ebook img

Loudoun County Public Schools High School Honors English Curriculum Resource Guide PDF

162 Pages·2014·4.94 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Loudoun County Public Schools High School Honors English Curriculum Resource Guide

Loudoun County Public Schools High School Honors English Curriculum Resource Guide 2013-2014 “Ad astra per aspera” (To the stars through difficulty) Developed by the Honors Portfolio Committee, the Honors Assessment Revision Working Group, and the Honors Core Units Committee LCPS Acknowledgements This Resource Guide represents the work of many LCPS staff over the last two years, including the following: Michele Schmidt Moore, Ph.D. English Supervisor Dave Arbogast, English Specialist Honors English Portfolio Design Committee Neelum Chaudhry Peter Stephens Cassandra Donahue Jason White Honors English Assessments Revision Group Christopher Cuozzo Larry Hinders Deanna Blackshire Colleen Dobbs Amy Trickett Eileen Lowry Marina Levi Emily Everett Lisa Patterson Nicole Rubloff Patricia Albert Valerie Hargis Barbara Musselman Sharon Smiley Honors Core Units Committee Christopher Cuozzo Dave Hoffman Karen Goldman Gene Legg Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1 Habits of Mind ..............................................................................................................................8 Honors English Assessments: Overview ....................................................................................10 Big Question Project Overview and Rationale ......................................................................................12 Procedures and Timeline.....................................................................................13 Rubrics ................................................................................................................18 Annotated Anchor Essay.....................................................................................22 Resources ............................................................................................................28 Writing Reflection Essay Overview and Rationale ......................................................................................53 Procedures and Timeline.....................................................................................54 Rubric ..................................................................................................................57 Annotated Anchor Essays ...................................................................................59 Resources ............................................................................................................63 Honors Core Units Introduction/Rationale/Context.......................................................................................73 Thematic Essential Questions and Multi-Genre Text Sets .............................................74 Stylistic Essential Questions and Multi-Genre Text Sets ...............................................77 Textual Analysis and Analytic Writing ..........................................................................84 Socratic Seminars............................................................................................................98 Reflective Writing .........................................................................................................127 Creative Writing and the Writing Process ....................................................................130 Sample Core Unit ..........................................................................................................150 Introduction What should critical thinking and intellectual rigor look like in a high school Honors English class? In the last 20 years, the percentage of LCPS students taking Honors English in high school has increased dramatically, from a small minority of our students to a consistent majority of students. This Resource Guide represents the convergence of two sets of instructional frameworks developed over the last few years to increase the level of rigor and clarify what the application of critical thinking skills and higher-order thinking skills should look like in Honors English classes. Both the Honors English Assessments and the Honors Core Units are designed to articulate a clear, coherent vision of intellectual rigor and engagement that is not about asking students to work harder in terms of memorization of more content, reading more books more quickly, or writing longer essays and more of them, but is about qualitatively reaching higher levels of cognition. It outlines not simply our goals for student thinking, but mechanisms for teaching students how to think analytically and creatively and for measuring the degree to which and the ways in which they have mastered those skills. We believe that honors students are capable of more than what we currently ask of them, and while these frameworks are not intended to constrain teacher’s flexibility and autonomy, they can help provide the support in helping students to achieve higher levels of critical thinking. Our discipline of English addresses the most basic ways in which we as humans make sense of the world around us and convey our ideas to others. English classes should be environments in which students master the tools of analysis and communication and bring them to bear in making sense of their own worlds and expressing their own ideas. The function of literature in particular is to make meaning of the human experience, and English classes should be places in which we explore others’ ideas about the great questions of human existence, as well as help students develop and articulate their own ideas about these intrinsically relevant and meaningful issues. Most high school students, and certainly all Honors students, are ready to move beyond simple comprehension of texts, being able to parrot back author’s ideas (or teachers’ ideas), memorize a sequence of events