Confronting Informational Text

When tenth graders take the OGT, they'll be faced with reading literary text, much like they're accustomed to reading in their English language arts classes. But they'll also confront informational text that's intended to inform, persuade, or explain something to the reader. The passages vary from 500 to 1,200 words in length.

Like most language arts teachers of adolescents, you probably struggle to find samples of such passages for your students to practice with. Perhaps you download essays and newspaper articles from the Internet. Sometimes, you might find it useful to borrow sections of textbooks from content areas such as science and social studies.

And yet you are likely to question your success in teaching students to read and comprehend challenging informational text. You might find it helpful to expand your ideas of informational text beyond the passages that are similar to those in the OGT and other tests. Let's consider some different forms of informational text for your students to delve into and some ways to engage them in difficult text.

Start with short passages

Before jumping into something totally new for your students, you might want to start with the familiar―a newspaper article, a letter to the editor, an essay, or even an advertising campaign for a seminar or a new product. Sometimes, a news item sparks a flood of articles―pro and con―about an issue. For example, the U.S. Division of Wildlife recently announced that the Yellowstone grizzly bears will be removed from the endangered species list and thus from the protection provided.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition questioned the decision in an article on its website: http://www.greateryellowstone.org/issues/issue.php?threatID=7. In a second posting on its website, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition quotes from an article by David Quammen in the New York Times op-ed section: http://www.greateryellowstone.org/press/article.php?article_id=1042. Quammen also questions the decision and details his concerns about the potential plight of the bear if it is taken off the endangered species list.

Published on the Greater Yellowstone Organization's website, the articles about bears are clearly intended to express an opinion. Yet the reader will gain additional information about the ecosystem and the problems to be faced by Yellowstone grizzlies.

As they read the two pieces, students should be encouraged to think about the facts and issues revealed. The Venn diagram is an excellent graphic organizer to help students extract details from the text. Consider the following diagram based on the article:

Adolescent readers should dig deeper, however, to determine the view of the particular writer as well as the views of others. Encourage your students to find additional articles about the pros and cons of removing the grizzly from the endangered species list. Create opportunities in class to compare arguments. This is also a perfect occasion for working with the science and social studies teachers, who might wish to engage students in a discussion of ecosystems and political pressures and economic factors that impact decisions about wildlife.

What else should students learn from the passage?

Now is the time to go back to the reading benchmarks and to examine them in light of questions that might be asked about these articles. Encourage students to develop potential OGT questions that test benchmarks for the informational text standard. This is a good time to use some of the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) assessment items available on the ORC website as well as released OGT items from the ORC website.

One NAEP constructed-response item asks students to use information from an article about an ancient civilization to explain how the group's success as a civilization might have caused their decline. Students are asked to agree or disagree with the statement and use information from the passage to support their response. Use of this item is an outstanding way to test your students on their ability to look closely at informational text, understand the author's viewpoint, and use information taken from a passage to support their answer to the question―all vital for success on the OGT. (The complete ORC record, ORC# 2094, along with a link to the NAEP item, can be found at the ORC website at http://www.ohiorc.org/record/?id=2094.)

NAEP Assessment Item, Grade 8
Students respond to the question by making an interpretation about the text. This is a sample constructed-response test item used in a past NAEP assessment. From this test item, a visitor may view the reading passage and choose to access information regarding general performance on this item, a scoring guide and student responses (in the case of constructed-response items), and performance on this item by various subgroups. The NAEP website also allows visitors to build a printable database of questions by clicking on "Add Question" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. NAEP Reference Number: 1994-8R8, No. 9. (Author/ncl)

A particularly good OGT item for use with informational text benchmarks is a 2-point constructed-response item that asks students to use information from the passage to show how scientists go about classifying a new life-form they have found. As in the NAEP item mentioned above, students are again asked to give an example from the passage that supports their explanation. (The complete ORC record, ORC# 6013, can be found on the ORC website at http://www.ohiorc.org/record/?id=6013.)

