Hiebert, 2008; Santoro, re Chard, Howard, & Baker, 2008).

P As we would expect given only two categories--literature and informational text--

the term informational text is used quite broadly in the CCSS to include, in grades K?5,

rd "biographies and autobiographies; books about history, social studies, science, and the ilfo arts; technical texts, including directions, forms, and information displayed in graphs,

charts, or maps; and digital sources on a range of topics." We strongly urge the field to plan exposure and instruction not just for the broad category of informational text

u but for more specific categories of text within that. For example, it will be important to G provide children with exposure to and instruction in directions (what we call procedural

or how-to text) and exposure to what is often called expository text, such as text that

e teaches--for example, about panda bears or Mexico. This exposure to a range of texts is h important because different kinds of text have varied purposes: The primary purpose of T procedural text is to tell someone how to do something, whereas the goal of expository 3 text (what we have called "informational text" in past writings, defining it more nar 1 rowly than the CCSS) is to convey information about the natural or social world (Purcell0 Gates, Duke, & Martineau, 2007). These texts also have markedly different features. For 2 example, common procedural text features include having a materials section, having a

set of ordered steps, and using imperative verbs (e.g., cut, arrange). In contrast, common

? expository text features include opening with a general statement or classification, hav t ing a series of paragraphs organized topically, and using timeless verbs (e.g., "Pandas h walk on four legs"). Furthermore, different strategies or processes are likely to be used ig to read procedural versus expository text. For example, whereas procedural text must be r read (and steps carried out) from beginning to end in order, expository text often need y not be read in its entirety or in order: One might turn first to the index of the text, then p to the middle of the text, where the desired information is expected to be found, and so Co on. There is growing evidence that proficiency with one type of text does not necessarily

mean proficiency with another (Duke & Roberts, 2010); thus, we need to provide expo sure to and instruction with each type of informational text we want children to learn to read and write.

PUTTING THE INFORmaTIONaL TExT STaNDaRDS INTO PRaCTICE

As noted earlier, standards involving informational text are found in all four major strands of the English language arts standards, not only reading but also writing,

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Duke, Halladay, and Roberts

language, and speaking and listening. For example, the language standards for second grade include a call to have children use reference materials, including beginning diction aries, and the speaking and listening standards for kindergarten expect children to "con firm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. . . . " However, the bulk of the standards involving informational text reading in K?2 come from the reading standards for informational text, K?5, and those are the stan dards on which we focus in this chapter. Those standards are divided into four categories:

1. Key Ideas and Details

2. Craft and Structure 3. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

s 4. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity res In this section, we describe instruction appropriate for each of these categories. We draw P heavily on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide Improving Compre

hension in Kindergarten through Third Grade (Shanahan et al., 2010) to articulate effec

rd tive comprehension instructional practices and on Reading and Writing Genre with Pur ilfo pose in K?8 Classrooms (Duke, Caughlan, Juzwik, & Martin, 2012) for how to tailor

comprehension instruction to informational text specifically.

u Key Ideas and Details G The Key Ideas and Details standards focus on children identifying, asking, and answer e ing questions about the main topic and key details of a text and making connections h among pieces of a text. See Table 3.1 for grade-by-grade detail. 2013 T TabLE 3.1. Reading Standards for Informational Text k?2: key Ideas and Details

(anchor Standards 1?3) Kindergartners

t ? 1. With prompting support, h ask and answer questions

about key details in a text.

Grade 1 students

1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

opyrig 2. With prompting and support, identify the main Ctopic and retell key details

2. Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

Grade 2 students

1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

2. Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific

of a text.

paragraphs within the text.

3. With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

3. Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

3. Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

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Foster Children's Motivation

The tasks in Table 3.1 are hard cognitive work for young children. Even older children can struggle with them (e.g., Taylor, 1986; Yussen, Rembold, & Mazor, 1989). For this reason, we highly recommend doing all that is possible to foster children's motivation--to help them want to do this hard work. Research has identified many teacher practices associated with higher levels of student motivation, including (from Brophy, 1987):

? Model interest in learning. ? Induce curiosity and suspense. ? Make abstract materials more concrete and understandable.

s ? Make learning objectives clear. s ? Provide informative feedback. e ? Adapt academic tasks to student interests and provide novel content as much as r possible. P ? Give students choices between alternative tasks. d ? Allow students as much autonomy as possible in doing tasks. r ? Provide tasks with an appropriate level of challenge/difficulty. ilfo In the primary grades specifically, Pressley and colleagues (2003), in their observa u tional study of eight third-grade teachers, found that the two teachers whose students

were rated as most highly engaged used 63 and 74 different practices, respectively, that

G support motivation! It is for good reason that the WWC Panel on Improving Compre e hension in Kindergarten through Third Grade had as one of its five recommendations h "Establish an engaging and motivating context in which to teach reading comprehen T sion."

