The Common Core State Standards Text Complexity

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The Common Core State StandardsText Complexity
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Common Core State Standards Text Complexity

• The Common Core State Standards places a strong
  emphasis on the role of text complexity in
  evaluating student readiness for college and
  careers.

The Common Core State Standards hinge on
students encountering appropriately complex
texts at each grade level in order to develop the
mature language skills and the conceptual
knowledge they need for success in school and
life. (p. 3)
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Advantages to Common Core Standards

• A focus on college and career readiness
• Inclusion of the four strands of English Language
  Arts
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening and speaking
• Language
• The benefits of an integrated literacy approach
  all educators have a shared responsibility for
  literacy instruction, regardless of discipline or
  content area.
• A focus on results rather than means . . .the
  Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum
  developers, and states to determine how those
  goals should be reached and what additional
  topics should be addressed. (p. 4)
• Efficiencies of scale common standards allow
  for greater collaboration among states in the
  areas of
• Professional development
• Resource development
• Teaching tools

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Text Complexity

• Included within the Standards is an enhanced
  focus on text complexity.
• Specifically, within reading standard 10
• Anchor Standard
• R.CCR.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and
  informational texts independently and
  proficiently.
• Example Grade-level Standard (6th grade)
• RI.6.10 By the end of the year, read and
  comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8
  text complexity band proficiently, with
  scaffolding as needed at the high end of the
  range.

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Guiding Questions

• What do the Common Core Learning Standards mean
  by text complexity?
• What is a text complexity band?
• and
• How do we ensure the texts our students are
  reading are in the appropriate text complexity
  band?

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Overview of Text Text Complexity

• Text complexity is defined by

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Common Core State Standards
Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text Complexity
Grade Bands
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Common Core State Standards
Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text Complexity
Grade Bands
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Where do we find texts in the appropriate text
complexity band?
We could.
Use available resources to determine the text
complexity of other materials on our own.

• Choose an excerpt of text from Appendix B as a
  starting place

or
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Determining Text Complexity

• A Four-step Process

• Determine the quantitative measures of the text.

Quantitative
Qualitative

• Analyze the qualitative measures of the text.

Reader and Task

• Reflect upon the reader and task considerations.

• Recommend placement in the appropriate text
  complexity band.

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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
Quantitative Measures

• Measures such as
• Word length
• Word frequency
• Word difficulty
• Sentence length
• Text length
• Text cohesion

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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
The Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text
Complexity This document outlines the suggested
ranges for each of the text complexity bands
using

• Lexile Text Measures

---or---

• ATOS Book Levels (Accelerated Reader)

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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
Lets imagine we want to see where a text falls
on the quantitative measures leg of the text
complexity triangle, using either the Lexile text
measures or the ATOS book level (or both).
For illustrative purposes, lets choose the text,
Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass.
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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
Lexile Text Measure
1080L
7.9
ATOS Book Level
In which of the text complexity bands would this
text fall?
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Common Core Learning Standards
Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text Complexity
Grade Bands
The K-1 suggested Lexile range was not
identified by the Common Core State Standards and
was added by Kansas. Taken from Accelerated
Reader and the Common Core State Standards,
available at the following URL
http//doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R004572117GKC46B.pdf

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Step 1 Quantitative Measures
Remember, however, that the quantitative measures
is only the first of three legs of the text
complexity triangle.
Our final recommendation may be validated,
influenced, or even over-ruled by our examination
of qualitative measures and the reader and task
considerations.
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Step 1 Quantitative Measures

• Additional Resources
• Lexile Measures and the Common Core State
  Standards
• http//www.lexile.com/using-lexile/lexile-measure
  s-and-the-ccssi/
• Accelerated reader and the Common Core State
  Standards
• http//doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R004572117GKC46B.pd
  f
• Coh-Metrix
• http//cohmetrix.memphis.edu/cohmetrixpr/index.h
  tml
• Coh-Metrix calculates the coherence of texts on a
  wide range of measures. It replaces common
  readability formulas by applying the latest in
  computational linguistics and linking this to the
  latest research in psycholinguistics.

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Step 2 Qualitative Measures

• Measures such as
• Structure
• Language Demands and Conventions
• Knowledge Demands
• Levels of Meaning/Purpose

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Structure (could be story structure and/or form
  of piece)
• Simple ? Complex
• Explicit ? Implicit
• Conventional ?Unconventional
• Events related in chronological order ? Events
  related out of chronological order (chiefly
  literary texts)
• Traits of a common genre or subgenre ? Traits
  specific to a particular discipline (chiefly
  informational texts)
• Simple graphics ? sophisticated graphics
• Graphics unnecessary or merely supplemental to
  understanding the text ? Graphics essential to
  understanding the text and may provide
  information not elsewhere provided

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Language Demands Conventionality and Clarity
• Literal ? Figurative or ironic
• Clear ? Ambiguous or purposefully misleading
• Contemporary, familiar ? Archaic or otherwise
  unfamiliar
• Conversational ? General Academic and domain
  specific
• Light vocabulary load few unfamiliar or academic
  words? Many words unfamiliar and high academic
  vocabulary present
• Sentence structure straightforward ?Complex and
  varied sentence structures
• Though vocabulary can be measured by quantifiable
  means, it is still a feature for careful
  consideration when selecting texts
• Though sentence length is measured by
  quantifiable means, sentence complexity is still
  a feature for careful consideration when
  selecting texts
•  

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Knowledge Demands Life Experience
• (literary texts)
• Simple theme ? Complex or sophisticated themes
• Single theme ? Multiple themes
• Common everyday experiences or clearly
  fantastical situations ? Experiences distinctly
  different from ones own
• Single perspective ? Multiple perspectives
• Perspective(s) like ones own ? Perspective(s)
  unlike or in opposition to ones own

