1 Reading Street Common Core Edition 2013 Using Sleuth Introduction In this tutorial, you'll be introduced to Reading Street Sleuth, a text resource for Reading Street 2013. You'll learn about the features of this text and how you can use it during smallgroup instruction to support your students in reading increasingly complex text, an overarching goal of the Common Core State Standards. As you navigate this tutorial, follow along with Sleuth and your Reading Street Teacher's Edition. 1
2 Pearson Realize You can also access Sleuth and your Teacher's Edition on Pearson Realize. From the table of contents, select the Online Teacher's Edition. Or click etext at the top of the screen and select Online Teacher's Edition or Sleuth. 2
3 Reading Street Sleuth Sleuths solve mysteries. Reading Street Sleuth helps students unlock the mysteries of text by encouraging them to read like detectives through close reading routines. Sleuth contains weekly on-level selections for Kindergarten through Grade 6. There are 30 passages at each grade level that include an appropriate balance of 40 percent fiction and 60 percent nonfiction. The passages are written to the Lexile grade-level bands suggested by the Common Core State Standards. Students at all ability levels read the same selection from Sleuth independently or during small-group instruction. The short, high-interest text engages and motivates students while scaffolded instruction provides all levels of readers access to complex text. The scaffolded instruction is located in the Small Group Instruction pages of your Teacher's Edition. 3
4 Features Every selection in Reading Street Sleuth is tied to the weekly concept and main selection in the student edition. The passage gives students another reading opportunity to further explore the weekly concept. Students read shorter passages with complex text structures. They learn close reading skills in manageable chunks of text and then apply what they have learned to longer pieces of text. You'll provide instructional scaffolds that enable all of your students to access the more challenging texts. You'll use a consistent questioning strategy that requires students to delve deeper into a text to find evidence that supports their opinions and conclusions. At the end of the week students complete a performance task. Students share what they know, defend their positions, and engage in question and discussion activities required by the Common Core State Standards. They will take what they've learned and put it all together in a presentation for the group. Presentations may be oral or written, print or digital. 4
5 Assigning Sleuth on Realize On Pearson Realize, you can download a reproducible of the weekly Sleuth reading selection or assign students to read the selection using their Sleuth etexts. When students read selections using the Sleuth etext, they can bookmark pages, use the pin to identify important information and take notes, and highlight text. 5
6 Super Sleuth Steps An important goal of Reading Street Sleuth is to help students become thoughtful and curious readers. They will develop new ideas and opinions based on their reading comprehension and use text evidence to support their thinking. At the heart of Sleuth is the Common Core goal of close reading. Students engage in close reading to find evidence that helps them form an opinion or argument and then express their thinking through writing and other performance tasks. The four Super Sleuth Steps provide open-ended questions that require readers to dig deeper into text to develop new modes of thinking and new insights about a topic. The Super Sleuth Steps are listed here. Students can refer to the steps and the Sleuth Tips in their Sleuth texts. Now let's go over each step in more detail. 6
7 Step 1: Look for Clues/Gather Evidence In Step 1, students in Kindergarten through Grade 2 Look for Clues, while students in Grades 3 through 6 Gather Evidence. All students return to the Sleuth text to find clues and evidence that help them answer a key question. They may be asked to identify the sequence of events, look for causes and effects, compare and contrast information, recognize bias, or determine credibility. Please note that the Kindergarten Sleuth text resource is a read aloud located in the Small Group Instruction section of the Teacher's Edition. Now let's look at a couple of examples. In "What Do You Do?" from Grade 1, students are asked, How is the job of a farm vet different from the job of a regular vet? In "The Metro City News" from Grade 4, students are asked, What evidence can you find to support the idea that it takes many people working together to put out a newspaper? 7
8 Step 2: Ask Questions In Step 2: Ask Questions, students are asked to generate and evaluate questions based on their reading. They explore their interests, think like an expert, distinguish fact from opinion, make connections among topics, and develop questions for inquiry. Let's look at an example. In "The Metro City News" from Grade 4, students are asked, If you were a reporter covering a news story, what questions would you ask your editor before you went out to gather facts? 8
9 Step 3: Make Your Case In Step 3: Make Your Case, students use evidence they've gathered to build a convincing argument. They support their position with text evidence and prior knowledge. Students justify what they believe and convince others. They think, debate, discuss, draw conclusions, and summarize or retell key points. For example, in "What Do You Do?" from Grade 1, students are asked, Do you think a farm vet should take care of farm pets too, such as dogs or cats? Why or why not? 9
10 Step 4: Prove It! You will find Step 4: Prove It! in the Teacher's Edition. In this step, students are given an opportunity to prove they've developed a deep understanding of the text. Students apply their learning through performance tasks. Performance tasks allow students to develop new insights and make cross-curricular connections. They write, research, role-play, create art, and debate in partners or small groups. For example, for "The Metro City News" from Grade 4, students work in small groups to create a flowchart or cartoon that shows the process of creating a newspaper. Closing Reading Street Sleuth is a tool that will help all students achieve key goals of the Common Core State Standards including finding text evidence, reading increasingly complex text, and completing performance tasks. Reading Street Sleuth activates students' natural curiosity and motivates them with high-quality, engaging text. Thank you for joining me during this tutorial. 10