in a plot, or recall the definition of a word. They are prepared to, and should be expected to, do the following on a consistent basis throughout the year: 1 | P a g e  compare and evaluate ideas (and the ways in which those ideas are conveyed)  find patterns within and among texts (both thematically and stylistically)  follow their own paths of independent inquiry  locate and evaluate the quality and reliability of information sources  synthesize information from a variety of sources  develop coherent arguments of their own, which acknowledge and address counter- arguments  analyze and explain how an author uses literary and rhetorical devices to contribute to an effect or achieve a purpose  create works of their own that utilize these devices for their own purposes These skills are not simply useful in academic settings, or to prepare students for college, but st build the intellectual foundation for success in a 21 century global economy. To this end, the resources in this document are designed not as a prescriptive sequence of lessons, but as an instructional and assessment framework to guide teachers in creating the most intellectually engaging and rigorous classrooms possible. 2 | P a g e Program Design, Development, and Implementation Honors English Assessments In 2010, in response to state requirements that all courses given a GPA weight or “bump” have a “commonly defined assessment,” LCPS developed an initial set of Honors Assessments for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade Honors classes, given to students in the spring each year. These initial assessments were modeled on AP English Literature and Language exams, with close reading passages, multiple choice questions, and analysis essays. After their implementation the first year, there were several significant concerns with these assessments from teachers and department chairs around the county. While they did help us as a department to focus more on textual analysis and to align our criteria for written communication, there were weaknesses in their use as standardized assessments. For the following year, the multiple choice sections were eliminated, leaving only the essays. Even after this change, however, the consensus was that these were cumbersome and inefficient mechanisms. In 2011, the English Supervisor Dr. Michele Schmidt Moore, English Specialist Dave Arbogast, and the department chairs from each of the 13 high schools, decided to shift the Honors Assessments to year-long portfolio assessments, as they felt these would be more comprehensive and authentic measurements of students’ work over the course of the year. A committee of teachers and department chairs researched best practices in this area and built on the work of an existing county-wide committee that had been exploring these ideas. Over the course of the 2011-2012 school year, they developed directions, rubrics, and examples for a Writing Portfolio Reflection Essay and a Big Question Portfolio Reflection Essay. This new assessment was introduced to teachers in professional development sessions in August of 2012 and implemented in grades 9-11 that year. While teachers generally felt these were an improvement, there were specific areas that many felt needed to be strengthened. In June of 2013, a working group of 12 Honors teachers reviewed feedback from a county-wide survey and a set of ideas from department chairs, and made significant revisions to the program, including:  Increasing the focus on reflection throughout the year in the writing portfolio  Providing more resources 3 | P a g e  Revising rubrics for both assessments to better reflect curricular goals and to increase the level of rigor  Providing annotated anchor essays for both assessments, using student work from the spring of 2013, in order to clarify expectations for both teachers and students  Renaming the final products as the “Writing Reflection Essay” and “Big Question Project” to better reflect the nature of the programs  Renaming the set as Honors English Assessments, to avoid confusion about the role of the portfolios themselves (part of the process, but not the final products/performances)  Differentiating the Big Question Project by grade level, with more structure, support and th scaffolding for 9 graders, and increasing levels of autonomy as students progress each year  Providing three options for the final product for the Big Question: essay, research paper, or multi-media presentation Honors English Core Units – An Instructional Framework In the fall of 2011, we convened a committee of veteran high school English teachers to develop Honors Core Units which would demonstrate the application of rigor and critical thinking skills in instructional and assessment practices in Honors classes. Over the course of the 2011-2012 school year, this group designed a framework and sample units for English 11 Honors. During the 2012-2013 school year, two members of this committee then led a year-long professional development cohort of English 11 Honors teachers from 12 of the 13 high schools to field test the sample units and develop additional units and resources for teachers. The other two committee members were part of this first cohort, implementing the units in their own classrooms and developing additional ones, and they in turn were responsible for facilitating professional development cohorts for English 9 and 10 Honors during the 2013-2014 school year, where teachers would be developing and field testing 9th and 10th grade units, adapting them to the needs of students at these grade levels, and developing resources for other teachers to use. In shaping the core units, the committee focused on ways to foster higher-order thinking skills and tasks for students. 