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Knowledge Demands Cultural/Literary Knowledge
  (chiefly literary texts)
• Everyday knowledge and familiarity with genre
  conventions required ? Cultural and literary
  knowledge useful
• Low intertextuality (few if any
  references/allusions to other texts) ? High
  intertextuality (many references/allusions to
  other texts

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Common Core StandardsQualitative Features of
Text Complexity

• Levels of Meaning (chiefly literary texts) or
• purpose (chiefly informational texts)
• Single level of meaning ?Multiple levels of
  meaning
• Explicitly stated purpose ? Implicit purpose, may
  be hidden or obscure

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Step 2 Qualitative Measures
The Qualitative Measures Rubrics for Literary
and Informational Text The rubric for literary
text and the rubric for informational text allow
educators to evaluate the important elements of
text that are often missed by computer software
that tends to focus on more easily measured
factors.
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Step 2 Qualitative Measures
Because the factors for literary texts are
different from information texts, these two
rubrics contain different content. However, the
formatting of each document is exactly the same.
And because these factors represent continua
rather than discrete stages or levels, numeric
values are not associated with these rubric.
Instead, six points along each continuum is
identified not suited to the band, early-mid
grade level, mid-end grade level, early-mid grade
level, mid-end grade level, not suited to band.
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Step 2 Qualitative Measures
How is the rubric used?
And how would Narrative of the Life of Fredrick
Douglass fair when analyzed through the lens of
the Text Rubric?
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Step 2 Qualitative Measures

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Step 3 Reader and Task

• Considerations such as
• Motivation
• Knowledge and experience
• Purpose for reading
• Complexity of task assigned regarding text
• Complexity of questions asked regarding text

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Step 3 Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles

• Make close reading and rereading of texts central
  to lessons.
• Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or
  replace text.
• Ask text dependent questions from a range of
  question types.
• Emphasize students supporting answers based upon
  evidence from the text.
• Provide extensive research and writing
  opportunities (claims and evidence).

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Step 3 Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles

• Offer regular opportunities for students to share
  ideas, evidence and research.
• Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary.
• Ensure wide reading from complex text that varies
  in length.
• 9. Provide explicit instruction in grammar and
  conventions.
• 10. Cultivate students independence.

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Text ComplexityKey to Student Reading Success

• Text complexity matters because.
• making textbooks easier ultimately denies
  students the very language, information, and
  modes of thought they need most to move up and
  on.
• -Marilyn Jager Adams

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Text Complexity - ACT Study

• Purpose Determine what distinguished the reading
  performance of students likely to succeed in
  college and not.
• Process
• Set benchmark score on the reading test shown to
  be predictive of success in college (21 on ACT
  composite score).
• Looked at results from a half million students.
• Divided texts into three levels of complexity
  uncomplicated, more challenging, and complex.
  

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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by
Comprehension Level (Averaged across Seven
Forms)
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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Textual
Element (Averaged across Seven Forms)
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Text Complexity Matters

• Performance on complex texts is the clearest
  differentiator in reading between students who
  are more likely to be ready for college and those
  who are less likely to be ready.
• Texts used in the ACT Reading Test reflect three
  degrees of complexity uncomplicated, more
  challenging, and complex.

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Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Degree of
Text Complexity (Averaged across Seven Forms)
In this figure, performance on questions
associated with uncomplicated and
more challenging texts both above and below the
ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading
follows a pattern similar to those in the
previous analyses. Improvement on each of the
two kinds of questions is gradual and fairly
uniform.
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Recap of ACT Findings

• Question type and level (main idea, word
  meanings, details) is NOT the chief
  differentiator between student scoring above and
  below the benchmark.
• The degree of text complexity in the passages
  acted as the sorters within ACT. The findings
  held true for both males and females, all racial
  groups and was steady regardless of family income
  level.
• What students could read, in terms of its
  complexity--rather than what they could do with
  what they readis greatest predictor of success.
  FCAT has complex passages and highly cognitive
  demanding questions.

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Text Requirements in Middle and High School
Many students are engaged in shallow reading,
skimming text for answers, focusing only on
details and failing to make inferences in order
to integrate different parts of the text. Years
of reading in this superficial way will cause a
students reading ability to deteriorate. For
many students the decline of text demands in the
courses that they take has both an immediate and
long term impact on student achievement.
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What Are We Doing To Accelerate Success?
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Just Read, Florida! New Professional
DevelopmentThe Comprehension Instructional
Sequence

• An instructional model based upon research
  evidence introduced this year to Floridas
  teachers.
• The model assists teachers of students in grades
  6-12 in implementing whole-class examination of
  difficult texts and build students specialized
  knowledge.
• This sequence helps students grasp textual
  nuances they would not understand on their own.
• It is a text-dependent approach, ensuring the
  close examination of key text details and
  utilizes complex text.

Teaching Students to Think as They Read
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New Next Generation Content Area Reading
Professional Development

• Facilitates the type of instruction needed to
  yield high outcomes in literacy for all students.
• Uses close reading, text based questions, text
  based discussions, and writing in response to
  reading to focus students on reading text closely
  to draw evidence from the text.
• Emphasizes reading deeply in multiple
  disciplines.
• Comprehension strategies are taught in an
  integrated fashion with instructional coherence
  and direct application.
• Fosters respect for the discipline and content
  while providing the necessary scaffolds for
  students to extract the meaning with deep
  understanding of the content being taught.

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Additional Resources

• Appendix A - Qualitative Rubric for Text
  Complexity
• Appendix B - Common Core State Standards Text
  Exemplars