English
Learners Access Complex
Text in the Common Core
Helping
{
CATE-FACET: Yosemite Conference
Alesha M. Ramirez, Tulare County Office of Education
http://bitly.com/bundles/aleshar/2

Build knowledge through
reading.

Extract and employ evidence
from text.

Engage with complex text.
Reading to
learn
through a
variety of
text
Reading
deliberately
and
revisiting
text
Responding
to textdependent
questions
Just as it's impossible to
build muscle without
weight or resistance, it's
impossible to build robust
reading skills without
reading challenging text.
(Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey, 2012)
Text Complexity
Qualitative: Levels of meaning, structure,
language conventionality and clarity, and
knowledge demands
Quantitative: Readability measures,
(words per sentence, length of words,
etc.)…ATOS, Lexile, etc.
Reader & Task: Reader motivation,
background knowledge, purpose for
reading, etc.
For more info, see CCSS ELA Appendix B
Source: corestandards.org, CCSS, 2010

We, as educators, must “recognize the
role played by language itself in
literacy.”
This is more than simply vocabulary.
(L. Wong Fillmore & C.J. Fillmore, 2012)
EL Students &
Complex Text
Vocabulary
 Sentence structure
 Coherence
 Organization
 Background knowledge

Factors Contributing to
Complexity

Build Skills
Decoding, fluency, vocabulary

Establish Purpose
What kind of text?, What will we do
with what we read?

Foster & facilitate “sticktuitness”
Address the challenges of challenging
text: “Create successive successes.”
(Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey, 2012)

communicate complex ideas
“To
and information calls for the lexical and
grammatical resources of mature discourse
– students must master these if they are to succeed
in school and career. Note that we do not say that
students need to learn the grammatical and
linguistic terms... Rather, they need to learn
how to gain
access to the ideas encoded
in this complex language. “
(L. Wong Fillmore & C.J. Fillmore, 2012)
Complex Texts =
Models
“There
is only one way to acquire the
language of literacy, and that is through
literacy itself. Why? Because the only place
students are likely to encounter these structures and
patterns is in the materials they read. And that is
possible only if the texts they read in school are
written in such language. Complex texts provide
school-age learners reliable access to this language,
and interacting with such texts allows them to
discover how academic language works.”
As teachers we can…
Choose shorter texts that are sufficiently
complex and worthy of close reading.
Use those text with increasing
complexity.
 Determine why a particular text might
be difficult, i.e., language features
 “Let the author do the talking.”
 Allow time for reading and rereading
text with purpose.
 Plan for time to examine text down to
the sentence level.
 Build in time for processing orally & in
writing

Engage All Domains
of Literacy:
Listening, Speaking
Reading, Writing,
Viewing
Let’s practice.
1. Preview the text
2.Partner talk:
 What makes this text complex?
 What might be the challenges for English
Language Learners?
DO THIS:
 Number paragraphs
 Read (skim) text individually
 Underline unknown words that (may) inhibit
comprehension
Mark the text
!
?
Something that surprises you
Confusion that arose or question
you have
* Discussion point or main idea
 Connection made
Buffalo Soldiers in
Yosemite
THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE:
Summarize Understanding:
 It is my understanding that ________________.
Question:
 I am confused by _________________________.
Buffalo Soldiers in
Yosemite
Focus on a short excerpt at a time:
Paragraph 5:
 Examining sentence by sentence
“Even
though the Buffalo Soldiers wore the
uniform of the U.S. Army, their ethnicity
combined with the racial prejudice of the time
made the performance of their duties quite
challenging...”
Buffalo Soldiers in
Yosemite
Focus on a short excerpt at a time:
Paragraph 5:
QUESTIONING
 What did the author say?
 How did the author say it?
 What is the value of the text? How does it connect to
other texts or understandings?
Buffalo Soldiers in
Yosemite
Helping English
Learners Access Complex Text in the
Common Core
Alesha M. Ramirez
aleshar@ers.tcoe.org
THANK YOU!
Access resources from this session at
http://bitly.com/bundles/aleshar/2