Text Complexity,
Text Based Answers,
Informational Texts,
Oh My!
Presented by Lora Drum
Common Core State Standards are not
intended to be new names for old ways of
doing business.
They are a call to take the next step.
Before we begin
our journey
today, please
read and
complete the
Anticipation
Guide found in
your packet.
Common Core
Instructional Shifts
for ELA
Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
and informational texts
Reading and writing grounded in evidence from
text
Regular practice with complex text and its
academic vocabulary
Starting with a
solid foundation
is most
important...
Let’s begin by building a CCSS
house to connect our literacy
standards
CCSS-Reading
Literature
RL 1-10
Informational Text
RI 1-10
Anchor Standards
Key Ideas & Details
Craft & Structure
Integration of Knowledge & Ideas
Range of Reading/Level of Text Complexity
Foundational Skills
FS 1-4
“Read like a detective, write like an
investigative reporter.”
-David Coleman
co-author of ELA CCSS
Complex texts offer students new language, new knowledge,
and new modes of thinking.
CCSS/ELA Vision
* Students who meet the Standards readily
undertake the close, attentive, reading that is
at the heart of understanding and enjoying
complex works of literature.
* They habitually perform the critical reading
necessary to pick carefully through the
staggering amount of information available
today in print and digitally.
Where does text complexity appear
in the Common Core?
College and Career Anchor Standard for Reading
R.10: Read and comprehend
complex literary and
informational texts
independently and
proficiently.
•By the time they
complete high school,
students must be able
to read and comprehend
independently and
proficiently the kinds of
complex texts commonly
found in college and
careers.
What is Not Covered by the
Standards?*
The Standards set grade-specific standards
but do not define the intervention methods
or materials necessary to support students
who are well below or well above grade-level
expectations.
*p. 6… and similar statement made for English Language
Learners
What is a complex text?
* The complexity of a text is a function of the
reader’s proficiency. There are complex beginning
reading texts, there are complex middle-grade
texts, etc.
* Numerous features can make a text complex.
* Typically: Complex texts have complex ideas and,
usually, complex ideas are conveyed with rare and
infrequent vocabulary.
View of text complexity within the
Common Core State Standards
Qualitative
Evaluation:
• Levels of meaning
• Structure
• Language
conventionality and
clarity
• Knowledge demands
Qualitative measures
Lexile ranges realigned to Common Core
“MetaMetrics has realigned its Lexile ranges to match the Standards’
text complexity grade bands and has adjusted upward its trajectory
of reading comprehension development through the grades to
indicate that all students should be reading at the college and career
readiness level by no later than the end of high school.”
17
Quantitative
Evaluation:
Readability measures
and other scores of text
complexity
Reader and Task Evaluation
• Will the reader be interested in the
content?
• Does the reader possess adequate
prior knowledge of experience
regarding the topic?
• Will the reader understand the
purpose?
• Will the complexity of any before,
during and after reading tasks or the
complexity of any questions asked
about the text interfere with the
reading experience?
Sample of Text Complexity “Placemat”
“Garden Helpers” (K-1)
 Main idea explicitly stated
in first two lines.
 Structure is consistent
◦ First line names beneficial
insect and says what it
does.
◦ Second line(s) explains how
this helps the garden.
 Simple sentences &
words
◦ S-V & S-V-O
◦ “bugs,” “plants”
“garden”
Less
complex
 Vocabulary
◦ “rich” -- $$$?
 Content Knowledge
◦ How can dirt be “rich and
healthy”?
◦ How do earthworms make
soil rich and healthy?
◦ What is a praying mantis?
More
complex
“Often, textbook writers have
frontloaded all necessary information
to spoil any chance for intellectual
discovery on the part of the student.
The CCSS wants students to have
opportunities to grapple with difficult
text.”
-David Coleman, co-author, CCSS
How do you increase capacity
with complex texts?
What you don’t do:
• Give students who can’t read well hard
texts.
