Determining the complexity of a text + tasks that build the skills necessary for reading complex texts

1. Complex Texts:
The Bumpy Road of Reading
Materials available at:
http://professionallearning.typepad.com/bigshantypl/

2. A Bumpy Road?
“Perhaps one of the mistakes in past efforts to improve
reading achievement has been the removal of struggle.
As a profession, we may have made reading tasks too
easy. We do not suggest that we should plan students’
failure but rather that students should be provided with
opportunities to struggle and to learn about themselves
as readers when they struggle, persevere, and eventually
succeed.”
From Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading
Fisher, Frey & Lapp, 2012

3. The Demands of
Complex Texts
• Complex texts require these dispositions:
– A Willingness to Probe
– The Capacity for Uninterrupted Thinking
– A Receptivity to Deep Thinking
* A Habit of Slow Reading
“Too Dumb for Complex Texts?”
By Mark Bauerlein
ASCD Educational Leadership, 2011

5. This is the sunflower starfish. It is the biggest of all.
Starfish have many arms. The arms are called rays.
Starfish have arms, but no legs.
Starfish have feet, but no toes. They glide and slide
on tiny tube feet. They move as slowly as a snail.
The basket star looks like a starfish, but it is a little
different. It doesn’t have tube feet. It moves with its
rays. It has rays that go up and rays that go down.
170L

6. High above there is the Moon, cold and
quiet, no air, no life, but glowing in the sky.
Here below there are three men who close
themselves in special clothes, who—click—
lock hands in heavy gloves, who—click—
lock heads in large round helmets.
990L

7. Sometime around 1440, the spring-powered clock was
invented. Instead of depending on the pull of weights for
power, this type of clock used a flat metal spring wound
tightly into a coil. The escapement allowed the spring to
unwind by turning one gear tooth at a time. With the use
of a spring, smaller, truly portable clocks could be made.
The first well-known watches, made in Germany around
1510 by Peter Henlein, were so named because guards or
“watchmen” carried small clocks to keep track of how
long to stay at a particular duty post.
1050L

8. Text Complexity and
Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read
and comprehend complex literary
and informational texts
independently and proficiently.

9. 3-Part Model for Measuring
Text Complexity

10. Measuring Text Complexity:
Matching Reader to Text and Task
Matching Reader to Text and Task
– Reader variables
• Motivation
• Knowledge
• Experience
– Task variables
•
•
•
•
Teacher-led tasks
Peer tasks
Individual tasks
Types of questions
*Determined by teachers using their professional judgment

11. Measuring Text Complexity:
Qualitative
Qualitative Evaluation of Text
– Levels of meaning
• Explicit/Literal vs. Ambiguous/Abstract
• Figurative Language
• Stated, Implied, or Withheld Purpose
– Structure
•
•
•
•
Consistency with genre
Conventional vs. Unique Organization
Narrator
Text Features and Graphics
– Language conventionality and clarity
– Knowledge demands
• Background knowledge
• Vocabulary

12. Measuring Text Complexity:
Quantitative
Quantitative Evaluation of Text
– Word length, frequency
– Sentence length
*Typically measured by computers,
particularly for longer texts

13. Text Complexity
Grade Bands
From CoreStandards.org, Appendix A

14. Determining a Text’s Lexile
Level (Quantitative)
www.lexile.com/analyzer/
Select a passage from:
www.ReadWorks.org
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/
http://www.timeforkids.com/
http://magazines.scholastic.com/
or another website of your choice

15. Lexiles Do NOT Measure
Text Characteristics
• Age-appropriateness
of the content
• Text support (e.g.
pictures, pull-outs)
• Text quality (i.e. Is it
a good book?)
Reader Characteristics
• Interest and motivation
• Background knowledge
• Reading context and
purpose

16. Skim “Food that Fools You.”
Is this text appropriately complex for your grade level?
Why do you feel that way?

17. Teaching Kids to Read
Complex Texts:
Tasks that Motivate Readers

18. Silent Conversation
Source of article:
www.NewsELA.com

19. The Rules of
Silent Conversations
• Your handwriting must be readable.
• Use all the time I give you for writing. Don’t
just write a word or two and quit. Keep
rereading and thinking about the article and
the things other people have written. Keep the
conversation going.
• This is a silent discussion, so no talking until
later on!

20. Text-Dependent
Questions
Source of article:
www.NewsELA.com

21. Text-Dependent
Questions
Is this evidence that the
discovery of Siats meekerorum
was an important discovery?

22. Text-Based Debates
Source of story:
Junior Great Books
www.greatbooks.org

23. Text-Based Debates
1. Read and mark text.
– F = Ooka is fair
– UF = Ooka is unfair
2. Divide into groups:
– I take the position that Ooka is fair.
– I take the position that Ooka is unfair.

24. Text-Based Debates
3. Meet with people who take the same
position to discuss evidence from the text
that supports that position.
4. State your position and give text evidence to
your opponent. Listen to the evidence your
opponent provides and take notes.
My position is that Ooka is _______ and my first reason
is _________. You can see that in the story when it says
__________.

25. Text-Based Debates
5. Meet with original group to discuss how
to respond to opponent’s argument.
You said that ____________ shows that Ooka is
________. I believe that actually show that Ooka is
________ because ___________.
6. Respond to your opponent’s arguments.

26. Quick Draw/
Quick Write
Source of poem:
Appendix B
www.corestandards.org
Grades 2-3 Text Exemplar

27. Sociograms
A sociogram is a visual representation of the
relationships among characters in a literary text

28. Sociograms
• Let the physical distance between characters reflect the
perceived psychological distance between the characters
• Let the size/shape/symbol of a character metaphorically
represent each personality, importance, one’s power or lack
of, etc.
• Lines can be creatively applied: What might the following
types of lines indicate? A jagged line? A wavy line? The
thickness of the line? etc.
• Illustrate the tone and or theme of a piece by the use of color
or visual symbols.
• Add one word to each connecting line. Words may only be
used once!

29. Sociograms