 This webinar will explain unpacking text-dependent prompts. Just as the quote in the black box says, every writer I know has trouble writing. And I know as a writer, when I get ready to start doing my writing, it's oftentimes how I interpret the prompt or how I determine what the prompt is asking me to write to our answer. And I'm going to be taking you on this journey today. If you notice in the lower right-hand corner, there is a link to access a resource page which goes into far more depth and what I'll be covering in this webinar. Let's talk first about Nebraska text-dependent prompts and what that structure actually is. They're written in the following three-sentence structure, and every prompt at any grade level is always written in this manner. The first sentence always sets up or causes for a lead-in with the passage or passages that the student is using being named or possibly a quote from a passage being present in order to help set what the student is going to be writing to. The second sentence in this structure always is the prompt. It's going to tell the student either to analyze or explain and then give it the instructions as to what they're actually supposed to do. And the third sentence is a common sentence that's common to every text-dependent prompt in the state of Nebraska. It always reads, write a well-organized response using specific evidence from the passage home story to support your answer. So you'll always see these three sentences, and they'll be in this order of one, two, and three. Another thing to understand is that from time to time, there's a belief that the prompts are a little bit more mature than what the writers need to... who are ready to respond to. But you have to understand that these prompts go beyond typically what a grade level would expect or the complexity that they would have. Notice that here I share with you that prompts should be written at the depth of knowledge level of a three. And that's just to increase the rigor of the test and to increase and stimulate the thinking of the students. Earlier, just a few seconds ago, I talked about the fact that in the second sentence, it's going to ask students in the prompt to either explain or analyze. It's very important that your students have an experience or know the definition of what the word explain means. In the case of a text-dependent prompt, explain asks in the prompt for you to give details about it or to describe it so that it can be understood. One of the most simple down-to-earth ways for you to share this with your students is that if they see the word explain in the second sentence of the prompt, it's asking you to tell why or how it occurs. It's more descriptive in its nature. Now, when we're asked to analyze, it's asking you to divide the whole into its parts, also to look in depth at each of the parts that are there and to use supportive arguments and evidence for and against. You also can analyze by showing how the parts interrelate to each other. So it's really important that this be in front of your students and they have a strong grasp of what the command verb explain is asking and what the command verb analyze is asking. Because it's asking them to move higher onto the Bluestack Sonomy, up until the level reaches of it, far beyond knowledge and comprehension. They want them to explain something or to analyze. Let's talk about the use of the verbs explain and analyze in our prompts. Now, explain generally grades five and six will have the verb explain within their second sentence of the prompt. While eighth grade and up will use the verb analyze most frequently. However, do not feel safe on that because either verb can be used in a prompt at any grade level. So it's very important that your students have a firm grasp again of the command verb explain and the command verb analyze. Let's look at some non-examples and examples of text-dependent prompts. In this chart, you're going to find all the non-text-dependent analysis examples on the left with the text-dependent analysis on the right. Let's read the first prompt on the right. It's on the left, excuse me. Give three examples of how animals sleep in different ways. And the text-dependent analysis prompt reads as such, both passages tell us about ways that different animals sleep in the wild. Explain why animals sleep in different ways. Write a well-organized response using specific evidence from both passages to support your answers. Let's go back to the non-text-dependent prompt on the left and let's do a little bit of analysis. Now, first of all, you know when you do text-dependent, anything that's text-dependent, it has to draw you back into the passage of passages or the form or the infographic or anything that it was presented to you to provide you with information. In this particular case, it asks the students only to give three examples of how animals sleep in different ways. This is not a text-dependent prompt because the students can rely upon their prior experiences, whether they be with text or with a personal experience or with by listening to something about examples of how students sleep in different ways. But when we look over here at the text-dependent analysis prompt, first of all, it asks you to use the resource in order to tell about ways that different animals sleep. In fact, it asks you to look at both passages about how they sleep and then specifically in the wild. Now, notice that we have the verb explain here, the command verb, so they have to explain, and that is tell how or why, and here's the word why right here, animals sleep in different ways. So that is what they're going to have to have as a focus of their text-dependent writing. Now, notice the third sentence says that they have to write a well-organized response using the specific evidence from both passages to support their answer. So in order for that answer to be correct, it has to have drawn evidence from both passages. So the students need to identify their evidence, make their claim, and then support their claim by evidence from both passages. Let's look at another set. And on the left, again, we have the non-example, and on the right, we have the example. Let's read the non-example first. Here it asks us to identify the literary devices the author uses in the story. Provide evidence from the story in your response. This prompt is a little bit closer to text-dependent analysis because as you notice in the second sentence, it's from the story. But it asks you in a very general way to identify the literary devices. In other words, name all of them that the author used in the story, or identify many or most of them. And then again, notice that it's provide evidence from the story. That's what makes it close, but it's not an in-depth depth of knowledge level three prompt. When we look at the prompt on the left, follow while I read, mood is the feeling or emotion that a reader experiences from a poem or story. Explain how the poem's word choice helps create mood throughout the poem. Write a well-organized response using specific evidence from the prompt to support your answer. Okay, let's