Welcome!
In groups of 2-4, please choose from the front
table any book that you might use for instruction
in your classroom.
READING ON THE EDGE:
TOWARD INDEPENDENT
READING OF COMPLEX TEXT
MTSU
3 rd Annual
Reading
Conference
9-12-15
WHY COMPLEX TEXT?
Pointed
Reading
Protocol
7 ACTIONS THAT
TEACHERS CAN TAKE
RIGHT NOW: TEXT
COMPLEXITY
Hiebert, E.
(2012). 7 actions
that teachers can
take right now:
text complexity.
Text Matters.
Retrieved from
http://textproject
.org/library/textmatters/
IDENTIFY BENCHMARKS
Action 7
UNDERSTANDING THE FACTORS
OF TEXT COMPLEXIT Y
“Teaching students to read grade-level and
more complex texts requires first and foremost
an understanding of what makes a text
complex.”
THINKING THROUGH A RICH TEXT
EXPLORING THE FACTORS
OF TEXT COMPLEXIT Y
 With a small group, work with a text that you would
consider using at a particular grade level.
 Using the appropriate form from the Achieve the
Core Text Complexity Collection, record the Lexile
measure from the front of the book.
 Using Figure 2 from CCSS Appendix A, analyze the
text for the qualitative features of text complexity,
and make notes.
 Use the questions at the bottom of the page to
discuss reader and task considerations for this text.
http://achievethecore.org/page/642/text -complexity -collection
FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE
Action 1
FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE
“The biggest reason why reading is so important is
that texts are the place where human beings record
their knowledge.”
Content Area Knowledge
Knowledge within Literature
“The first action that teachers can take to support
students with complex text is to bring to the
foreground the themes of literature, even in the
primary grades.”
Hiebert (2012)
LITERATURE IN THE
CONTEMPORARY CURRICULUM
EACH OF THE 6 SIGNPOSTS IDENTIFIED BY
BEERS AND PROBST…
Had some characteristic that made it
noticeable, that caused it to stand out
from the surrounding text.
Showed up across the majority of books.
Offered something to readers who
noticed and then reflected on it that
helped them better understand their own
responses, their own reading experience,
and their own interpretation of the text.
THE SIGNPOSTS
AND
COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
“The more students noticed these
signposts, the more they were using
the comprehension processes:
visualizing, predicting, summarizing,
clarifying, questioning, inferring, and
making connections.”
(Beers & Probst, p. 69)
GENERALIZABLE LANGUAGE
I’ll stop here because I can imagine how hard it is for Luke to decide if he wants
to risk going over to the other house. He knows he might get himself and his
family in a lot of trouble if he does this, yet he has realized he can’t stay in his
house forever. I can almost feel his nervousness. When we can make
connections like this, we better understand the characters.
I’ll stop here because I’ve noticed an important contradiction. When authors
show us a character acting in a way that contrasts with or contradicts what he
has been doing, I know I need to pause and ask myself, “Why is the character
acting this way?” Luke has been too afraid to leave his house and now he’s
contemplating breaking all the rules and going to another house. In this
scene, Luke knows he might get himself and his family in a lot of trouble if he
does this, yet he has realized that he can’t stay in his house forever. I think
he’s acting this way because….”
SIGNPOST #1:
CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS
 A sharp contrast between what we
would expect and what we observe
the character doing.
 Behavior that contradicts previous
behavior or well-established
patterns.
 A character behaves or thinks in a
way we don’t expect, or an element
of a setting is something we would
not expect.
CC
SIGNPOST #1:
CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS
Anchor Question: Why would the
character act or feel this way?
This question encourages thinking about and discussing:
Character
Motivation
Situation
SIGNPOST #2: AHA! MOMENT
 A character’s realization of
something that shifts his
actions or understanding
of himself, others, or the
world around him.
 “Suddenly I understood…”
 “It came to me in a
flash…”
 “Now I knew…”
Aha!
SIGNPOST #2 AHA MOMENT
Anchor Question:
How might this change things?
An Aha Moment reveals change. This question
focuses on that change – for the character or
the setting.
SIGNPOST #3 TOUGH QUESTIONS
Questions a character
raises that reveal his or
her inner struggles.
Phrases expressing
serious doubt or
confusion…
“What could I possibly do
to…?”
“How could I ever
understand why she…?”
TQ
SIGNPOST #3 TOUGH QUESTIONS
Anchor Question: What does this
question make me wonder about?
The answers will help in the
understanding of internal conflict,
theme, and character development.
SIGNPOST #4: WORDS OF THE WISER
The advice or insight a
wiser character, who is
usually older, offers
about life to the main
character.
The main character and
another are usually off
by themselves, in a
quiet, serious moment.
WW
SIGNPOST #4: WORDS OF THE WISER
Anchor Question: What’s the life
question and how might it affect
the character?
Words of the wiser suggests the theme.
Students begin to think about the theme in the
context of the character’s life, and then may
start to think of it in the context of their own
life.
SIGNPOST #5: AGAIN AND AGAIN
Events, images, or
particular words that recur
over a portion of the novel.
A word is repeated,
sometimes used in an odd
way, over and over in the
story.
An image reappears
several times during the
course of the book.
AA
SIGNPOST #5: AGAIN AND AGAIN
Anchor Question: Why might the
author bring this up again and
again?
Recurring images, events, or words
offer insight into character
motivation or theme.
SIGNPOST #6: MEMORY MOMENTS
An recollection by a
character that interrupts
the forward progress of
the story.
Often takes several
paragraphs to recount
before we are returned to
events of the present
moment.
MM
SIGNPOST #6: MEMORY MOMENT
Anchor Question: Why might
this memory be important?
Answering this question can offer insight into
character motivation and theme. It asks
students to consider the relationship between
the memory and the character or plot.
