Text Complexity
Romeo, Romeo,
Art thou complex?
What do you
mean by
complex?
and the
Common Core
State
Standards
South Area I-Zone
2-7-12
One of the key requirements of the
Common Core State Standards for
Reading is that all students must be
able to comprehend texts of steadily
increasing complexity as they progress
through school.
Why does text complexity matter?
What factors influence text complexity?
What are the characteristics of complex text?
How do we support students with instruction that engages
them in a deep understanding of complex texts and
fosters their independence as lifelong learners who will be
career and college ready?
RATIONALE FOR
INCREASED TEXT COMPLEXITY
complexity of reading
demands in college, career,
citizenship
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complexity of
K-12 texts
ACT 2006
Analyzed the Reading section of the ACT college entrance exam to determine
Which
skillsstudents
differentiated
achieved
benchmark
andrather
those that
not.they
What
couldthose
read,that
in terms
of its
complexity,
thandid
what
(About
half,
the half
who take
test greatest
each year)predictor of
could
do51%,
withofwhat
theymillion
read, test
wastakers
determined
to the
be the
success.
Question type (main idea,
word meanings, details) is
NOT the chief
differentiator between
student scoring above and
below the benchmark.
Question level (higher
order vs. lower order;
literal vs. inferential) is
NOT the chief
differentiator
What factors influence text complexity?
Quantitative
Qualitative
Reader and
Task
Readability Measures
Levels of Meaning
Motivation
Developmental
Appropriateness
Text Structure
Knowledge
Language Conventions
and Clarity
Experiences
Common or Intended
Usage
Knowledge Demands
Sentence Length
Discourse Style
Length of Text
Word Frequency
A text that has short
simple sentences
may, nevertheless, be
challenging to
read/comprehend when it contains
abstract ideas, unfamiliar concepts, and
high levels of interpretation” (Hess and
Biggam, 2004).
Romeo, Romeo,
How art thou
complex?
Text Exemplars
Performance Tasks
K-1
I shall dance tonight.
When the dusk comes crawling,
There will be dancing and feasting.
I shall dance with the others
in circles, in leaps, in stomps.
Laughter and talk
Will weave into the night,
By Lopez, Alonzo
Among the fires
of my people.
1. Structure
Games will be played
2. Language Demands
3. Levels of Meaning
And I shall be
4. Knowledge Demands
a part of it.
Amusement Park Physics Grades 9-10 Literacy for Science, SS, Technical Subjects
1.
2.
3.
4.
Structure
Language Demands
Levels of Purpose
Knowledge Demands
Amusement Park Physics Grades 9-10 Literacy for Science, SS, Technical Subjects
Students determine how Jearl walker clarifies the
phenomenon of acceleration in his essay “Amusement
Park Physics,” accurately summarizing his conclusions
regarding the physics of roller coasters and tracing how
supporting details regarding the processes of rotational
dynamics and energy conversion are incorporated in his
explanation. (RST.9-10.2)
Students read (read aloud) Paul Fleischman’s poem Fireflies,
determining the meaning of words and phrases in the poem,
particularly focusing on identifying his use of
non-literal language (e.g., “light is the ink we use”) and
talking about how it suggests meaning. [RL.3.4]
Farley, Walter. The Black Stallion. New York: Random
House Books for Young Readers, 2008. (1941). From
Chapter 1: “Homeward Bound”
The tramp steamer Drake plowed away from the
coast of India and pushed its blunt prow into the
Arabian Sea, homeward bound. Slowly it made its
way west toward the Gulf of Aden. Its hold was
loaded with coffee, rice, tea, oil seeds and jute. Black
smoke poured from its one stack, darkening the hot
cloudless sky.
Alexander Ramsay, Jr., known to his friends back
home in New York City as Alec, leaned over the rail
and watched the water slide away from the sides of
the boat. His red hair blazed redder than ever in the
hot sun, his tanned elbows rested heavily on the rail
as he turned his freckled face back toward the fastdisappearing shore.
Students
describe how
the narrator’s
point of view in
Walter Farley’s
The Black
Stallion
influences how
events are
described and
how the reader
perceives the
character of
Alexander
Ramsay, Jr.
[RL.5.6]
Adams, John. “Letter on Thomas Jefferson.” Adams on Adams.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. (1776)
Mr. Jefferson came into Congress, in June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation for
literature, science, and a happy talent of composition. Writings of his were handed
about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member in
Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in
conversation, not even Samuel Adams was more so, that he soon seized upon my
heart; and upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all in my power to procure
the votes of others. I think he had one more vote than any other, and that placed him at
the head of the committee. I had the next highest number, and that placed me second.
