Exemplars & Common Pitfalls

CHOOSE A SUBJECT:

1: Delineate genre-specific expectations

Few states sufficiently delineate genre-specific standards for reading or writing. Instead, many seem to give a perfunctory nod to this important content by saying something fairly general about comparing genres of prose, identifying literary elements, or recognizing the structures of informational text. They sometimes follow those statements with an example or two, but usually fail to go any deeper or to adequately scaffold this content across grades.

Exemplars

Indiana:

The Indiana standards address genres and their subgroups systematically and distinctly. For example:

Analyze characteristics of subgenres, types of writings such as satire, parody, allegory, and pastoral that are used in poetry, prose, plays, novels, short stories, essays, and other basic genres.

  • Satire: using humor to point out weaknesses of people and society.
  • Parody: using humor to imitate or mock a person or situation.
  • Allegory: using symbolic figures and actions to express general truths about human experiences.
  • Pastoral: showing life in the country in an idealistic – and not necessarily realistic – way. (grade 11)

California:

Use clear research questions and suitable research methods (e.g., library, electronic media, personal interview) to elicit and present evidence from primary and secondary sources.

  • Develop the main ideas within the body of the composition through supporting evidence (e.g., scenarios, commonly held beliefs, hypotheses, definitions)
  • Synthesize information from multiple sources and identify complexities and discrepancies in the information and the different perspectives found in each medium (e.g., almanacs, microfiche, news sources, in-depth field studies, speeches, journals, technical documents)
  • Integrate quotations and citations into a written text while maintaining the flow of ideas
  • Use appropriate conventions for documentation in the text, notes, and bibliographies by adhering to those in style manuals (e.g., Modern Language Association Handbook, The Chicago Manual of Style)
  • Design and publish documents by using advanced publishing software and graphic programs (grades 9-10)

Common Pitfalls

Nebraska:

The following overstuffed standard provides so many examples of types of text that it renders each meaningless. Literary and informational text are conflated when each should be treated separately. Too many genres are addressed together. Such standards leave little confidence that students will learn the differences between genres.

Describe the defining characteristics of narrative and informational genres (e.g., folk tales, poetry, historical fiction, biographies, chapter books, textbooks). (grade 4)

North Dakota:

The reading standards for middle and high school are often general. In grades 5-8, the state fails to articulate meaningful expectations around the analysis of informational texts, and the high school standards are not sufficiently rigorous. For example, one ninth-grade benchmark requires students only to:

Identify the organizational features of fiction, drama, and poetry, i.e., stanza, act, scene, chapter, verse, and article (grade 9)

No further elaboration is provided.

2: Focus on metacognition instead of essential content

While early reading standards are generally strong, too many states prioritize metacognitive reading strategies over mastery of essential reading content. Such standards, which often ask students to “activate prior knowledge” or “ask and answer questions” to aid in comprehension, focus more on dubious pedagogical suggestions than they do on clearly defining measurable student outcomes.

For example, while a student may be struggling through a text because she isn’t engaging in close reading or pausing to ensure that she’s understood what she has read, comprehension challenges are more likely due to a lack of critical content knowledge. State standards should, therefore, place a greater emphasis on defining the essential content that students must master to become proficient readers than to suggesting strategies that may or may not help them to comprehend complex texts.

Exemplars

Massachusetts

In MA, standards that focus on metacognitive skills do not overshadow important content. For example, in Pre-K and Kindergarten, students must:

For literary texts

  • 8.1 Make predictions using prior knowledge, pictures, and text. For example, students and their teacher read together Jump, Frog, Jump, by Robert Kalan. When each creature comes to the pond and hints at the next hazard for Frog, the teacher stops reading and asks students to use the pictures and their prior knowledge to make a prediction about what will happen next.
  • 8.2 Retell a main event from a story heard or read.
  • 8.3 Ask questions about the important characters, settings, and events.

For informational/expository texts:

  • 8.4 Make predictions about the content of the text using prior knowledge and text features (title, captions, illustrations).
  • 8.5 Retell important facts from a text heard or read.

By third and fourth grade, students are to:

For imaginative/literary texts:

  • 8.11 Identify and show the relevance of foreshadowing clues.
  • 8.12 Identify sensory details and figurative language. For example, students read The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden, noticing passages that contain figurative language and sensory details, such as: “And the air was full of the roar of traffic and the hum of human beings. It was as if Times Square were a kind of shell, with colors and noises breaking in great waves inside it.” Then students discuss the effect of the images and draw an illustration that captures their interpretation of one image.
  • 8.13 Identify the speaker of a poem or story.
  • 8.14 Make judgments about setting, characters, and events and support them with evidence from the text.

For informational/expository texts:

  • 8.15 Locate facts that answer the reader’s questions.
  • 8.16 Distinguish cause from effect.
  • 8.17 Distinguish fact from opinion or fiction.
  • 8.18 Summarize main ideas and supporting details. For example, students read Christopher Columbus, by Stephen Krensky. In pairs they summarize important facts about Columbus’s voyage, arrival, search for gold, failure to understand the treasures on the islands, and return to Spain. Then students revise, edit, rewrite, and illustrate their reports and display them in the classroom or library.

Common Pitfalls

The following standards are focused on comprehension strategies to the near exclusion of essential, genre-specific content students need to learn to understand literary and informational text.