• Reading texts aloud to students does not
develop independent reading (this is not to
say that we should not be using read
alouds- we should not just be using
complex texts for read alouds only)
When the gap in reader capacity and text requirements becomes
greater than approximately 90% accuracy, even comprehension of
at/above level readers’ suffers
Text-Reader Gap
Easy (101-401L below)
ON-LEVEL (100 below to 50L
above)
STRETCH (51-100L above)
DIFFICULT (101 to 400L above)
Reader Level
Mean (Comp %)
Below
81
At/Above
84
Below
66
At/Above
72
Below
59
At/Above
64
Below
47
At/Above
53
Mesmer & Hiebert, 2011
What students need:
* Consistent opportunities with texts that
support capacity with core vocabulary
* Systematically extending vocabularies in
informational & narrative texts
* Opportunities to increase reading stamina
* Support in developing funds of knowledge
“The clear, alarming picture
that emerges from the
evidence … is that while the
reading demands of college,
workforce training programs,
and citizenship have held
steady or risen over the past
fifty years or so, K–12 texts
have, if anything, become less
demanding.”
(CCSS, Appendix A, pg. 2)
Why Text
Complexity
Matters
Deeper/Close Reading
Reading on the
“Surface Level”
Activity
“How to Bartle Puzballs”
and
“Conversation Piece”
Answers:
How to Bartle Puzballs
1. There are tork gooboos
of puzballs.
2. Laplies, mushos, and
fushos are tork gooboos of
puzballs.
3. They will not grunto
any lipples.
4. You should bartle the
fusho who has rarchled
her parshtootoos after her
humply fluflu.
Reflection:
1. Did you get the answers to
these questions correct?
2. What did you learn by
reading this paragraph? Did
you take away any enduring
understanding?
3. How is it possible to get the
answers right, but not to take
away any understanding of
what you read?
Ned Guymon’s “Conversation Piece,” which
first appeared in a 1950 issue of Ellery Queen’s
Mystery Magazine is surely the world’s shortest
detective story.
Turn and talk: Share how you answered the
question for Conversation Piece
What is the difference between how you read the
first piece vs. how you read the second piece?
CLOSE Reading Activity
• Read
the passage on the next slide.
•As you read, make a mental note
of:
What strategies do you use
when you read a challenging text?
NOTHING can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it,
which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will.
Intelligence wit, judgment, and the other talents of the mind,
however they may be named, or courage, resolution, perseverance,
as qualities of temperament, are undoubtedly good and desirable
in many respects; but these gifts of nature may also become
extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make use of
them, and which, therefore, constitutes what is called character, is
not good. It is the same with the gifts of fortune. Power, riches,
honour, even health, and the general well-being and contentment
with one’s condition which is called happiness, inspire pride, and
often presumption, if there is not a good will to correct the influence
of these on the mind, and with this also to rectify the whole principle
of acting, and adapt it to its end. The sight of a being who is not
adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will, enjoying
unbroken prosperity, can never give pleasure to an impartial
rational spectator. Thus a good will appears to constitute the
indispensable condition even of being worthy of happiness.
Close Reading
• A short Prezi about how to
read closely….
How?
• Model
it
• Find strong passages for practice
• Annotate: “reading graffiti”- mark word choices,
sentence patterns, images and dialogue
• Use poetry
• Savor passages (Great beginnings and Lyrical pieces)
Annotating the Text
Close Reading
Poem- The Learning Bricks
Using the ideas for
Close Reading from
the Prezi and
Annotating the Text,
let’s apply what
we’ve learned to a
poem.
Read the passage silently.
There are known knowns. There are things
we know that we know. There are known
unknowns. That is to say, there are things
that we know we don’t know. But there
are also unknown unknowns. There are
things we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld, Newsweek (2003, p. 113)
Effective First Readings
Have you ever arrived at a destination and had no
memory of how you got there?
Sometimes a
first reading
can resemble
this
phenomena!
Consider four key questions:
Question 1:
Have I provided my students with a reading
focus?
Question 2:
Are my students willing and able to embrace
confusion?
Question 3:
Can my students monitor their own
comprehension?
Question 4:
Do my students know any “fix-it” strategies to
assist them when their comprehension begins to
falter?
Three key questions to ask students after
they have read something:
They encompass three different levels of thinking.
(Sheridan Blau)
1. What does it say? (Literal level –
comprehension)
(Foundational to answering the second question)
2. What does it mean? (Interpretation level)
(More than just appreciating a good story – themes)
3. What does it matter? (Reflection)
(The heart of why they read the book)
Mystery Envelope Activity
What is the single most important
word in this chapter?
Which character has changed the most so
far?
Why did we read this book?
Which character is most (least
believable) and why?
especially with our struggling readers
Scaffolding…
helps students
access complex
texts directly.
