Summarizing Stories: Conflict vs Problem

I'm not sure if anyone else is seeing this problem, but it sure opened my eyes to how kids perceive stuff. We need to help kids make discerning choices in differenctiation between the conflict in a story and the problems characters experience.

I was in an EOC prep class, observing. The kids were reading this passage about Pierce the Spaceman from ereadingworksheets.com.

The text works itself out like this:

Setting, Characters, Problem:  

• Pierce the spaceman has to go get some crystals to power the defese shields for Planet Zaroo.

Rising Action: 

• It was a high gravity day, and it was getting really cold.
• He had to dive through radioactive sludge to get to the crystals.
• As he got the crystals, a Toxipus disonnected his air supply. She shot the beast just before he passed out and died.

Climax: 

• Pierce wakes up in heaven where he is told tha the mus finish his mission to share the power of the crystals. 

Falling Action:

•  He wakes up in the sludge and notices the crystals are leaking air bubbles from where he had nicked them when he shot the Toxipus
• He uses the crystals to breathe and gets back to his spaceship to deliver the crystals. 

Resolution: 

• After a tiny bit of trouble getting his spaceship to start, he's off and away to deliver the crystals.

THE PROBLEM: 

When the boy I was working with was asked to summarize the story, he describe the CONFLICT as the Toxipus disconnecting the air supply.

Y'all, that's not the character's main goal or problem he is trying to resolve. It's just an obstacle in the rising action! Missing that key piece of data would change the reader's understanding of the character's motivation and the major point/themes of the story.

Solution: We need to make sure we make a distinction about the difference between CONFLICT and problems characters experience.  It's important to help students see conflict as the goal the character is trying to achieve. The character will experience more problems in the story. We call those the obstacles he has to overcome in order to reach his goal or solve his initial problem. 

We can also foster more sophisticated thinking by annotating the text for the elements of plot instead of writing the summaries beside each paragraph. We have to go beyond what's in the paragraphs themselves and point students toward thinking about how the paragraphs function to deliver the genres, message, or purpose of the author.

Support for TYPES of STAAR Summary

Accidentally deleted the old post. Dad gummit.

Found something interesting…I printed all the 5th grade summary items from the lead4ward IQ tool and did a sort to find the types of summary so I could make some lessons for each kind. I recorded the sentence stems by genre and then sorted by what the questions were asking kids to consider. Could it be that we aren't making gains in summary because we are only teaching a part of what the state interprets it to be? What if we named these cognitive moves with students and made this kind of thinking explicit?

Are we teaching summary with multiple genres?

• Fiction assessed 5 times
• Expository assessed 17 times
• Poetry assessed once
• Drama assessed 3 times
• Literary Nonfiction assessed once

Are we teaching all of the TYPES of summary?

• how to summarize the WHOLE text
• how to summarize PIECES of the text
• how to identify SUPPORTING ideas that match main ideas
• how to identify MAIN ideas when offered supporting ideas
• how to make connections about LOGICAL ORDER
• how to RETELL
• how to identify a main idea about a TOPIC or IDEA in the text

Ideas for Summarizing Sections of Text:

• Summarize the sections of a story and explain their function: setting, character description, conflict, rising action, falling action, conclusion
• Summarize sections of articles, noting their structure and function in the passage as a whole
• Summarize standzas of poems
• Summarize scenes from plays, monologues, soliloquy's, etc., situating them in terms of how they add to the the whole play or author's purpose
• Summarize an idea or topic in a text
• Summarize individual paragraphs or sections of paragraphs

Ideas for Quoted Text:

• Offer kids main idea or thesis statements from the text. Have kids find sentences that support them
• Offer kids supporting details from a text. Ask kids to craft a main idea statement from the sentences.
• Note - the state says our kids are choosing distractors that restate the main idea instead of supporting them. Probably need to teach a lesson on the differences between restating and supporting. Seems like that would eliminate a lot of the silly repetition in their written essays too.

Ideas for Logical Order: I didn't realize these were tagged as summary. But it makes sense. I think we need to look for more of this type of stuff in what the kids are reading. There are only two stems available to us.

• What led ____ to consider _____? (resembles summarizing a character's motivation to me)
• According to the article, the _____ began when -

Ideas for Retelling: I didn't realize this rather. But it makes sense. We retell stuff to help us monitor our comprehension. I don't think these stems are that replicable for any text, but they give us an idea of what we could include in our work with texts.

• _______ was originally intended for -
• According to the selection, what is the reason _____?
• According to the article, ____(recall facts).
• In what ways does ____?

What's the problem with STAAR Summary?

Well. Nothing. But part of the problem is that the way we teach it isn't what our brains have to do to process the way it's assessed. Here's a link to the document I used to make the analysis. And here's what I think we need to do about each of the problems present in the distractors. I think we need to start telling the kids to ask: What's wrong with this summary?