With informational text, selecting engaging texts on engaging topics is likely to be

3 very important (e.g., Guthrie, McRae, & Klauda, 2007; Jim?nez & Duke, 2011). Even 1 as early as preschool, topics that some children find engaging other children may find 20 disengaging (Renninger & Wozniak, 1985), so sometimes grouping children for reading

instruction by common interests is advised (Guthrie & McCann, 1996). We also recom

? mend keeping individual children's interests in mind when identifying books and other t texts they can choose among for independent or home reading. Indeed, choice itself fos h ters motivation. Thus, rather than approach a reading group with "the book we are going ig to read today," consider offering two or three titles from which the children can choose r through a vote or by rotating who gets to select the text.

y Also important to fostering motivation to comprehend informational text is provid p ing some reason to read it beyond being told or asked to do so (Guthrie et al., 2007). It o appears that children's informational text comprehension develops better when they are C regularly reading informational text for the same reasons people read this kind of text

outside of school: because they want or need to know information (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, & Tower, 2006/2007; Purcell-Gates et al., 2007). For example, children might read (or listen to) informational text to inform a letter the class is writing to the mayor about an issue in their community, or to answer questions from their pen pals about a topic they are studying in school, or to figure out what they should feed a ladybug they caught on the playground. They have some larger purpose for engaging in the hard work of grap pling with key ideas and details in informational text.

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Duke, Halladay, and Roberts

Teach Comprehension Strategies

It is not enough to simply motivate children to grasp main idea and details in text; we also need to teach them how to do it. The WWC practice guide panel referenced earlier identifies teaching comprehension strategies as one of their five recommendations and the one with the strongest evidence. A full description of how to teach comprehension strate gies is well beyond the scope of this chapter, but briefly teaching comprehension strategies should involve the following:

? Explicitly explaining the strategy, including when and how to use it. ? Modeling the strategy by "thinking aloud" as you use it while reading aloud to

s children. s ? Collaboratively practicing use of the strategy, with you and the children working e together to apply it. r ? Guided practice in which children are primarily responsible for applying the strat P egy but you are available to provide prompting, coaching, and support as needed. d ? Independent practice in which children work to apply the strategy on their own as r they read or are being read to. ilfo (See Duke & Pearson, 2002; Shanahan et al., 2010; and the Doing What Works website u [] for more information.)

Many specific strategies are deserving of instruction, such as activating background

G knowledge; predicting; questioning; visualizing; monitoring, clarifying, and fixing up; e drawing inferences (often making connections); and summarizing. Summarizing, both h for sections of the text and the text as the whole, is perhaps most closely related to the T CCSS listed in Table 3.1. The vignette that follows provides one example of how a teacher

might teach this strategy and do so in a motivating context as described earlier.1

2013 INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARDS IN ACTION: KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS

t ? Ms. Jones starts off Morning Meeting with her second-grade students with an announce- h ment. Mr. Williams, the other second-grade teacher in the building, is concerned because his ig students have been picking out a lot of information books that they don't end up liking. He r thinks Ms. Jones's class might be able to help by sending over reviews--good and bad--of y information books they have been reading. Ms. Jones asks the children whether they would p like to help out and gets a resounding "Yes!" in response.

oOver the next several days, Ms. Jones shares a variety of book reviews with the children, Cincluding some by and for adults (e.g., from the New York Times Review of Books) and some

by and for children (e.g., from the Spaghetti Book Club [about.

html] and Scholastic's Share What You're Reading [

swyar/]), and she teaches a common format/template for a review:

1This and other vignettes in the chapter are amalgamated from several observations and sources and should not be viewed as representing the practice of any specific teacher.

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