4 | P a g e Cognitive Models for Higher-Order Thinking Skills Two taxonomies of cognition are especially useful in considering the application of higher- order thinking skills in high school English classes. First, most educators are familiar with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, but it worth revisiting this in terms of the specific content of our courses. The table below illustrates examples of each of the 6 levels of cognition in a high school English class. English Tasks in Bloom’s Taxonomy Evaluation Trade drafts with a partner and score each other’s papers using the rubric, identifying specific elements he/she did well and specific elements he/she needs to improve and explain your judgments. Synthesis Write an essay in which you agree with, refute, or modify the following claim. Support your argument with relevant and specific evidence and address any obvious counter-arguments. Analysis Explain how the author uses diction choices and imagery in the passage below to convey a certain mood. Application Place commas in the appropriate place in the sentence below. Comprehension Compare Beowulf and Superman as heroes: in what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different? Which of the following words best captures the mood of the passage below? What problem does Juliet face in this act, and how does she plan on solving it? Knowledge What country was Beowulf from? What did Scout find in the tree? What is a noun? It is important to note the relationship of content and skills at each level. While Bloom himself strongly emphasized that this was a taxonomy and not a hierarchy, the way we approach the development of higher-order cognitive processes in the classroom has profound implications for students. Much of the content of the ELA course of study spirals over time, so that students 5 | P a g e build on basic skills to increasing levels of complexity and sophistication. Students begin examining basic literary elements of plot, character, and setting as early as the primary grades, and build on these in increasing levels of depth and sophistication each year, in addition to learning new concepts each year. In this way, much of the content we cover in our high school classes “should” simply be review, especially in Honors classes. However, the reality is that we often find ourselves re-teaching the same core content year after year, as students are unable to transfer, apply, or retain the skills and concepts they were taught. Nevertheless, teachers must keep in mind that our goals at this level are the higher-order application of these concepts: our objective is not simply for students to identify an example of indirect characterization, or recall the definition of a literary device, but for students to explain how that indirect characterization contributes to the larger purpose (or theme) of a work. To do this, we need to ensure that they can perform the lower-order functions early in the units with clear instruction/review, but quickly provide students with models of this higher-level analysis, opportunities for guided practice doing this analysis with feedback, and assessments that measure their ability to explain how an author uses a technique to achieve a purpose. The second model that is useful for thinking about our larger goals and how we help students achieve them is Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge framework. While this framework focuses not on the level of cognition, but on the complexity of the task, it can put these student products and performances in a context, so that we can scaffold students’ progress towards these more complex tasks. Webb’s model divides all student tasks into four levels. DOK 1 tasks require students to recall, describe, or apply basic procedures. DOK 2 tasks require students to organize, summarize, and identify patterns. DOK 3 tasks require students to develop new questions, formulate and support arguments, synthesize new ideas, and create new works. DOK 4 tasks are long-term activities that require students to conduct projects and synthesize ideas from a wide variety of sources. (Source: http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/sia/msip/DOK_Chart.pdf) 6 | P a g e The table below gives examples relevant to high school English courses. Depth of Knowledge Relevant Tasks in High School English Classes Level 4 Describe and illustrate how common themes are found across texts from different cultures. 3 Determine the author’s purpose and describe how it affects the interpretation of a reading selection. 2 Identify and summarize the major events in a narrative. Use context cues to identify the meaning of unfamiliar words. 1 Recall elements and details of story structure, such as sequence of events, character, plot and setting. Adapted from: http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/sia/msip/DOK_Chart.pdf) Again, as with Bloom’s taxonomy, in most cases students need to master skills and concepts in level 1 and 2 tasks before being able to successfully complete level 3 and 4 tasks. However, we should not wait until all (or most) students fully master the initial skills before moving forward, as the more complex tasks can be opportunities to learn and reinforce these skills and concepts. Teachers should address individual weaknesses, but not keep the whole class from moving to the highest levels of task complexity. The DOK framework helps us keep our larger goals in mind and provides a structure for thinking about a progression of skills, instruction, tasks, and performances that enable students to achieve these goals. Note that most of the assessment tasks in this Resource Guide focus on DOK 3 tasks (such as textual analysis and writing reflection essays) and DOK 4 tasks (such as the Big Question Project and Socratic seminars addressing essential questions supported by multi-genre text sets). This is not to say that we should not be using DOK 1 and 2 assessment tasks (or lower-order thinking skills on Bloom’s taxonomy), but that those should always be used as instructional scaffolding or formative assessment on the path to these larger, more complex, and more authentic goals. 7 | P a g e

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.