Iowa:

Use comprehension strategies:
Identify purpose, Activate prior knowledge, Predict and verify, Ask and answer questions, Create visual images, Draw inferences, Monitor for comprehension, Employ fix-ups, Reread, Read ahead, Identify main ideas, Summarize, Draw conclusions, Evaluate, Synthesize, Engage in discussion, Write to learn (grades 3-5)

Nebraska:

Build and activate prior knowledge in order to identify text to self, text to text, and text to world connections before, during, and after reading (grades K-3)

Tennessee:

Derive meaning while reading (e.g., use metacognitive and self-monitoring reading strategies to improve comprehension (reread, ask for help, self-questioning, draw on earlier reading) (grade 5)

3: Prioritize American Literature

Few states prioritize or even mention American literature specifically. The few that do generally include a standard at eleventh grade only, the year in which many students take an American literature course (and, often, a concurrent U.S. history course). There is a rich body of American literature to which students should be exposed beginning much earlier and, in order to help produce well read and culturally literate citizens, state standards should prioritize the study of our common literary heritage throughout the grades.

Exemplars

Massachusetts

Massachusetts defines the quality and complexity of texts to be read by including two exemplary reading lists, one titled “Authors, Illustrators, and Works Reflecting Our Common Literary and Cultural Heritage” and the other, “Suggested Authors and Illustrators of Contemporary American Literature and World Literature.” These lists can help ensure that students will be exposed both to quality American literature of historical significance and to significant contemporary authors from around the world.

District of Columbia

The standards even include a category called “Traditional Narrative and Classical Literature,” which directs students to focus on works that reflect enduring literary heritages, including American literature, as in this grade 11 expectation:

Demonstrate knowledge of 18th- and 19th-century foundational works of American literature, including works by authors such as Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain (grade 11)

Virginia:

When Virginia students reach grade 11, they are required to study American literature:

The student will read, comprehend, and analyze relationships among American literature, history, and culture.

  • a. Describe contributions of different cultures to the development of American literature
  • b. Compare and contrast the development of American literature in its historical context
  • c. Discuss American literature as it reflects traditional and contemporary themes, motifs, universal characters, and genres
  • d. Analyze the social or cultural function of American literature…
  • i. Read and analyze a variety of American dramatic selections
  • j. Analyze the use of literary elements and dramatic conventions including verbal, situational and dramatic irony used in American literature…(grade 11)

Common Pitfalls

The vast majority of states include no American Literature in their ELA standards. Those that do too-often mention American Literature only in passing.

Texas:

While the high school standards include occasional and perfunctory nods to the importance of reading important works of American literature, the state makes no reference to American literature in grades K-8.

Montana:

The Montana standards make only a passing (and politically correct) reference to the importance of reading outstanding works of American literature:

Recognize author’s purpose, point of view, and language use in culturally diverse texts, including those by and about Montana American Indians (end of grade 4)

Ohio:

The Ohio standards fail to specify expectations for the study of outstanding American literature. In fact, the lone reference (in grade 12) to America’s literary heritage is not only conflated with all literature ever written, it is so vague that it is ultimately meaningless:

Compare and contrast varying characteristics of American, British, world and multi-cultural literature (grade 12)

4: Clearly outlining expectations for student writing

Too few states provide adequate guidance regarding the quality of writing expected of students. In some states, the writing standards are written in vague language that fails to clearly delineate what, precisely, students should know or be able to do.

Exemplars

Massachusetts

The standards for writing are comprehensive, and include formal research and the correct use of oral and written con¬ventions. Again, examples help to indicate the level of rigor expected, as in this standard from grades 11-12:

Write coherent compositions with a clear focus, objective presentation of alternate views, rich detail, well-developed paragraphs, and logical argumentation.

  • For example, students compose an essay for their English and American history classes on de Toqueville’s observations of American life in the 1830s, examining whether his characterization of American society is still applicable today (grades 11-12)

California

The Writing standards address the analysis and production of all writing genres and include rigorous expectations re¬garding research, as in the following standard from grades 9-10:

Use clear research questions and suitable research methods (e.g., library, electronic media, personal interview) to elicit and present evidence from primary and secondary sources.

  • Develop the main ideas within the body of the composition through supporting evidence (e.g., scenarios, commonly held beliefs, hypotheses, definitions)
  • Synthesize information from multiple sources and identify complexities and discrepancies in the information and the different perspectives found in each medium (e.g., almanacs, microfiche, news sources, in-depth field studies, speeches, journals, technical documents)
  • Integrate quotations and citations into a written text while maintaining the flow of ideas
  • Use appropriate conventions for documentation in the text, notes, and bibliographies by adhering to those in style manuals (e.g., Modern Language Association Handbook, The Chicago Manual of Style)
  • Design and publish documents by using advanced publishing software and graphic programs (grades 9-10)

Common Pitfalls

Many states merely provide a long list of genres students should study. For example:

Iowa

Write using different formats:

  • Letter
  • Journal
  • Narrative
  • Expository paragraph
  • Research report
  • Poetry
  • News article/editorial
  • Script
  • Radio announcement
  • Blog (Grades 3-5)

Even when some states attempt to clarify some genre-specific content, they frequently fall woefully short.

Mississippi:

While this standard requires students to use evidence as support, there is much more that students need to master to become proficient writers of different genres.

The student will compose formal persuasive texts, providing evidence as support. (grade 11)

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