Scaffolding doesn’t…
•reduce complexity.
•replace the text.
•tell students what they
are going to learn.
allows the reader a
first encounter with
minimal clarifications.
guides the reader with
follow-up support.
encourages rereading.
How to Scaffold
•
•
•
•
•
Model
Provide descriptive feedback
Activate prior knowledge
Build background
Use supports
– Sensory
– Graphic
– Interactive
– Language
Timing matters
• Greater scaffolding is provided at the
beginning of tasks.
• Scaffolding supports an increasing level of
complexity.
• Include a plan for removing the scaffolding.
Examples of Scaffolding
•
•
•
•
Modeling/Demonstrations
Realia and Multi-media
Hands-on Manipulatives
Pictures/Visuals
• Venn Diagrams
• Sequence Maps
• Concept Maps
Text Complexity
Range of Reading and Text Complexity
R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and
informational texts independently and proficiently.
 Non-text sources
◦ For example, multi-media and class
discussions, build the
foundation of vocabulary,
language and content
knowledge
 Easier, supplemental texts
◦ can provide instructional-level
reading material
 Instructional scaffolding activities
◦ For example, teacher-facilitated
read-alouds, discussion
of text excerpts, partner reading,
peer coaching
 Explicit instruction
◦ on vocabulary, text structure, &
comprehension strategies
 Multiple texts
Scaffolding to
support
students’
ability to read
increasingly
complex texts
With partners, brainstorm
scaffolding activities you might use
with the text(s) we analyzed called
Garden Helpers
Activity:
Scaffolding
the text
Rich!
________
________
Worms and
bugs help
gardens.
Make soil
rich
_________
Bugs and
worms
that help
gardens
________
Kill other
bugs
ladybugs
_________
_________
________
Students need to engage in…
• Grade-appropriate materials for exposure to
structures, content, vocabulary;
• Instructional-level materials that allow them
to progress
• Easy materials that allow them to practice.
– If familiar/interesting, material can be
more challenging.
– If unfamiliar/uninteresting, material may
need to be less challenging.
A few words about Informational
Texts and Vocabulary
Informational texts provide an ideal context for building language and
vocabulary because of the conceptual nature and background-building
potential of the subject or subject area. E. D. Hirsch (2003), for example,
suggests that reading comprehension requires knowledge of words and of
the world.
Building knowledge of words and the world requires vocabulary that is
learned and connected to other words, content-area understanding
(domain knowledge), and world knowledge (e.g., Pinker, 2007). (If
you‘re familiar with the elementary grade comprehension emphasis on
―text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world (or community), then you
already have a sense of the ―words and world concept.) To learn and
use vocabulary, a child also needs some beginning or foundational
domain and world knowledge. To comprehend a domain or subject area,
word knowledge also is required. (Think back to the readings we did
earlier today= “How to Bartle Puzballs”
Other Activities to Support Common Core
•One Sentence Summary
•List-Group-Label
•Sketch to Stretch
•Story Pyramid
•Story Surgery
•Somebody Wanted But So Then
•REAP
•Tea Party
•Word Wall Yahtzee
•Vocabulary Questioning
CCSS- Writing
Argument/Opinion
Informative
Narrative
Text Types & Purposes
Products & of Writing
Reasons
Range of Writing
CCSS- Speaking
Listening
&
SL 1-6
•Comprehension & Collaborating
•Presentation of
Knowledge/Ideas
CCSS- Language
L 1-6
Conventions
Knowledge of Language
Vocabulary Acquisition & Use
An Integrated Model
REMEMBER:
“While the standards delineate specific
expectations in reading, writing, speaking
and listening, and language, each standard
need not be a separate focus for instruction
and assessment. Often several standards can
be addressed by a single rich task.”
CCSS, Introduction, p. 5
The places we can go…
CCSS Standards
are not
curriculum
At the crossroads created by the Common Core State
Standards, there are many paths that we could take; this
crossroad provides opportunities for educators to pave
new paths with fresh and critical conversations about
teaching and learning. However, as we shape our path,
we must not lose sight of meaningful teaching and
learning- this is where all our paths must ultimately lead.
The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5, Gretchen Owocki
With the
knowledge of the
CC standards,
courage to
accept the
changes in our
instruction,
putting our heart
into it,
and determination
we will …
find our
way over
the
rainbow!
Questions/Comments:
Lora Drum
Lora_Drum@catawbaschools.net