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Text Complexity: A Deeper Look

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Session Goals

• Demonstrate an understanding of text complexity and its impact on teaching and learning

• Identify factors that contribute to text complexity

• Brainstorm strategies for addressing the issue of text complexity at the school and classroom levels

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Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

So she was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid ), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

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The Text Complexity Issue

Research shows that the ability to read and comprehend complex text is the best predictor of college success.

IssueThe books that students read, or certainly many of the books that students read at K-12, became easier after 1962. College books have not become easier.

Recent text measurement studies have found that college textbooks, workplace texts, domestic newspapers, international English newspapers, and citizenship texts (IRS 1040 form, juror instructions, health advisories, Wikipedia feature articles) all share a remarkably consistent range of text complexity (1200L to 1400L). The medium demand for grade 12 text is 1130L.

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The Text Complexity Issue

What Compounds the Problem?Students in high school are not only reading texts that are significantly less demanding than those they will encounter in college, but instruction with any text they do read is heavily scaffolded. In college students are expected to read independently.

FurthermoreThe amount of reading in college is substantially more than what students typically experience in high school. It can be up to 8 times greater.

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Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges (in Lexiles)

Text Complexity grade band in the

StandardsOld Lexile Ranges

Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR

Expectations

K-1 N/A N/A

2-3 450-725 450-790

4-5 645-845 770-980

6-8 860-1010 955-1155

9-10 960-1115 1080-1305

11-CCR 1070-1220 1215-1355

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The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

• The man took off his dark, stained hat and stood with a curious humility in front of the screen. “Could you see your way to sell us a loaf of bread, ma’am?”

• Mae said “This ain’t a grocery store. We got bread to make san’widges.”

• “I know, ma’am.” His humility was insistent. “We need bread and there ain’t nothin’ for quite a piece, they say.”

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The Grapes of Wrath (con.)

• “F we sell bread we gonna run out.” Mae’s tone was faltering.

• “We’re hungry,” the man said.

• “Whyn’t you buy a san’widge? We got nice san’widges, hamburgs.”

• “We’d sure admire to do that, ma’am. But we can’t. We got to make a dime do all of us.” And he said embarrassedly, “We ain’t got but a little.”

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The Grapes of Wrath (con.)

• Mae said, ”You can’t get no loaf of bread for a dime. We only got fifteen-cent loafs.”

• From behind her Al growled, “God Almighty, Mae, give ’em bread.”

• “We’ll run out ‘fore the bread truck comes.”

• “Run out then, goddamn it,” said Al. He looked sullenly down at the potato salad he was mixing.

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Three Factors Used to Measure Text Complexity

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Measuring Text Complexity: Three Factors

1. Qualitative evaluation of the text: Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands

2. Quantitative evaluation of the text: Readability measures and other scores of text complexity

3. Matching reader to text and task: Reader knowledge, motivation, and interests as well as the complexity generated by the tasks to be assigned and the questions to be posed

Note: More detailed information on text complexity and how it is measured is contained in Appendix A

Traditional Focus

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How do we get them there?“…harder texts may be appropriate for highly knowledgeable or skilled readers, and easier texts may be suitable as an expedient for building struggling readers’ knowledge or reading skill up to the level required by the Standards.”

“The reader brings to the act of reading his or her cognitive capabilities (attention, memory, critical analytic ability); motivation (a purpose for reading, interest in content, self-efficacy as a reader); knowledge (vocab. and topic knowledge, linguistic and discourse knowledge, knowledge of comprehension strategies). App. A.7

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Text Exemplars

• Appendix B: Table of Contents p. 4-13 provides samples to exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Standards require all students in a given grade band to engage with.

• Turn and Talk:– Review the text exemplars for your grade level and

discuss the implications.

