Moving Toward the Common Core

These are the times that try men’s souls.

Text Complexity is part of the third shift

taking place as CCSS are implemented.

Shift 3 Staircase of Complexity

Students read the central, grade appropriate

text around which instruction is centered.

Teachers are patient, create more time and

space and support in the curriculum for close

reading.

Because accessing complex texts allows the

students to practice using academic language.

It allows students to be challenged.

It helps ensure that students are prepared to

independently and proficiently read and

comprehend the variety of text found in

college and careers and real life!

The rigor of high school textbooks has declined in all subject areas over the past several decades.

The average length of sentences in K-8 textbooks has declined from 20 to 14 words.

Vocabulary demands have declined, e.g. 8th

grade textbooks = former 5th grade texts; 12th grades texts = former 7th grade texts

…even though the complexity of college and career texts has remained steady or increased!

-- Council of Chief State School Officers

600

800

1000

1400

1600

1200

Text

Lex

ile M

easu

re (

L)

High

School

Literature

College

Literature

High

School

Textbooks

College

Textbooks

Military Personal

Use

Entry-Level

Occupations

SAT 1,

ACT,

AP*

* Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics

Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%)

Qualitative evaluation of the text

Levels of meaning, structure, language

conventionality and clarity, and knowledge

demands

Quantitative evaluation of the text

Readability measures and other scores of text

complexity

Matching reader to text and task

Reader variables (such as motivation, knowledge,

and experiences) and task variables (such as

purpose and the complexity generated by the

task assigned and the questions posed)

An attentive

human assesses

the text for

quality.

A computer

assesses the

text for

readability.

The reader and

the purpose for

reading must be

considered too!

Subtle and/or frequent transitions

Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes

Density of information

Less common settings, topics or events

Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences

Complex sentences

Uncommon vocabulary

Lack of words, sentences, or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student

Longer paragraphs

Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures

Use of passive voice

A COMPLEX TEXT is not an impossible text as

the teacher may scaffold to boost students’

background knowledge and build context.

The wrench in the works: Don’t scaffold so

much that the kids get all the info they need

from your pre-reading talk. Give them only

enough info to enable them to do the work of

reading themselves.

• Previewing the text. Read the beginning section and discuss it with teacher-prepared questions.

• Unpacking a Sentence in order to pay attention to language.

• Chunking the Text into manageable pieces and discussing one piece at a time.

• Asking text-dependent questions.

• Front-loading vocabulary.

• Sharing other media (photos/video/etc.)

Everyone!

EL Students and Struggling Learners need complex texts to help them access the language of college and careers. The simplified texts they are often given in class do not help them access this language and because they often have little content, the simplified texts don’t provide any incentive to read more or any push toward ideas!

Allow students to practice with complex

texts with scaffolding and support

Practice with many short texts

Slow down, read and re-read

Pay careful attention to text structure

Offer sequences of text-dependent

questions

Place a premium on GRIT!

Academic Reading is not supposed to be easy.

Students must be allowed to grapple with the

text and meet the challenge!

Teachers must guide and encourage them to be

engaged, observant, responsive, questioning,

and analytical!

Be aware of the reader/s.

Be aware of the task.

Use a readability scale if necessary.

ReadabilityFormulas.com offers a free

readability analysis and gives results using

the four most commonly used readability

scores.

Use text level finder from Google or on

library databases.

Don’t underestimate the use of your

textbooks!