USING PICTURE BOOKS TO INTRODUCE THE
SIGNPOSTS
Tough Questions,
Again and Again,
Words of the Wiser
Aha Moment
Tough Questions, Words of the Wiser
Again and Again, Word of the Wiser
Contrasts and Contradictions,
Again and Again,
Words of the Wiser
THE SIX SIGNPOSTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Contrasts and Contradictions
Aha Moments
Tough Questions
Words of the Wiser
“We think that these signposts
show up in novels because they
Again and Again
show up in the world. Fiction does
Memory Moments
imitate life, and as a result we
shouldn’t be surprised to find that
the patterns that help us
understand the world around us
also help us understand the world
of the book in front of us.”
(Beers & Probst, p. 74)
CREATE CONNECTIONS
Action 2
HOW CAN TEACHERS HELP STUDENTS
CREATE CONNECTIONS?
“For knowledge to be useful, new ideas and information need to be connected to
existing knowledge.” (Hiebert, 2012)
ACTIVATE STUDENTS’
PASSION
Action 3
READING WIDELY AND DEEPLY
“Students need the chance to delve into topics. They also need some choice
in what they read. The choices, researcher s have shown, do not have to be
great. Even getting to choose between two books can go a long way in
increasing students’ engagement in reading.” ( Hieber t, 201 2)
“We must organize our readings in every
subject so each text bootstraps the
language and knowledge needed for the
next. Gradually, students will be ready for
texts of greater complexity. (Adams, 2009)
270L
520L
820L
1050L
1100L
DEVELOP VOCABULARY
Action 4
THE CHALLENGE OF
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
 In any natural language sample, 90% of the words come from
a small percentage of the words in English. These
(approximately 5,000 words) occur over and over.
 The other 10% of words are unique. These come from a group
of at least 300,000 words.
 The stronger a student’s vocabulary, the more complex the
text that can be read. The more complex text that is
encountered, the stronger the vocabulary. (Matthew Ef fects)
Recommended:
Advancing Our Students’ Language and
Literacy: The Challenge of Complex Texts
by Marilyn Jager Adams
http://achievethecore.org/page/642/textcomplexity-collection
Selecting Words to Teach
(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan)
Tier 1 Words: Basic words, well known, used often;
e.g. house, milk
Tier 2 Words: High-frequency words used by mature language
users in a wide range of contexts; e.g. jealous, huge
Tier 3 Words: Low-frequency words, often limited to specific
content areas; e.g. amphibian, reptile
Tier 2 Words are:
•Useful - can be used in many different contexts
•Understandable – children have some idea or concept to connect to the new word
•Interesting
Tier 2 and Tier 3 Vocabulary
In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted
red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study
volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers, but they
know much about how a volcano works.
Our planet made up of many layers of rock. The top layers of solid rock
are called the crust. Deep beneath the crust is the mantle, where it is
so hot that some rock melts. The melted, or molten, rock is called
magma.
Volcanoes are formed when magma pushes its way up through the
crack in Earth’s crust. This is called a volcanic eruption. When magma
pours forth on the surface, it is called lava.
Simon, Seymour. Volcanoes. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
CCSS Text Exemplar, Grades 4-5 Text Complexity Band
Direct Vocabulary Instruction
Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction
(Marzano, 2004)
1. The teacher provides a description, explanation, or
example of the new term.
2. Students restate the explanation of the new term in their
own words.
3. Students create a nonlinguistic representation of the
term.
4. Students periodically do activities that help them add to
their knowledge of vocabulary terms.
5. Periodically students are asked to discuss the terms with
one another.
6. Periodically students are involved in games that allow
them to play with the terms.
Teach and
practice using
networks of
words.
http://textproject.org/
Strategic Approaches
to Vocabulary Learning
 Morphemic Analysis: A strategy in which the meanings
of words can be determined or inferred by examining
their meaningful parts (i.e., prefixes, suf fixes, roots,
etc.)
 Contextual Analysis: A strategy readers use to infer or
predict a word from the context in which it appears.
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/vo c/voc_what.php
INCREASE THE VOLUME
Action 5
GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILIT Y
INDEPENDENT READING
BUILD UP STAMINA
Action 6
ACADEMIC EMOTIONS
“…I taught some
students who seemed to
have no instructional
level. They either could
do something on their
own – or they were
frustrated and resistant;
they crossed right over
to the frustrational
level.”
(Newkirk, p. 126)
STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING
A GROWTH MINDSET
 Talk about mindset with students
 Celebrate difficulty
 Utilize think-alouds to model “productive
inner dialogue”
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational -leadership/nov13/
vol71/num03/What-Students-Can-Do-When-the-Reading-Gets-Rough
.aspx
Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2015). Teacher modeling using complex
informational texts, The Reading Teacher, 69(1), 63-69.
 Use metaphors
 Introduce other tools and strategies that students can return to
when they’re on their own with complex text (systems for
annotating texts, pneumonics,
step-by -step strategies for
word-solving)
THIEVES STRATEGY
FOR PREVIEWING TEXT







T = Title
H = headings
I = introduction
E = Every 1 st Sentence
V = Visuals and vocabulary
E = End of article
S = summarize thinking
“Perhaps one of the mistakes
in the past efforts to improve
reading achievement has been
the removal of struggle. As a
profession, we may have made
reading tasks too easy. We do
not suggest that we should
plan students’ failure but
rather that students should be
provided with opportunities to
struggle and to learn about
themselves as readers when
they struggle, persevere, and
eventually succeed.”
Tex t Co m pl ex it y: Ra i sin g Ri g o r i n Re a di ng , p. 1 1
KATIE
PATTULLO
Kathryn.
pattullo
@mnps.
org