ODE Assessment Item, Grade 10
This question asks students to explain how scientists classify new life-forms, citing specific information from the text to support their response. Students must rely on implicit details from the text to construct a satisfactory answer. This is a sample short answer test item used in a past Ohio Graduation Test. From this test item, a visitor may view the reading passage, scoring rubric, and information regarding the general performance on this item. The Ohio Department of Education's IMS website allows visitors to search for test items and build a printable database of questions by choosing the "Add to Your Backpack" function. ODE Reference Information: 2004-Grade 10 Reading, Annotated Item 28. (Author/laa/ncl)]

The chart below details student scores for this question. As you can see, only 12 percent of the students responding to the question received the full 2 points, while 26 percent received a score of zero.

The ODE assessment item assesses students' ability to explain and analyze how an author appeals to an audience and develops an argument or viewpoint in text (Informational Text, Benchmark D, Ohio Academic Content Standards).

Engage students in longer works

Tap into students' newfound interest in endangered species to introduce them to longer works. Although Herman Melville's Moby Dick is a literary work, the whaling chapters represent informational text at its best. For many years, researchers who wanted to know more about whales and whaling used these chapters to glean information. Allowing students to see literary text juxtaposed against information helps them to see the results of combining the two forms of writing. Students also are likely to be interested enough in the plot to spend more time digging meaning from the whaling chapters of the novel. By reading such a novel, your students will not only prepare for the test; they will also learn challenging material that often takes them beyond the standards and the test.

The complete, searchable text of Moby Dick is available on the web. The following link will take you directly to one of the whaling chapters: http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/moby_035.html.

The Melville lesson described below is available on the ORC website. The lesson was posted by the New York Times in their daily lesson plans. The plan is useful not just because it focuses on the Melville short story, but because it also enhances the story by including an informational New York Times article about Melville. (The complete ORC record, ORC# 169, can be found on the ORC website at http://www.ohiorc.org/record/?id=169.)

All in a Day's Work: Modernizing Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener
This lesson plan uses a passage from Herman Melville's 1856 tale, "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street," to encourage literary response and creative writing. Students respond in writing to the short story by creating their own modern versions of the tale. This lesson allows students to apply narrative writing strategies in a creative context. Extension activities, interdisciplinary connections, and links to supporting Internet sites are also provided. (author/ncl)

The article that accompanies the Melville short story illustrates for the students the connections between the story written in 1856 and today's world. Through a discussion of Melville's failure to achieve fame during his lifetime, the reporter points out that Melville was ahead of his time―the scrivener fits better into today's cubicle world of offices and relates well to Dilbert cartoons.

Include both literary and informational text in lesson plans

The lesson about "Bartleby the Scrivener" is one of several lessons on the ORC website that promote student engagement with both literary and informational text. New York Times lessons typically focus on fiction, whether drama, poetry, short stories, or novels; however, the lessons usually begin with an article written by a Times reporter about the literature or the background students need as they read the literary selection. The use of fiction and nonfiction in such a context presents teachers with wonderful opportunities to look at the differences between the two types of writing. The two related pieces of text lend themselves to an analysis of author's purpose, use of language, possible bias, and attitude toward the subject―some of the same features highlighted in the Ohio benchmarks for grades 8-10.

By selecting lessons that artfully combine literary and informational text, teachers can teach both literary text benchmarks and informational text benchmarks without shifting away from a rigorous curriculum. Teaching to the test in situations such as these can provide some of the most exciting work of the year in English language arts classrooms.

Carol Brown Dodson is the outreach specialist for the Ohio Resource Center. Dodson was an English language arts consultant for the Ohio Department of Education and is past president of OCTELA (Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts). Dodson, formerly a high school English teacher, department chair, and supervisor of English language arts in Columbus Public Schools, serves on the Ohio Graduation Test Reading Content Committee.

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