The committee met, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to
make the draught, I suppose because we were the two first on the list.
The subcommittee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make the draft. I said, “I will not.”
“You should do it.”
“Oh! No.”
“Why will you not? You ought to do it.”
“I will not.”
“Why?”
“Reasons enough.”
“What can be your reasons?”
“Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this
business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very
much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.”
“Well,” said Jefferson, “if you decided, I will do as well as I can.”
“Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting.”
Students
determine the
point of view of
John Adams in
his Letter on
Thomas
Jefferson and
analyze how he
distinguishes
his position
from an
alternative
approach
articulated by
Thomas
Jefferson.
[RI.7.6]
Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain!.” Leaves of Grass.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. (1865)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
Students
analyze Walt
Whitman’s
“O Captain! My
Captain!” to
uncover the
poem’s
analogies and
allusions. They
analyze the
impact of
specific word
choices by
Whitman, such
as rack and
grim, and
determine how
they contribute
to the overall
meaning and
tone of the
poem. [RL.8.4]
Cannon, Annie J. “Classifying the Stars.” The Universe of
Stars. Cambridge: Harvard Observatory, 1926.
Sunlight and starlight are composed of waves of various lengths, which
the eye, even aided by a telescope, is unable to separate. We must use
more than a telescope. In order to sort out the component colors, the light
must be dispersed by a prism, or split up by some other means. For
instance, sunbeams passing through rain drops, are transformed into the
myriad-tinted rainbow. The familiar rainbow spanning the sky is Nature’s
most glorious demonstration that light is composed of many colors.
The very beginning of our knowledge of the nature of a star dates back to
1672, when Isaac Newton gave to the world the results of his experiments
on passing sunlight through a prism. To describe the beautiful band of
rainbow tints, produced when sunlight was dispersed by his threecornered piece of glass, he took from the Latin the word spectrum,
meaning an appearance. The rainbow is the spectrum of the Sun.
In 1814, more than a century after Newton, the spectrum of the Sun was
obtained in such purity that an amazing detail was seen and studied by
the German optician, Fraunhofer. He saw that the multiple spectral tings,
ranging from delicate violet to deep red, were crossed by hundreds of fine
dark lines. In other words, there were narrow gaps in the spectrum where
certain shades were wholly blotted out.
We must remember that the word spectrum is applied not only to sunlight,
but also to the light of any glowing substance when its rays are sorted out
by a prism or a grating.
Students cite
specific textual
evidence from
Annie J. Cannon’s
Classifying the Stars
to support their
analysis
of the scientific
importance of the
discovery that light
is composed of
many colors.
Students include in
their analysis
precise details from
the text (such as
Cannon’s repeated
use of the image of
the rainbow) to
buttress
their explanation.
[RST.9–10.1].
18
18
19
19
Close Reading
• Past standards have been based largely upon theories of
reading comprehension drawn from cognitive science.
• These theories have emphasized procedures or strategies
that readers could use to guide their reading (e.g.,
summarization, questioning, monitoring, visualizing).
• The common core standards are also based upon theory,
but literary theory not psychological theory.
• These standards depend heavily upon “New Criticism.”
Implications
• Re-reading texts for understanding
• Students read widely from complex text that varies in length,
style, genre, structure, organizational pattern… everyday. Provide
systematic instruction in vocabulary and word study.
• Gradual decrease of scaffolding and increase to independence
• Engage to a greater extent in deep analysis of the text and its
meaning and implications.
• Less emphasis on background information, comprehension
strategies, picture walks, etc. (though these still can be brought
in by teachers)
• Greater emphasis on careful reading of a text, weighing of
author’s diction, grammar, and organization to make sense of the
text.
•
Maintain high expectations
•
Provide extensive writing opportunities for students to draw evidence from
texts (i.e., write to sources) supporting logical inferences, presenting careful
analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information.
•
Provide explicit instruction in grammar and conventions
•
Celebrate independence as readers, writers, listeners, speakers, and
thinkers
•
Ask text-dependent questions that require students to demonstrate that
they follow the details of what is explicitly stated in the text while also
asking them to make valid claims that square with all the evidence in the
text.
•
Facilitate regular opportunities for students to share ideas, evidence, and
research. Students should be engaged in most of the text based-talk in the
classroom.
Teaching Reading is Urgent
A student at the 10th percentile
reads about 60,000 words a year
in 5th grade.
A student at the 50th percentile
reads about 900,000 words a
year in 5th grade.
Average students receive about
15 times as much practice in a
year.
(Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding, 1988)