Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

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• Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
• Stuart Greenberg
• Just Read, Florida! and the Office of Early
  Learning
• Florida Department of Education

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Standards changes are hard, but they are
especially hard in this case

• These standards are at a higher level than
  previous standards.
• These standards have a different style and
  organizational structure that makes them more
  challenging for schools to work with.
• Common core standards are based on different
  theories (reading comprehension, writing,
  differentiated instruction) than past standards,
  so they are qualitatively different in several
  ways.

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The Text Complexity The Missing Standard
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Challenging Text

• Text difficulty is central and all cognitive
  skills have to be executed within texts of a
  specified difficulty range.
• Students will likely be taught from texts that
  are more challenging than in the past.
• Emphasis on stretching students to meet the
  demands of reading harder text (rather than on
  placing students in the leveled reader according
  to instructional level).
• Need to learn how to scaffold challenging
  reading.

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Common Core State Standards Text Complexity

• The Common Core State Standards places a strong
  emphasis on the role of text complexity in
  evaluating student readiness for college and
  careers.

The Common Core State Standards hinge on
students encountering appropriately complex
texts at each grade level in order to develop the
mature language skills and the conceptual
knowledge they need for success in school and
life. (p. 3)
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Text Complexity

• Included within the Standards is an enhanced
  focus on text complexity.
• Specifically, within reading standard 10
• Anchor Standard
• R.CCR.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and
  informational texts independently and
  proficiently.
• Example Grade-level Standard (6th grade)
• RI.6.10 By the end of the year, read and
  comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8
  text complexity band proficiently, with
  scaffolding as needed at the high end of the
  range.

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Guiding Questions

• What do the Common Core Learning Standards mean
  by text complexity?
• What is a text complexity band?
• and
• How do we ensure the texts our students are
  reading are in the appropriate text complexity
  band?

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Text ComplexityKey to Student Reading Success

• Text complexity matters because.
• making textbooks easier ultimately denies
  students the very language, information, and
  modes of thought they need most to move up and
  on.
• -Marilyn Jager Adams

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Text Complexity - ACT Study

• Purpose Determine what distinguished the reading
  performance of students likely to succeed in
  college and not.
• Process
• Set benchmark score on the reading test shown to
  be predictive of success in college (21 on ACT
  composite score).
• Looked at results from a half million students.

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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by
Comprehension Level (Averaged across Seven Forms)
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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Textual
Element (Averaged across Seven Forms)
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Text Complexity Matters

• Texts used in the ACT Reading Test reflect three
  degrees of complexity
• uncomplicated,
• more challenging, and
• complex.

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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Degree of
Text Complexity (Averaged across Seven Forms)
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Recap of ACT Findings

• Question type and level (main idea, word
  meanings, details) is NOT the chief
  differentiator between student scoring above and
  below the benchmark.
• The degree of text complexity in the passages
  acted as the sorters within ACT. The findings
  held true for both males and females, all racial
  groups and was steady regardless of family income
  level.
• What students could read, in terms of its
  complexity--rather than what they could do with
  what they readis greatest predictor of success.
  FCAT has complex passages and highly cognitive
  demanding questions.

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Overview of Text Text Complexity

• Text complexity is defined by

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Where do we find texts in the appropriate text
complexity band?
We could.
Use available resources to determine the text
complexity of other materials on our own.

• Choose an excerpt of text from Appendix B as a
  starting place

or
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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
Quantitative Measures

• Measures such as
• Word length
• Word frequency
• Word difficulty
• Sentence length
• Text length
• Text cohesion

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(No Transcript)
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Step 2 Qualitative Measures

• Measures such as
• Structure
• Language Demands and Conventions
• Knowledge Demands
• Levels of Meaning/Purpose

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Step 2 Qualitative Measures
The Qualitative Measures Rubrics for Literary
and Informational Text The rubric for literary
text and the rubric for informational text allow
educators to evaluate the important elements of
text that are often missed by computer software
that tends to focus on more easily measured
factors.
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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Structure (could be story structure and/or form
  of piece)
• Simple ? Complex
• Explicit ? Implicit
• Conventional ?Unconventional
• Events related in chronological order ? Events
  related out of chronological order (chiefly
  literary texts)
• Traits of a common genre or subgenre ? Traits
  specific to a particular discipline (chiefly
  informational texts)
• Simple graphics ? sophisticated graphics
• Graphics unnecessary or merely supplemental to
  understanding the text ? Graphics essential to
  understanding the text and may provide
  information not elsewhere provided

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Language Demands Conventionality and Clarity
• Literal ? Figurative or ironic
• Clear ? Ambiguous or purposefully misleading
• Contemporary, familiar ? Archaic or otherwise
  unfamiliar
• Conversational ? General Academic and domain
  specific
• Light vocabulary load few unfamiliar or academic
  words? Many words unfamiliar and high academic
  vocabulary present
• Sentence structure straightforward ?Complex and
  varied sentence structures
• Though vocabulary can be measured by quantifiable
  means, it is still a feature for careful
  consideration when selecting texts
• Though sentence length is measured by
  quantifiable means, sentence complexity is still
  a feature for careful consideration when
  selecting texts
•  

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Knowledge Demands Life Experience
• (literary texts)
• Simple theme ? Complex or sophisticated themes
• Single theme ? Multiple themes
• Common everyday experiences or clearly
  fantastical situations ? Experiences distinctly
  different from ones own
• Single perspective ? Multiple perspectives
• Perspective(s) like ones own ? Perspective(s)
  unlike or in opposition to ones own

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Knowledge Demands Cultural/Literary Knowledge
  (chiefly literary texts)
• Everyday knowledge and familiarity with genre
  conventions required ? Cultural and literary
  knowledge useful
• Low intertextuality (few if any
  references/allusions to other texts) ? High
  intertextuality (many references/allusions to
  other texts

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Levels of Meaning (chiefly literary texts) or
• purpose (chiefly informational texts)
• Single level of meaning ?Multiple levels of
  meaning
• Explicitly stated purpose ? Implicit purpose, may
  be hidden or obscure

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Step 3 Reader and Task

• Considerations such as
• Motivation
• Knowledge and experience
• Purpose for reading
• Complexity of task assigned regarding text
• Complexity of questions asked regarding text

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Multiple Texts

• The common core state standards emphasize the
  interpretation of multiple texts throughout (at
  all grade levels, and in reading, writing, and
  oral language).
• There will be a greater need for combinations of
  texts that can be used together.
• Need for greater emphasis on text synthesis (how
  to combine the information from multiple sources
  into ones own text or presentation).
• Need for greater emphasis on comparative
  evaluation and analysis.

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Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles

• Make close reading and rereading of texts central
  to lessons.
• Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or
  replace text.
• Ask text dependent questions from a range of
  question types.
• Emphasize students supporting answers based upon
  evidence from the text.
• Provide extensive research and writing
  opportunities (claims and evidence).

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Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles

• Offer regular opportunities for students to share
  ideas, evidence and research.
• Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary.
• Ensure wide reading from complex text that varies
  in length.
• 9. Provide explicit instruction in grammar and
  conventions.
• 10. Cultivate students independence.

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Conclusion

• The promise of standards
• These Standards are not intended to be new names
  for old ways of doing business. They are a call
  to take the next step. It is time for districts
  to work together to build on lessons learned from
  two decades of standards based reforms. It is
  time to recognize that standards are not just
  promises to our children, but promises we intend
  to keep.