JUST HOW COMPLEX IS IT?
MAKING TEXT ACCESSIBLE TO ALL
Cindy Clark
Georgia’s Department of Education’s Summer ELA/Literacy Academy, 2014
THE COMMON CORE INTRODUCED US TO TEXT COMPLEXITY,
WHICH IN TURN AFFECTED OUR SERENITY.
HOW DO WE MAKE READING ACCEPTABLY
RIGOROUS TO MEET THE TKES’ EXPECTANCY?
NOTICE THE TEACHER’S LONGEVITY
AT TRYING SO HARD TO TEACH EFFECTIVELY
WHEN STUDENTS’ CONCERN IS BREVITY?
YET THE TEACHER KEEPS ATTEMPTING DILIGENTLY!
WHILE IT’S TRUE THAT WITH SO MUCH DIVERSITY,
AND DEMANDS THAT SEEM TO COME ENDLESSLY,
THAT THERE ARE WAYS TO THRIVE WITHOUT THERAPY
AND PERHAPS WATCH OUR STUDENTS GROW IMPRESSIVELY.
SO, RELAX AND THERE’LL BE NO PERPLEXITY
AS WE CONQUER THE ALL POWERFUL TEXT COMPLEXITY!
Today’s Objectives
Identify factors that affect readers’
ability and motivation
 Examine theory
 Look at strategies

Yes, we’ve heard it, but…
No significant learning occurs without a
significant relationship.
-
Dr. James Comer,
Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World , 2004
Setting Up For Success
Agreements
Rules
Guidelines
Let’s Try It Out!
“If we want to create a
workplace that values
idealism, human
connection, and real, in
depth learning, we will
have to create it
ourselves.”
Peter Block
Now, about complexity…
Before we dive in, let’s
review.
Qualitative evaluation of the text
Best
measured by
a human
being (!)

Levels of meaning, structure, language
conventionality and clarity, and
knowledge demands
 levels
of meaning and purpose
 structure
 language conventions and clarity
 knowledge demands
Quantitative evaluation of the text
Typically 
measured by
software 
Words and Structure
word and sentence length
 word frequency
 text complexity
Reader and Task Considerations
What the
student
brings
to the table

Variables specific to the reader
knowledge
experiences
motivation
purpose
Structure vs. Reading vs. Vocabulary

“There is only one way to acquire the language of
literacy, and that is through literacy itself.”
-Stanford University

“It is widely accepted among researchers that the
difference in students’ vocabulary levels is a key factor in
disparities in academic achievement…but that vocabulary
instruction has been neither frequent nor systematic in most
schools.
-Appendix A of Common Core State Standards for ELA
Increasing the complexity of texts used in the classroom
poses two big-picture challenges for educators: measuring
complexity to make sure texts assigned are appropriately
complex, and putting students on target to handle more
difficult reading. Grant Wiggins, coauthor of Understanding
by Design, thinks the real problem for teachers won't be
identifying complex texts, but rather "staying true to the
demands of the standards, without over-scaffolding, and in
heterogeneous classrooms where teachers may have students
reading three levels below proficiency." To that end, experts
advise focusing interventions on what causes students the
most difficulty—vocabulary and complicated sentences.
And now for something completely different…
What has worked for you?
Let’s share ideas…no repeats, please!
GRAMMAR AND STRUCTURE
Consider the exemplar,
Martin Luther King’s
Letter from Birmingham
Jail.
Letter From Birmingham City Jail (Excerpts)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 16, 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen,
While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your
recent statement calling our present activities “unwise and untimely.”
Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas
… But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your
criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement
in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you
have been influenced by the argument of “outsiders coming in.” I have
the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state with
headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some 85 affiliate
organizations all across the South … Several months ago our local
affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a
nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We
readily consented.
Are our students ready?
A quick look shows us that
background knowledge,
grammatical structure, and
linguistics are necessary to conquer
this piece.
What do you see?
Style from a past era
 Sentence structure: clauses, clauses,
clauses
 Difficulty determining purpose
 Informational density
 Layered messages

Quick Close
Where is King?
 Who is the “your” he refers
to?
 What is the author’s
purpose?