And I don't think we are going to get better at summary items on assessments by summarizing. As readers taking a test, our brains are not really summarizing -- we are evaluating summaries and evidence. It's a different skill. 

Hear me clearly: we are not getting better on summary because we are actually teaching summary. STAAR offers summaries, calls them summaries, and we still need to know how to summarize, but we are not summarizing when we are answering STAAR summary questions. We need to actually start teaching the flawed ways summaries show up in distractors.

Solution: Give kids collections of summaries about the same text and have them ask: What's wrong with this summary? What's it missing? What's not true? What's just a restatement or detail instead of the importance and gist? They need to be comparing and evaluating the merits of each summary against another one. Just like they have to do in the multiple choice options.

Below are a series of links to take you to lessons about Summary and what needs to be taught that will move our needle on assessment results. 

Elements of Fiction

Fiction: Incorrect Information

Expository: mostly about vs details 

 Expository: Gist and Text Structure

Data (Evidence) Selection and Interpretation

Supporting Evidence Errors

The problem with inference on STAAR might not be inference.

We are reading Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension. 

It's taking me some serious time to diffuse the text and the implications for instruction. And chapter 4 is a doozy.

Here's what I'm learning:
The Importance of Inferences: An Overview: 

We have to stop teaching inference as a predictive, cognitive act and stop there with probable answers. We must teach thinkers to question, test, and challenge their predictions with further data and continued reading that makes the links between sentences cohere both locally and globally. 

You see, we are asking kids to use text evidence to support their answers - but we are forgetting to teach them the ways that text evidence functions. Like so many things - we are telling kids to infer and to cite text evidence, but neglecting to tell them how. In the case of inferences, it's even worse. We are only teaching a part of what it really involves as well as teaching elaborative inferences that really don't work. 

Telling the Difference between Necessary and Elaborative inferences. Quiz yourseslf here. 

 Predictive and elaborative inferences are dangerous because they often get the reader thinking about stuff that isn't connected with the author's purpose or the gist of the story. What we should be doing instead.

 The kinds of questions we need to ask to tell if kids can make an inference, what kinds, or if there is another problem. 

Quiz yourself. Can you ask the different types of inference questions for this text?

QAR Solution

The Role of Memory, Knowledge, and Expectations

Teaching additive, redactive, and constrained inference.

More on Memory Struggles
More on Background and Vocab
A tiny bit More on Expectations 

3 Easy ways to Improve Inference Making

Resetting a Sour Class

A dear friend had one of those observations where the leader walked out of the room shaking her head. He was told there were a few things he could do to make things better...but that he just had a rough class. Perhaps, they consoled, he should just survive until 9:35 each day. 

Um. No. 

What follows is something I've heard boot came or whole class reset. Sounds awful. But...so is being hostage of your own classroom when you can't teach and the kids are making fun of you openly, derisively, and defiantly. I wrote about what I have tried with very difficult situations...but note - you still have to be human and compassionate. We aren't instituting a prison camp, but re-establishing leadership and control so everyone in the classroom is safe to learn and teach.

Prepare the Room and Hallway:

• Put tape by door where kids will line up and where the line ends; put a second line two feet away to start the new line when the first one fills up before the next teacher’s door
• Get a bucket of writing utensils and warning cards ready
• Have worksheets on desks; have a sheet of notebook paper or copy paper on the desks too
• desks in rows, facing front of room
• Shut the door
• Lights on

As students arrive:

• Greet them warmly, and direct them to stand in line facing the front
• Ask students to have their writing utensils out so they can show you they have them.
• If students do not have a utensil, give them one and a warning card. Tomorrow, you must have a utensil, or you will have a detention.
• Prepare five office referrals for defiance or disruption.
• If they start to argue, don’t engage. Say, I’d be happy to speak with you about that during your lunch time or after school. If they argue further, say, I’ve stated when we can discuss that. You may line up and get out your utensil or receive an office referral for defiance.

When the bell rings:

• Ask the students to stop talking and look at you.
• Say: I am here to teach. You are here to learn. We are going to work together to make this a more pleasant experience. Each day, we will line up and prepare to enter the classroom.
• Teach: Teach kids how to stand in line. Say: you should be standing directly behind the person in front of you. Hold out your hands shoulder width in front of you. Say: Everyone’s head and shoulders should be in between my hands.
• Now, before entering class, we will all stand in line without talking. I will give instructions. Then you will enter class and begin. If someone talks or cannot keep their hands to themselves, they will be sent to the office for defiance or disruption and we will start over.

Follow Through:

• If someone talks, whispers, gets out of line, touches someone, gives an ugly faces, breathes like they are being negative…
• STOP the class. Freeze. Everyone stand up. Go back to your place in line in the hallway.
• As students exit, walk up to the child privately, Send the child to the office, naming the offense (You were told not to speak. Go to the office.)
• Bring the class back to silent line formation.
• State the expectations: I am here to teach. You are here to learn. You are to walk into the room quietly and begin work.
• Look for perfect compliance. Eye rolls, whispers, getting out of line, breathing or sighing in frustration to be negative…
• Follow the previous steps. Send kids to the office and restart the “lesson” on entering the room.

