Amy Painter
3rd Grade Teacher
Chesnee Elementary School
 My
Road Block
 What is Text Complexity
 Common Core Implementation
 Complex Text Analysis Activity
 Questions and Discoveries
 Strategies to Use with Students
 How can I tackle complex texts in my own
classroom?
 Lucy Calkins Strategies- Pathways to the
Common Core
 Questions and Reflection of Learning
With the transition of ELA
curriculum and full
implementation of Common
Core within my third grade
classroom, I wanted to
overcome the obstacle of
teaching students how to
comprehend complex texts. I
needed to research expectations
for instruction using complex
text, how to alter reading
curriculum so that students use
reading comprehension
strategies throughout all
content areas, and how to
develop a plan to meet CCSS
demands for students’ literal
comprehension ability.
 “The
inherent difficulty of reading and
comprehending a text combined with
consideration of reader and task variables;
in the Standards, a three-part assessment of
text difficulty that pairs qualitative and
quantitative measures with reader-task
considerations.”
CCSS Appendix A
The Common Core Standards introduce a three-part model for measuring text
complexity. Teachers need to use their professional judgment as they draw on
information from all three sources when determining the complexity of a text.
Qualitative Measures

The qualitative measures of text complexity require an informed judgment on the
difficulty by considering a range of factors. The Standards use purpose or levels of
meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity and the knowledge
demands as measures of text difficulty.
(pg 6, CCSS Appendix A)
Quantitative

Quantitative measures of text complexity use factors such as sentence and word
length and frequency of unfamiliar words to calculate the difficulty of the text
and assign a single measure (grade level equivalent, number, Lexile etc). There
are many formulas for calculating text difficulty and, while they provide a guide,
the readability or difficulty level of a text can vary depending on which formulas
or measures are used. (pg 8, CCSS Appendix A)
Reader and Task

The third measure looks at what the student brings to the text and the tasks
assigned. Teachers need to use their knowledge of their students and the texts to
match texts to particular students and tasks. (pg 9, CCSS Appendix A)

Text Complexity: Simplifying Text Complexity And The Common Core

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all students must be able to comprehend texts of
steadily increasing complexity as they progress from
grade to grade
students must grasp what the text says and find
evidence within the text for understanding
skills involved with literal understanding increase as
the text becomes more complex
students must be able to read and comprehend
independently and proficiently the kinds of complex
texts commonly found in college and careers
students are expected to cite textual evidence as
they explain what the text teaches using the
information of who, what, when where, why, and how
Vocabulary
Main or Central
Idea with
Evidence from
the Text
Purpose
Relationships
 Read
the text at your seat.
 As
you read, think about strategies used for
comprehending the text.
 Remember

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

write any vocabulary that would be tricky for
students
think about the main idea of the text
why did the author write this piece
what relationships are formed through the text
“Text Talk Time”
Teaching Strategies For Analyzing Text: Text Talk Time
“Pattern Folder”
Teaching Tip For A Literary Analysis Tool: Pattern Folders
“Jigsaw”
Jigsaw Strategy To Help Students Understand Complex Subjects
 DRA’s,
IRLAS, 100 BC Level, Reading MAP
Percentile, etc.
 Assess your students individually and map out
how to build success with comprehending
complex texts.
 Check for fluency by selecting a more
challenging text to analyze with students
 “Most likely, a large percentage of readers in
your class will not be reading texts that match
the CCSS levels of expectations with accuracy,
fluency, and comprehension” (Pathways pg.
43).
Set clear reading goals and expectations with
students.
 Research supports students having a “crystal
clear target in mind” and receiving feedback
increases achievement.
 However, it is not helpful for students to read
texts that are too difficult.
 Reassess often
 While you want students to move up with
reading levels and ability, research shows that
doing this at the expense of comprehension is
not best practice.

 Excerpt from Pathways
• Read aloud the first chapter of a book and discuss it with readers
•Set readers up with a same-book partnership and help partners
establish habits that will support each other
•Support readers who are new to a text level by giving a book
introduction and sometimes expanding this into a text
introduction
•Encourage the reader to listen to an audio version of the text that
is a bit too hard and then read the book to themselves
•Allow a reader to have a go at a too-hard book when you note the
reader’s high motivation
•Excerpt from Pathways
“Teachers are free to provide students with
whatever tools and knowledge their professional
judgment and experience identify as most
helpful for meeting the goals set out in CCSS”
(Pathways pg. 47).
 “All students, including those who are behind
(must) have extensive opportunities to
encounter and comprehend grade level complex
text as required by standards. Far too often,
students who have fallen behind are given only
less complex texts rather than support they need
to read texts at the appropriate level of
complexity” (Pathways pg. 48)

Conduct running records
 Students should show 95% accuracy, fluency, and
comprehension ability
 Match students to appropriate level text and
challenge them with complex text by using
strategies during whole group instruction
 Students should have access to high-interest
texts and have choice
 Fill your classroom with a wide range of text on
various levels
 Engage students in reading, talking, and writing
about their reading

 Excerpt from Pathways
“It is not enough to simply teach children to
read; we have to give them something worth
reading. Something that will stretch their
imaginations– something that will help them
make sense of their own lives, and encourage
them to reach out to people whose lives are
quite different than their own.”
Katherine Patterson

I will continue using best practice
reading strategies with my third grade
students. I am excited to expand and
focus on complex texts. Through
researching, I found techniques to help
students tackle challenging texts. My
students will have many opportunities
to embrace complex text requirements
of CCSS while keeping in mind
accuracy, fluency, and comprehension
ability.
Current Booklist Spreadsheets - The Reading & Writing
Project
Calkins, Lucy, Ehrenworth, Mary, and Lehman, Christopher. Pathways
to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann 2012. Print.
Fisher, Douglas and Frey, Nancy. Engaging the Adolescent Learner: Text
Complexity and Close Readings. IRA. January 2012.
The Teaching Channel. WEB. 7 June 2013 https://www.teachingchannel.org
2010 c. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and
Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects:
Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks.
Washington, D.C: NGA Center and CCSSO.