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Literature: Stories, Drama, Poetry

Informational Texts: Literacy Nonfiction

4-5

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

• Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbit• ‘Words Free As Confetti’ Pat Mora• Bud, Not Buddy Christopher Paul

Curtis• Zlateh the Goat Issac Bashevis

Singer• M.C. Higgins , the Great Virginia

Hamilton

• Hurricanes: Earth’s Mightiest Storms Patricia Lauber

• The Kid’s Guide to Money: Earning It, Saving It, SpendingIt, Growing It, Sharing It

• A History of US Joy Hakim• Volcanoes Seymour Simon• Underground Railroad Henrietta

Buckmaster

Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, and Range of Student Reading 4-5

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6-8

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1869)

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)

• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1915)

• The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)

• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (1975)

• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (1976)

• “Letter on Thomas Jefferson” by John Adams (1776)

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by

• Frederick Douglass (1845)• “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat:

Address to Parliament on May 13th,• 1940” by Winston Churchill (1940)• Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the

Underground Railroad by Ann• Petry (1955)• Travels with Charley: In Search of

America by John Steinbeck (1962)


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9-10

• Little The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1592)

• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)

• “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe (1845)

• “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (1906)

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)

• “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry (1775)

• “Farewell Address” by George Washington (1796)

• “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln (1863)

• “State of the Union Address” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941)

• “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964)

• “Hope, Despair and Memory” by Elie Wiesel (1997)

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Standard 10: Range, Quality and Complexity of Student Reading

To become college and career ready, students must grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, centuries…..

…Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary non-fiction of steadily increasing sophistication, students gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge, references, and images; the ability to evaluate intricate arguments; and the capacity to surmount the challenges posed by complex texts.

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Reading Standard 10

• Let’s read across the grade levels and notice how this standard changes yet remains the same. (Appendix A p. 10)

• Discuss with your partner what you notice.

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Text Complexity Demands

Grade(s) Reading Standard 10 (individual text types omitted)

K Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

1With prompting and support, read prose and poetry [informational texts] of appropriate complexity for grade 1.

2By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts] in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

3By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts] at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

4By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts] in the grades 4–5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

5By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts] at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

6By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

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Text Complexity Demands

Grade(s) Reading Standard 10 (individual text types omitted)

7By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

8By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

9-10

By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

11-12

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature [informational texts, history/social studies texts, science/technical texts] at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

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Scaffolding

• Complex Task:

• Students evaluate Jim Murphy’s The Great Fire to identify which aspects of the text( e.g. loaded language and the inclusion of particular facts) reveal his purpose: presenting Chicago as a city that was “ready to burn.” [RH.6-8.6]

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The Great FireJim Murphy

• Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn. The city boasted having 59,500 buildings, many of them-such as the Courthouse and the Tribune building-large and ornately decorated. The trouble was that about two-thirds of all these structures were made entirely of wood. Many of the remaining buildings (even the ones proclaimed to be ‘fireproof’) looked solid, but were actually jerrybuilt affairs; the stone or brick exteriors hid wooden frames and floors, all topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs. It was also a common practice to disguise wood as another kind of building material. The fancy exterior decorations on just about every building were carved from wood, then painted to look like stone or marble. Most churches had steeples that appeared to be solid from the street, but a closer inspection would reveal a wooden framework covered with cleverly painted copper or tin.

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Scaffold• Identify a sample task in your grade level, in Appendix B• Apply that task to an engaging, accessible text• Apply that task to an engaging, less accessible text…

Access Motivation

• Consider your students’ purpose for reading, interest in the content, self-efficacy as a reader• Consider interest surveys, accessing students’ cultural background and experience

Support Foundational Skills as Needed

• Use page 15-17 of K-5 Standards to identify Foundational Skills• Consider additional support resources (i.e. Words Their Way)

Conversation Points:

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What Next?

• Buy the books listed in Appendix B and distribute them at each grade level? NO!

• Explore readability formulas already being used? (Fountas and Pinnell, Fry, Dale-Chall, Lexiles)

• Use your current data from Wireless, STEP, RISE

• Match kids to texts? (SRI, DRA, QRI, Gates-MacGinitie)

• Shared Reading, Read Aloud-Think Aloud, Guided Reading, Reading Conferences?

• Other?

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Activity: Implications

• Each pair prepares a list of the two most important changes they see as a result of the text complexity stratification for the following levers.

1. Curriculum: What are the academic tasks (content, knowledge, skills) that we ask students to do?

2. Pedagogy: How do teachers support student learning?

3. Assessment: How do we know students are learning?

4. Collaboration: How do adults learn and improve their practice?

5. Structure: How do we use time, space, technology, and other resources to enable student learning?

6. Interventions:

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