look at the first sentence first. They quickly identify that mood is the literary device that they want the reader to focus on. Because they're talking about the feeling or emotion which they have to explain and they need to explain how the poet's word choice specifically the word choice which deals with mood helps create the mood throughout the poem. So when we look down below they have to write a well-organized response and they have to use specific evidence. Now, there is no way that a student cannot without going back into the text respond to this text-dependent analysis prompt. This is a graphic that might help you with your understanding and your student's understanding. Remember that any evidence in a text-dependent prompt is always found in the text. Not out of the text. We can see here where we have to go back into that specific reading but the picture below the students are experiencing through a hands-on experience which is outside of the text. So any information they're going to respond to the prompt on is going to have to come from the text. Let's look at a sample TDA prompts in on this slide we're going to look at grade 5 and grade 6 prompts. Let's look at that first sentence over here. It says walking on the moon and moon landing have similar themes. Analyze how both the story and the poem address the idea that space travel is fascinating. Write a well-organized structured response using specific evidence from both passages to support your answer. Let's look at the first sentence remember all Nebraska prompts are structured with three sentence structure so in the first sentence they identify that one passages name is walking on the moon and the other passages name is moon landing. We know that they have similar themes by what this first sentence shares with us. So they've set the stage for our writing. We're going to use those two pieces. Now it asks us to analyze. So we're going to have to look at the two pieces look at both of the story and the poem and address the idea that space travel is fascinating. So we're going to have to look and walking on the moon and find our evidence and we're going to have to look into moon landing to find our passages both of which share with us or possess the idea that space travel is fascinating. Then we have our third sentence which is write a well-organized structured response using specific evidence from both passages to support your answer. So remember when the students are writing they need to be writing specifically to and finding evidence in both passages. This is a sixth grade prompt. Let's read through this prompt together. In the last sentence of highway of water the author claims the Panama canal is a phenomenon. Analyze how the author supports this claim throughout the passage. Write a well-organized structured response using specific evidence from the passage to support your answer. So we have the three sentences typical Nebraska format and the first sentence names the passage that we have just read. It's called highway of water and it also says that the author claims the Panama canal is a phenomenon. Now phenomenon is bold word because it's probably unfamiliar to your students. In the actual prompt their phenomenon is defined for them so they know what it's meaning and its application within the highway of water because they're going to have to in the second sentence they're going to have to analyze how the author supports this claim throughout the passage. In other words the claim that the Panama canal is a phenomenon. So you're going to have to find it support it find it support it. So again the third sentence is similar and it's that they have to write a well organized response using specific evidence from the passage. So if you help your students break these prompts down it helps. Let's look at a seventh grade and then an eighth grade prompt. Follow along while I read the grade seven prompt. It said in labels for life the author states learning how to read a nutrition label is not only a great lesson in the key elements of nutrition but it's also a great way to learn about making better choices. Analyze how the author supports this statement throughout the passage. Write a well organized response using evidence from the passage to support your answer. So the first sentence tells us that the name of the author of the author's article is labels for life and then we have a direct quote from that that the author makes the claim that learning how to read a nutritional label is not only a great lesson in the key elements of nutrition but it's also a great way to learn about better choices. So sentence number one sets the stage for us. Now in sentence number two notice that our word, our verb is analyzed so we have to find the evidence and support the statement throughout the passage and we have to refer that back to the quote that's in statement number one. So we have to analyze how the author supports this statement throughout the passage. So again, sentence number three is very consistent in what it's asking the students to do. It asks them to write a well organized response using evidence from the passage to support their answer. So let's look at an eighth grade prompt follow as I read in the story oversleeping the author blends reality and fantasy analyze how this helps the reader identify with the main character. Write a well organized structured response using specific evidence from the story to support your answer. Alright, again the first sentence sets the stage for us. They have renamed the story here which is called oversleeping and it states to us also that the author blends reality and fantasy. So what are we going to have to do with the idea that the author blends reality and fantasy we're going to have to analyze. So we have to analyze how the blending of reality and fantasy help the reader identify with the main character of the story. So the first of all the writer has to identify who the main character is. Then they have to analyze how reality and fantasy are blended and how they can identify with the main character. Sentence number three is our typical structure where we have to write a well organized structured response using specific evidence from the story to support your answer. Remember you have to go back in to the text for the evidence not out of the text. So we're going to be always going back into the text for any of our prompts. This is probably the most vivid graphic that you can share with your students in order to help them better interpret and better define how to address a text dependent analysis prompt. I want you to keep in mind that this webinar is available 24-7 and you can watch our lesson as many times as you need. I again have added the resource page link here for you in the lower right hand corner. This link offers you not only access to this PowerPoint but there are passages in practices where I share with you how you would highlight a story or a passage in order to be able to identify the evidence that the prompt is asking you to explain or analyze. Thank you and I appreciate your attention to this webinar. We'll be talking to you again.