http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=5K5XlCSUs6k
Sometimes we have to bring in more…
After the Letter been published,
King added a kind of prologue to
help explain what he described
as “somewhat constricted
circumstance”
This might help.
“Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which
the statement appeared while I was in jail, the
letter was continued on scraps of paper supplied
by a friendly Negro trusty, and concluded on a
pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to
leave me.”
This one sentence
Three different clauses organized
into a complex sentence
Subject of the sentence is the letter
All three clauses are written in the
passive voice
Begun where?
Continued on what?
Concluded how?
Fillmore and Cucchiara, 2012
Fillmore and Cucchiara, 2012
Fillmore and Cucchiara, 2012
Fillmore and Cucchiara, 2012
Fillmore and Cucchiara, 2012
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
He went slowly to his tent and stretched himself on a
blanket by the side of the snoring tall soldier. In the
darkness he saw visions of a thousand-tongued fear
that would babble at his back and cause him to flee,
while others were going coolly about their country's
business. He admitted that he would not be able to
cope with this monster. He felt that every nerve in his
body would be an ear to hear the voices, while other
men would remain stolid and deaf.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Every little while he locked me in and went down to the
store, three miles, to the ferry, and traded fish and
game for whisky, and fetched it home and got drunk
and had a good time, and licked me.
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will
be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral will
be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be
banished.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Widow Douglas she took me for her
son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but
it was rough living in the house all the time,
considering how dismal regular and decent
the widow was in all her ways; and so
when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out.
More ideas
Use graphs, photos, and illustrations
 Do a picture walk
 Show a related piece of art
 Ted Talks
 Use picture books to build background knowledge
 Use thinking map/graphic organizers
 Diagram sentences
 Sentence Frames

Krashen’s Comprehensible Input
Sentence Frames

Academic language is much more than just the
vocabulary of the subject area being taught. It
includes understanding and being able to produce
complex sentences utilizing the key vocabulary of
the subject area as well as functional words and
phrases that show comparison, sequencing,
description, cause and effect, and more.
Reciprocity
Basically put: reading affects writing and writing
affects reading. Research has found that when
children read extensively they become better writers.
Reading a variety of genres helps children learn text
structures and language that they can then transfer to
their own writing. In addition, reading provides young
people with prior knowledge.
Joelle Brummitt-Yale
According to recommendations from
the major English/Language Arts
professional organizations, reading
instruction is most effective when
intertwined with writing instruction
and vice versa.
Research has found that when children read
extensively they become better writers. Reading
a variety of genres helps children learn text
structures and language that they can then
transfer to their own writing. In addition, reading
provides young people with prior knowledge.
Joelle Brummitt-Yale
sentence frames
To help students at all language proficiency
levels incorporate higher levels of academic
language into their speech and writing,
teachers can incorporate the use of sentence
frames, sentence starters and signal words
with students at a variety of proficiency
levels.
Erick Herrmann
Making Inferences
Using clues to figure out what is really happening
in the story.
Reading “between the lines.”

________are / are not ________.

________ are / are not ________ because ________.

Based on ________, I infer that ________.

Based on _____, I infer that _____, because _____.
Argument
I don’t think the evidence supports___
because____________.
I don’t agree with that statement because
____.
As we just saw in the experiment, _______
does ________ due to ______.
Compare and Contrast
Compare = same
Contrast = different
1.__________ and _____________ are ___________.
2. Both _____ and _______ have _____________.
3. ___and ___ are both similar because they both _____.
4. There are several major differences between ___ and
___. The most notable is ____________.
And now for something completely different…
Let’s Make Some
Strips!
Think Alouds
Making strategic knowledge
explicit
 Making the unknown known
 Unlocking the mysteries of
reading

Reading Aloud Is Important.
THINKING ALOUD
IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Teachers and students want to know:
What causes readers to lose track of their
thinking while reading?
How do readers get their thinking back
on track?
How can teachers help all the different
levels of students in their classes?
How can those "voices in the head" be
used to help students do a better job of
monitoring their own comprehension?
Some insights..