Once you are in the room and students are seated:

• Call the class to attention. I usually say, “everyone, look at my big nose.” You probably can’t be funny right now. “Everyone, stop talking and look at me.” Wait for them to do so.
• If they don’t stop talking, stop the class. Ask everyone to line up again outside. Give the office referral to the child that was talking and repeat the steps you completed in the hall.
• Once you are back in the room call the class to attention again. Ask everyone to put down their pencils, put their hands in their laps, point their knees and faces in your direction.
• Wait until they are quiet.
• As I said in the hallway, I am here to teach; you are here to learn. We are going to work together to make this a more pleasant experience. Today, we will practice how to enter class and begin working. We will reset the class out in the hall to explain and correct procedures each time there is a disruption. There will be no more warnings. You have been in school for 9 plus years. You know how to behave and you have a clear understanding of the rules. I expect you to do what I say, and when I say so.
• On your desk, you have a task to complete. You are to work quietly, independently, and without interruption. When you finish the task, you may read independently. If you do not have a book, I will provide you with one.
• I will set the timer for 7 minutes. I will reset the timer each time there is a disruption or someone has not followed the instructions. We will reset the class in the hallway where I can reteach the proper procedures and we will begin again.
• When the class is able to focus on a task for 7 minutes, we will stop and debrief what we have learned. You may begin working.
• Stand at the front of the room and look at every student for compliance. Reset immediately when needed. Stop the timer and go back in the hallway.
• Once you can stand at the front of the room and can look at every student for compliance without interruption, call the class to order. Say, Thank you, class. I will now walk by your desks to monitor your progress. As I pass by, put your thumb or finger in the margin of the next near where you are reading. If you are writing, just keep going. Please go back to work.
• Sweep the class, asking the students to place their thumbs in the margin of the text if they are reading silently so that you can see where they are working as you pass. If students are not reading or writing, send the student to the office and reset the timer and the class.
• Return to the front of the room and observe. Be very still.

When the class has worked for 7 minutes:

• Congratulations class. You have been able to focus on learning for 7 minutes.
• Take out the notebook paper on your desk. Fold it in half lengthwise. On the top column, write a plus sign. On the top of the second column, write a minus sign.
• Eyeball the class for compliance.
• Put your pencils down. Hands in lap.
• Remember – reset any time.
• Now, think about three things you liked about this experience and three things that you did not like. Wait 30 seconds.
• Pick up your pencils and write three bullets for each side. Put your pencils down when you are finished.
• When most have finished, say, “Pencils down. Now, I am going to set the timer for 7 minutes. You will write about your thoughts for the entire time. If you don’t know what to write, you may write, ‘I can’t think of anything else to say.’ But you must write the entire time. Begin.”  
• Reset when necessary. Reset the timer and be ready to give more paper.
• When the timer goes off, say: Congratulations. In this class, we read, we write, or we discuss our skills and strategies so that I can teach and you can learn. You may now read independently for the rest of the period.
• Reset the class when necessary.
• 2 minutes before bell: Call the class to attention. Did you like class today? Allow open response. Is this the way you would like our days to run? Or would you like to have more interaction and freedom? Allow response. I usually said something like, “I know how to teach both ways. I’m ready to stay with this method until we have the correct behavior from our class. When I feel confident that we are all on the same page for behavior and respect, I will add in one instructional feature at a time.” Sometimes, I say, “Tomorrow, I will play music while you read independently until I have to reset the class for interruptions.”

I’d keep this boot camp routine for at least a week. If you can’t get the class under control, you aren’t getting in the TEKS anyway. This has to come first.

Your Fan,

Shona Rose

STAAR WRITING: What will it be called for 4 and 7 during transition years?

Question:

Here’s a question I received: When Tyson Kane was talking about proceeding forward with expository/informational, did he give a specific answer regarding the language that will be used on the test, specifically composition, during the overlap years? The people sitting around me were certain we would see “informational” rather than “expository” on composition this year, but then a group behind me heard the exact opposite. 

Answer from Shelly Ramos: 

Hi Shona,

Thanks again for inviting us out to CREST. It was a pleasure to attend and present. In answer to your question below, when we asked our teacher committees they responded that informational and expository are closely aligned for both reading and writing. As a result, our plan is to identify the written composition on Grades 4 and 7 as informational/expository during the two transition years. For English I and II, we do not yet have final answers on writing genres. As you can imagine, we are trying to determine what should be done with English II, were the genre has changed from persuasive to argumentative. We are working on a final decision and hope to have that soon. Once we know more, we’ll include that information on the Assessed Curriculum documents on the webpage.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Shelly Ramos