Tackling the Text: Techniques to Help All Students Grow

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With a focus on instructional techniques, you will learn how to help students tackle complex texts by 1) improving students’ vocabulary, 2) developing the skills students need to provide textual evidence, and  3) setting the stage for students to read proficiently by building their knowledge. 

Course Details

Start Date:10/06/2020 
End Date: 11/16/2020 
Duration: 6 weeks 
Cost: $20 *
Primary Audience: 3-12 ELA/Literacy Teachers 
Certificate: A certificate showing 12 hours of professional learning is available up course completion. Please reach out to your school district to ensure they will accept it. 

Register here.

Refund Policy: If for any reason you need to drop your facilitated course before the course starts or up to 2 days after the course begins, you will receive a full refund. There are no refunds after the second day of the course. Please contact us at virtual-learning@studentsachieve.net to request your refund.

See the accordion below to review the requirements, pacing, and syllabus. 

  • Course Goals
    • Learn how to identify grade-level, complex text.
    • Learn how to identify academic vocabulary. 
    • Learn how to craft text-specific and text-dependent questions. 
    • Learn how to utilize text sets to build student knowledge. 
  • Course Requirements

    To successfully complete this course and earn your certificate showing 12 hours of professional learning, you must complete the following: 

    • Take the pre-assessment
    • Watch all videos
    • Complete all embedded interactive activities
    • Submit all assignments
    • Participate in all the discussion boards 
    • Take the post-assessment

    Please note: the extension activities are optional. If you choose to complete and submit 4 of them, you will earn a second certificate showing 5 additional hours of professional development. 

  • Course Pacing

    Because this is a self-paced course, you have the freedom to complete the course within a few days or within the six weeks timeframe. However, our recommended pacing is that you spend approximately three hours on each of the four modules over the span of four weeks. 

  • Course Syllabus

    Module 1: Strategic Text Selection: Selecting Texts That Support Students' Literacy Growth
    Objective: You will learn how to use qualitative and quantitative measures to determine a text’s complexity. By the end of the module, you will be able to:

    • Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative text measurements.
    • Apply reader considerations when determining text complexity.
    • Explain why complex texts are essential in the classroom.
    • Analyze a text and determine its complexity.
    • Create a personalized analysis of a chosen text.

    Module 2: Vocabulary Instruction: Which words? When? How? 
    Objective:  You will learn how academic vocabulary is integral to building student knowledge. You will also review some strategies for easily identifying academic vocabulary within a text as well as some strategies for teaching academic vocabulary. By the end of the module, you will be able to:

    • Identify the three types of vocabulary.
    • Explain the impact teaching academic vocabulary has on students’ reading comprehension skills.
    • Utilize the Academic Word Finder to support to vocabulary instruction. 
    • Create classroom activities aligned with academic vocabulary.
    • Reflect on incorporating academic vocabulary instruction within your lesson planning. 

    Module 3: Writing Quality Questions: Letting Students Show What They Know
    Objective: You will learn how to identify and create text-dependent questions to help students ground their thinking with evidence from the text. By the end of the module, you will be able to:

    • Explain the difference between text-dependent and text-specific questions.
    • Identify text-dependent and text-specific questions within context.
    • Determine appropriate text-dependent questions based on a particular text. 
    • Create text-dependent and non-text-dependent questions based on state standards.
    • Reflect on the impact evidence-based answers have on lesson planning.

    Module 4: Building Student Knowledge: Strategies for Designing High-Impact Text Sets
    Objective: You will learn how to create text sets to help students build their knowledge, which will subsequently improve reading comprehension. By the end of the module, you will be able to:

    • Explain the connection between building knowledge and improving comprehension.
    • Identify the qualities of text sets that build knowledge.
    • Analyze a text set for coherence, range of complexity, and vocabulary selection.
    • Reflect on how text sets can inform your lesson planning.
    • Have the opportunity to construct a “starter” text set.