Make it short. Vygostsky said learning can only
occur in t ZPD, so give text that makes them work,
but doesn’t defeat them!
Pick one or two strategies to spotlight at a time. This
mini-lesson can catapult the students into their own
practice of the strategies you’ve chosen.
State your purpose: tell students what you are
doing and why.
Read slowly and tell students what you are thinking!
 Model fluent and expressive
reading.
 Think aloud.
 Model the reading process.
 Review text structure.
 Facilitate comprehension to
struggling readers.
 Provide interactions with a variety
of texts.
 Make connections.
And now for something completely different…
Let’s try it!
More Ideas: Text in Small Doses
Use graphs, photos, and illustrations
 Do a picture walk
 Show a related piece of art
 Ted Talks
 Use picture books to build background
knowledge
 Use thinking map/graphic organizers
 Sentence Frames

Sample Scaffolding







Use small-group direct instruction (guided reading) to help the
struggling student access the whole-class novel.
Make sure that the struggling student is introduced to challenging
vocabulary before he or she reads the chapter.
Create an anticipation guide for that specific chapter to help build
a struggling student's background knowledge prior to reading the
chapter.
Create a graphic organizer to access the information in the chapter.
Do a class or small-group reading of a short piece (poetry,
nonfiction) that will help the struggling student access background
knowledge needed for the chapter.
Work with note-taking strategies to help students access the content.
Create a short summary for the student to read before he or she
accesses the chapter.
Hope this works!
Slow down




Read in steps
Write in steps
Vocabulary instruction in steps
(the essence of scaffolding and common core)

