What would happen if English/language arts teachers revolutionized their instruction to focus intently鈥攁nd exclusively鈥攐n the texts students are reading?
That鈥檚 what chief academic officers from 14 urban school districts discussed here last month. It鈥檚 a key shift in the Common Core State Standards that now guide teaching and learning in all but four states: 69传媒 are expected to engage in 鈥渃lose reading鈥� of complex literary and informational texts.
In contrast to common practice, in which teachers explain reading passages and supply background information before students read, 鈥渃lose reading鈥� confines initial study to the text itself. 69传媒 make sense of it by probing its words and structure for information and evidence. Through questions and class exercises, teachers guide students back through the reading in a hunt for answers and deeper understanding.
That scenario, however, requires profound shifts not only in how teachers teach, but how districts choose texts, how they test what students know, and how they evaluate teachers.
Gathered for a leadership-network meeting facilitated by the Aspen Institute, the chief academic officers of the 14 participating districts expressed praise for the approach. But they also had deep concerns about providing the type of professional development necessary to deliver it well in their districts. To preserve the frank, problem-sharing nature of the meeting, the Aspen Institute asked that Education Week not quote district leaders by name.
鈥淚鈥檓 really worried that we haven鈥檛 prepared our teachers for this,鈥� one chief academic officer said. 鈥淭he academic and cognitive demand [on teachers] is quite high.鈥�
The officials spent part of a day walking through an example lesson on close reading with David Pook, a New Hampshire teacher who helped shape the common English/language arts standards. He built the lesson around a selection that one of the network districts, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., has been using with its 6th graders: an excerpt from Russell Freedman鈥檚 The Voice That Challenged a Nation, about Marian Anderson鈥檚 historic recital at the National Mall in 1939.
The chief academic officer 鈥渟tudents鈥� were asked to read the passage silently, without any context or background knowledge supplied by their 鈥渢eacher,鈥� Mr. Pook, except brief word definitions listed in the margin. They explored 鈥渢ext dependent鈥� questions that he had developed to help students understand the meaning and structure of the passage. The answers to such questions lie in the passage itself and help students make inferences and follow the arguments in it.
One such question was: 鈥�What words did Freedman use to characterize what happened next?鈥� A key point of the presentation was that students could not expect their teacher to answer that for them. Instead, teachers would take what Mr. Pook called a 鈥渓et鈥檚 find out鈥� approach, guiding students to the passage for answers.
One of the chief academic officers said that such a process represents a more significant change for teachers than they might realize. Most of his teachers, he said, would quickly say they already ask those kinds of questions.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l say, 鈥榊eah, I always ask what happened next,鈥� 鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not the question. The question was, 鈥榃hat words did Freedman use?鈥� 鈥�
His colleagues, along with Mr. Pook, smiled and nodded. Moving teachers toward this way of working will require 鈥渟ome significant professional development鈥� as they learn to refrain from providing quick answers, figure out instead how to formulate new kinds of questions that take them and their students back to the text repeatedly in their search for understanding.
The idea, Mr. Pook said, is that this work 鈥渕oves students toward independence鈥� by developing their abilities to build vocabulary and access a text鈥檚 structure; grasp a text鈥檚 meaning and build arguments from it based on evidence in the text itself; and eventually build the confidence to grapple with tough reading on their own.
Too Much Change?
Some longtime reading advocates doubt the basic approach of 鈥渃lose reading,鈥� noting that the wide variations in background knowledge that students bring to reading makes it necessary for teachers to build bridges toward them to make sure all students can access the material successfully.
鈥淚deally, having all students just go ahead and read the text can level the playing field,鈥� said Richard M. Long, the director of government relations for the International 69传媒 Association. 鈥淭he attempt is to make it just about the text. But it is never just about the text. Our concern is that this doesn鈥檛 take into account that prior experience exists and always affects the way the student interacts with the text.鈥�
None of the chief academic officers at the Aspen meeting criticized 鈥渃lose reading鈥� as a goal, and most lauded it. But they saw a rocky road ahead in reaching it.
How, for instance, would they build skill among their educators to provide sufficient supports for struggling readers, special education students, and English-learners to tackle text this way? How would teachers respond to a 鈥渟ea change鈥� that reframes their role from provider of information to facilitator of inquiry? And where would they get deep, focused lessons for such instruction?
鈥淭he percentage of my teachers who weren鈥檛 ever taught some of the skills you鈥檙e talking about here, like the 鈥榩ivot point鈥� in a paragraph,鈥� said one official, her voice trailing off in a sigh. 鈥淭he teachers themselves don鈥檛 know many of those concepts.鈥�
Curriculum Materials
Some of those who led in drafting the common standards have created 鈥減ublisher鈥檚 criteria鈥� in mathematics and in English/language arts that are intended to guide publishers in creating curriculum materials that embody the intent of the common standards. States and districts, too, are creating their own materials, as are a host of organizations. Many intend to make them freely available, but most are not yet complete, and there is no centralized location for those that are.
Likewise, many private groups have been publicizing professional-development offerings for the common standards, even as some of the common core鈥檚 strongest proponents express skepticism that 鈥渄rive-by鈥� sessions can accomplish the change that is required by the new standards.
A number of districts, including those in the Aspen network, are starting to design their own professional-development modules. Even as they do that work, though, officials from large districts worried about how they will ensure that thousands of teachers have a sufficiently deep understanding of the key shifts in the standards, as well at district supports to design lesson plans and other materials.
During a break in the meeting, a group of chief academic officers brainstormed about approaches to professional development in a big district. A 鈥渢rain the trainer鈥� model risks dilution of effectiveness as it gets farther from the original trainers, and yet it鈥檚 an immense challenge to free hundreds of teachers at once to attend sessions with experts, they noted.
