Meeting the Text Complexity Demands of the Common Core

1. Christina Steinbacher-Reed Meeting the Text Complexity Demands of the Common Core

2. Literature Informational Foundational Skills (K-5 only)

3. How do we meet the CC demands for text complexity? • How does CC define text complexity? • What do we need to consider when selecting texts? • How can we meet the rigorous demands of Common Core while meeting individual student needs?

4. What/So What?

5. Seasonal Partners

6. Common Core vs. PA Common Core • All inclusive, nationally accepted literacy standards • Includes CC that are included in eligible content and state assessments Common Core PA Common Core

7. Assessment Shifts • Gr. 3-8 Reading PSSA • Gr. 5 and 8 Writing PSSA • Gr. 3-5 Writing Field Test • Gr. 3-5 ELA (based on CC and includes writing) • Gr. 6-8 Reading (eligible content) • Gr. 8 Writing • Gr. 6-8 Writing Field Test 2013 2014

8. How do we begin the transition to Common Core? The knowns: • Full implementation in 2014 The tentatively knowns: • Common Core vs. PA Common Core • Assessments for Common Core

9. What are the ‘big shifts’? • Balance of literary and informational texts • Knowledge in the disciplines • Staircase of text complexity • Text-based Answers • Writing from Sources • Academic Vocabulary

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11. Share your reactions to this blog. • Have you experienced this ailment? • How does your perspective of CC align with your district’s?

12. Common Core Documents • ELA Standard 10 • Appendix A – Text Complexity Guidelines • Appendix B – Text Exemplars • Revised Publishers’ Criteria

13. Standard 10 - Vertical Progression

14. Appendix A - Text Complexity • Qualitative – levels of meaning, structure, clarity, knowledge demands • Quantitative – word length, readability level • Reader and Task - (motivation, background knowledge, purpose and complexity of task) Common Core Appendix A - Page 2-9 Appendix B – Text Examples

15. Qualitative Measures • Read pg. 5-6 of Appendix A and mark the text. Underline phrases or words that stand-out to you. • Share these phrases and new understandings with a partner • Review the qualitative measures rubric and share your reactions.

16. Quantitative Measures • Read pg. 7 of Appendix A and mark the text. Underline phrases or words that stand-out to you. • Share these phrases and new understandings with a partner

17. Key Considerations • Read ‘Key Considerations…’ on pg. 8-9 of Appendix A • With a partner: • What has been affirmed for you? • What has surprised you? • What are you still wrestling with?

18. How do you currently select texts appropriate for your grade level? How does this compare to Common Core’s criteria? • What types of shifts might you need to consider in regards to text selection?

19. Realigned Levels- Adjusted Upward

20. The Hunger Games The boy from District 1 dies before he can pull out the spear. My arrow drives deeply into the center of his neck. He falls to his knees and halves the brief remainder of his life by yanking out the arrow and drowning in his own blood. Rue has rolled to her side, her body curved in and around the spear. I shove the boy away from the net. One look at the wound and I know it’s far beyond my capacity to heal. The spearhead is buried up to the shaft in her stomach. “ Impulsively I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his words. This is probably overdue anyway since he’s right, we are supposed to be madly in love. It’s the first time I’ve ever kissed a boy. “Well, there’s more swelling, but the pus is gone, “ I say in an unsteady voice. “I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss,” says Peeta.

21. 1st Step – The Quantitative • Find the Lexile level – lexile.com • Or use another formula such as Fry’s

22. Fry’s Readability Formula

23. Pennsylvania Common Core 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

24. Quantitative Level of Hunger Games • Lexile (810) – Gr. 4-5 • ATOS Book Level – 6.2 • Scholatic’s Book Wizard Level – 5.3

25. Pennsylvania Common Core 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

26. 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.

27. “The use of qualitative and quantitative measures to assess text complexity is balanced in the Standards’ model by the expectation that educators will employ professional judgment to match texts to particular students and tasks.”Appendix A

28. Step 2: Qualitative Measures • Measures such as: • Layers of meaning • Levels of purpose • Structure • Organization • Language conventionality • Language clarity • Prior knowledge demands • Cultural demands • Vocabulary

29. Assessing Text Where on the continuum?

30. Qualitative Measures Rubric for Literary Text http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4605 • 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.

31. Qualitative Measures Rubric for Informational Text http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4605 • 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.

32. Qualitative Measures Rubrics 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 rubrics. Instead, four points along each continuum are identified: high, middle high, middle low, and low.

33. What are your conclusions? • Work with a partner to use the literary rubric to level the Hunger Games.

34. Step 2: Qualitative Measures

35. Remember . . . Qualitative aspects are “best measured or only measurable by an attentive human reader, such as levels of meaning or purpose; structure; language conventionality and clarity; and knowledge demands.”

36. Step 2: Qualitative Measures Our initial placement of The Hunger Games into a text complexity band has changed when we examined the qualitative measures. Qualitative Remember, however, that we have completed only the first two legs of the text complexity triangle. Quantitative Reader and Task The reader and task considerations still remain.

37. Step 3: The 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

38. Reader and Task Considerations The questions included here are largely open-ended questions without single, correct answers, but help educators to think through the implications of using a particular text in the classroom.

39. Step 4: Recommended Placement Reflect back on all three ‘legs’ of text complexity. With your partner or team, make a final judgment

40. Hunger Games Recommended Placement

41. Describe the four step process we used to determine text complexity. What resources were used at each step? • With which points or parts of this process do you agree? Disagree? • What are you still wondering about?

42. Determining Text Complexity Four Step Process Determine the quantitative measures of the text. Analyze the qualitative measures of the text. Reflect upon the reader and task considerations. Recommend placement in the appropriate text complexity band.

43. What/So What?

44. Applying the Text Complexity Measures to Informational Text “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. • You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension.”

45. Quantitative Analysis of Informational Text “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” • Flesch-Kincaid: 9.4 • Gunnings Fog Index: 12.5 • Automated Readability Index: 9.6

46. Qualitative Analysis of Informational Text

47. Reader/Task Considerations for Informational Text • Will the reader be able to remember and make connections among the various details presented in this specific text? • Does the reader possess the necessary comprehension strategies to manage the material in this specific text? • Will the reader be interested and engaged with the style of writing and the presentation of ideas within this specific text? • Does the reader possess the maturity to respond appropriately to any potentially concerning elements of content or theme? • Will the complexity of any before-, during-, or after-reading tasks associated with this specific text interfere with the reading experience?

48. “Letter of Birmingham” Recommendation • According to the ELA CCSS RL.9-10.9: • Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts. • The recommended placement of this piece of informational text is in grade span 9-10.

49. Text Complexity Resource • Appendix A: Research Supporting the Key Elements of the Standards • Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks • http://www.pdesas.org/ • Lexile.com • iu17commoncore.wikispaces.com (includes professional reading book lists)

50. Your Turn! Using the four step process, explore the text complexity of your texts.