Complex Texts:The Bumpy Road of Reading

Materials available at:http://professionallearning.typepad.com/bigshantypl/

A Bumpy Road?

“Perhaps one of the mistakes in 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.”

From Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in ReadingFisher, Frey & Lapp, 2012

The Demands of Complex Texts

• Complex texts require these dispositions: –A Willingness to Probe– The Capacity for Uninterrupted Thinking–A Receptivity to Deep Thinking* A Habit of Slow Reading

“Too Dumb for Complex Texts?”By Mark BauerleinASCD Educational Leadership, 2011

This is the sunflower starfish. It is the biggest of all. Starfish have many arms. The arms are called rays. Starfish have arms, but no legs.

Starfish have feet, but no toes. They glide and slide on tiny tube feet. They move as slowly as a snail.

The basket star looks like a starfish, but it is a little different. It doesn’t have tube feet. It moves with its rays. It has rays that go up and rays that go down.

170L

High above there is the Moon, cold and quiet, no air, no life, but glowing in the sky.

Here below there are three men who close themselves in special clothes, who—click—lock hands in heavy gloves, who—click—lock heads in large round helmets.

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Sometime around 1440, the spring-powered clock was invented. Instead of depending on the pull of weights for power, this type of clock used a flat metal spring wound tightly into a coil. The escapement allowed the spring to unwind by turning one gear tooth at a time. With the use of a spring, smaller, truly portable clocks could be made.

The first well-known watches, made in Germany around 1510 by Peter Henlein, were so named because guards or“watchmen” carried small clocks to keep track of how long to stay at a particular duty post. 1050L

Text Complexity and Common Core

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary

and informational texts independently and proficiently.

3-Part Model for Measuring Text Complexity

Measuring Text Complexity: Matching Reader to Text and Task

Matching Reader to Text and Task – Reader variables

• Motivation• Knowledge• Experience

– Task variables • Teacher-led tasks• Peer tasks• Individual tasks• Types of questions

*Determined by teachers using their professional judgment

Qualitative Evaluation of Text – Levels of meaning

• Explicit/Literal vs. Ambiguous/Abstract• Figurative Language• Stated, Implied, or Withheld Purpose

– Structure• Consistency with genre• Conventional vs. Unique Organization• Narrator• Text Features and Graphics

– Language conventionality and clarity– Knowledge demands

• Background knowledge• Vocabulary

Measuring Text Complexity: Qualitative

Measuring Text Complexity: Quantitative

Quantitative Evaluation of Text – Word length, frequency– Sentence length*Typically measured by computers, particularly for longer texts

Text Complexity Grade Bands

From CoreStandards.org, Appendix A

Determining a Text’s Lexile Level (Quantitative)

www.lexile.com/analyzer/

Select a passage from:www.ReadWorks.org http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/ http://www.timeforkids.com/ http://magazines.scholastic.com/ or another website of your choice

Lexiles Do NOT Measure

Text Characteristics• Age-appropriateness

of the content• Text support (e.g.

pictures, pull-outs)• Text quality (i.e. Is it

a good book?)

Reader Characteristics• Interest and motivation• Background knowledge• Reading context and

purpose

Skim “Food that Fools You.”

Is this text appropriately complex for your grade level?Why do you feel that way?

Teaching Kids to Read Complex Texts:

Tasks that Motivate Readers

Silent Conversation

Source of article:www.NewsELA.com

Lexile Level: 720L

The Rules ofSilent Conversations

• Your handwriting must be readable.

• Use all the time I give you for writing. Don’t just write a word or two and quit. Keep rereading and thinking about the article and the things other people have written. Keep the conversation going.

• This is a silent discussion, so no talking until later on!

Text-Dependent Questions

It was a close cousin to

certain dinosaurs found

on other continents.

The huge animal was 30 feet long and weighed 4 tons.

Until now, very little was known about North American dinosaurs during the time Siats lived.

Makovicky said he and

Zanno also found bones

from two other new

kinds of dinosaurs.

Source of article:www.NewsELA.com

Text-Dependent Questions

Is this evidence that the discovery of Siats meekerorum

was an important discovery?

Text-Based Debates

Source of story:Junior Great Bookswww.greatbooks.org

Lexile Level: 810L

Text-Based Debates

1. Read and mark text.– F = Ooka is fair– UF = Ooka is unfair

2. Divide into groups:– I take the position that Ooka is fair.– I take the position that Ooka is unfair.

Text-Based Debates

3. Meet with people who take the same position to discuss evidence from the text that supports that position.

4. State your position and give text evidence to your opponent. Listen to the evidence your opponent provides and take notes.

My position is that Ooka is _______ and my first reason is _________. You can see that in the story when it says __________.

Text-Based Debates

5. Meet with original group to discuss how to respond to opponent’s argument.

You said that ____________ shows that Ooka is ________. I believe that actually show that Ooka is ________ because ___________.

6. Respond to your opponent’s arguments.

Quick Draw/ Quick Write

Source of poem:Appendix B

www.corestandards.orgGrades 2-3 Text Exemplar

SociogramsA sociogram is a visual representation of the

relationships among characters in a literary text

Sociograms• Let the physical distance between characters reflect the

perceived psychological distance between the characters • Let the size/shape/symbol of a character metaphorically

represent each personality, importance, one’s power or lack of, etc.

• Lines can be creatively applied: What might the following types of lines indicate? A jagged line? A wavy line? The thickness of the line? etc.

• Illustrate the tone and or theme of a piece by the use of color or visual symbols.

• Add one word to each connecting line. Words may only be used once!

Sociograms