There is no question that sentence length, number of
syllables in words, and word frequency impact
difficulty. There is a wide range of factors that
influence the complexity of a text. To be able to
match students and texts, teachers need to know
where the complexity lies within a text to ensure
they provide students with the supports and
strategies needed to successfully read the texts.
Practice Makes Perfect
Word learning takes place in many small steps. You
don't learn a word all at once. It takes repeated
encounters with a word to bring it to a point where
you own it.
- William Nagy, Seattle Pacific University, 2005
Choose high interest selections that
are above students’ independent
reading level and at their listening
level.
i + 1 The Input Hypothesis
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Standard
Key
Ideas
and
Details
1
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8,
SS
Sci.
Cite
Cite
Cite
Cite
Cite
evidence to multiple evidence
evidence
evidence
support
pieces of that offers
that
that
interpretatio evidence.
the
supports
supports
n of text.
strongest analysis of analysis of
support.
primary
science or
and
technical
secondary
texts.
sources.
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Standard
Key
Ideas
and
Details
3
Grade 6
Grade 7
How is an
How do
individual, individual
event, or
s, events,
idea
and ideas
developed? interact?
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8,
SS
Sci.
How do
they
interact,
and how
are they
distinct?
How is a
Follow
process
multi-step
described? procedures.
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Craft and
Structure
Standard
Grade 6
4
Understand
words and
phrases as
used in
context.
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8,
SS
Sci.
Do this,
Do this, Understan
thinking
also
d words
about
identifying
and
how
allusions phrases as
diction
and
used in
influences analogies
context.
meaning
to other
and tone.
texts.
Understan
d words
and
symbols
used in
context.
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Craft and
Structure
Standard
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
6
What is the
author’s point of
view? How do you
know?
Do this,
thinking about
how the
author
distinguishes
his/her view
from others’.
Do this,
thinking about
how the author
addresses
counterpoints.
Grades 6-8, SS
Grades 6-8, Sci.
ID passages that
Identify the
reveal the
author’s purpose
author’s purpose
for writing the
for writing on
text.
this topic.
(consider bias)
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Standard
7
Integration
of
Knowledge
and Ideas
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, SS
Grades 6-8,
Sci.
Access
Do this; how Do this; what
Use
Use
information
are the texts are the pros
information
information
from many texts similar and
and cons of
expressed in
expressed in
to develop an
different in different text words and in
words and in
understanding
conveying
types at
visual form to visual form to
on a topic.
information
conveying
develop
develop
on the topic? information understanding understanding
on this topic?
on a topic.
on a topic.
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Standard
8
Integrati
on of
Knowled
ge and
Ideas
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8,
SS
Sci.
Evaluate an Do this; is Do this; Distinguish Distinguish
argument
the
recognize between
between
and its
evidence
when
facts,
facts,
specific
relevant evidence reasoned
reasoned
claims.
and
is
judgment, judgment,
Which
sufficient; irrelevant.
and
and
claims are
is the
speculation speculation
supported reasoning
.
.
by
sound?
reasons/evi
dence?
Which are
not?
Reading Informational:
consistent across grade levels and subject areas
Standard
9
Integration
of
Knowledge
and Ideas
Grade 6
Grade 7
Compare/contra
Do this,
st one author’s
comparing
account versus the evidence
another’s
and
(consider bias). interpretatio
ns of the
authors.
Grade 8
Grades 6-8, SS
Grades 6-8,
Sci.
Do this,
focusing on
texts that
offer
conflicting
evidence or
interpretatio
ns.
What is the
relationship
between a
primary and
secondary
source on the
same topic?
C/C
information
gained from a
written text
and other
texts (e.g.,
experiments,
videos, etc.)
Students read “Biography of Amelia Earhart.”
According to the text, what is one of the key challenges
Amelia Earhart faced? How did she overcome this
challenge? Use textual evidence to support your
answer.
[Adapted from: http://www.parcconline.org/
samples/english-language-artsliteracy/
grade-7-elaliteracy]
Grade 8 Social Studies
• Identify the object.
• Explain how it was used.
• Explain how it was helpful to the
civilizations that used it.
The text here is a picture.
Consider the solubility table above. In a few
sentences, describe the relationship between water
temperature and solubility of sodium chloride.
Incorporate evidence from the solubility table in your
response.
Example Note Grid
68
Document
A
B
C
Author and
audience
Argument
Claim(s)
Evidence?
And now for something completely different…
Let’s Try it!
“China’s One Child
Policy at 30”
Even before its inception, the one child policy was questioned for its
necessity and its enormous social costs. At the time of the policy’s announcement
(in 1980), China had already achieved a remarkable fertility reduction, halving
the number of children per woman from 5.8 in 1970 to 2.7 in 1979. The one
child policy, critics warned, would forcefully alter kin relations for Chinese
families, and resulted in accelerated aging…To enforce a policy that is so
extreme and unpopular for families who relied on children for labor and old age
support, physical abuses and violence would be inevitable…
China’s one child policy may have hastened a fertility decline that was
already well in progress, but it is not the main force accounting for China’s low
fertility today. The claim by Chinese officials that the one child policy helped
avert 400 million births simply cannot be substantiated by facts. Most of China’s
fertility decline occurred prior to the one child policy. In countries without a
forceful and costly policy as China’s, birth rate has declined with similar
trajectories and magnitude.
Source: Feng Wang and Cai Yong, :“China’s One Child Policy at 30,” Brookings, September, 24, 2010.
Comparative Fertility Rates*
1979
Brazil
4.2
China
2.7
South Korea 2.9
Thailand
3.6
2008
1.9
1.7
1.2
1.8
*The fertility rate is the number of children
The average woman has in her lifetime.
Example Note Grid
72
Document
A
B
C
Author and
audience
Argument
Claim(s)
Evidence?
What About Summarizing?
Somebody
wanted
but
so
then
Summarizing Strategy
Somebody
character/figure
The Three Little
Pigs
Wanted
goal/motivation
To live
independently
MacOn, Bewell & Vogt, 1991
Somebody wanted but so
But
conflict
The Big Bad
Wolf wanted
them for dinner
So
resolution
Then
impact
The brothers all They lived
lived in a brick safely
house
Summarizing Strategy
Somebody
character/figure
Adolf Hitler
Wanted
goal/motivation
But
conflict
So
resolution
Then
impact
To control all The Allies fight Germany loses The country of
of Europe;
against him,
the war and
Israel is born
exterminate all underground
Hitler kills
or
Jews and
resistance
himself
The
others he felt
groups form
Nuremberg
stood in the
and actively
Trials
way of making work to bring
Or
Germany THE down the Nazi
Paris Peace
supreme
Regime
Treaties of
power
1947
MacOn, Bewell & Vogt, 1991
Somebody wanted but so
Summarizing Strategy
Somebody
character/figure
Wanted
goal/motivation
President
Franklin
Roosevelt
MacOn, Bewell & Vogt, 1991
Somebody wanted but so
But
conflict
So
resolution
Then
impact
The Bottom Line
Slow Down
Take small steps
Go deeper
Good Luck!
Cindy Clark, Reading Specialist
Wilbanks Middle School
cgclark@habershamschools.com
