The Common Core State Standards Text Complexity

1. The Common Core State StandardsText Complexity

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. Overview of Text Text Complexity • Text complexity is defined by: Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands often best measured by an attentive human reader. Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity often best measured by computer software. Quantitative Qualitative Reader and Task considerations – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned often best made by educators employing their professional judgment. Reader and Task

7. Common Core State Standards Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text Complexity Grade Bands

8. Common Core State Standards Quantitative Measures Ranges for Text Complexity Grade Bands

9. Where do we find texts in the appropriate text complexity band? Choose an excerpt of text from Appendix B as a starting place: We could…. Use available resources to determine the text complexity of other materials on our own. or…

10. 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.

11. Step 1: Quantitative Measures Quantitative Measures • Measures such as: • Word length • Word frequency • Word difficulty • Sentence length • Text length • Text cohesion

12. 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)

13. Step 1: Quantitative Measures Let’s 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, let’s choose the text, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass.

14. Step 1: Quantitative Measures Lexile Text Measure: 1080L 7.9 ATOS Book Level: In which of the text complexity bands would this text fall?

15. 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

16. 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.

17. Step 1: Quantitative Measures • Additional Resources • Lexile Measures and the Common Core State Standards • http://www.lexile.com/using-lexile/lexile-measures-and-the-ccssi/ • Accelerated reader and the Common Core State Standards • http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R004572117GKC46B.pdf • Coh-Metrix • http://cohmetrix.memphis.edu/cohmetrixpr/index.html • 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.

18. Step 2: Qualitative Measures • Measures such as: • Structure • Language Demands and Conventions • Knowledge Demands • Levels of Meaning/Purpose

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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 one’s own • Single perspective  Multiple perspectives • Perspective(s) like one’s own  Perspective(s) unlike or in opposition to one’s own

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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?

27. Step 2: Qualitative Measures

28. 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

29. 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).

30. 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.

31. 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

32. 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.

33. Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Comprehension Level (Averaged across Seven Forms)

34. Performance on the ACT Reading Test by Textual Element (Averaged across Seven Forms)

35. 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.

36. 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. 36 36

37. 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 read—is greatest predictor of success. FCAT has complex passages and highly cognitive demanding questions.

38. 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 student’s 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.

39. What Are We Doing To Accelerate Success?

40. Just Read, Florida! New Professional DevelopmentThe Comprehension Instructional Sequence • An instructional model based upon research evidence introduced this year to Florida’s 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

41. 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.

42. Additional Resources • Appendix A - Qualitative Rubric for Text Complexity • Appendix B - Common Core State Standards Text Exemplars