text complexity

Reading complex texts has become a hot topic in Minnesota and across the country due to the adoption of the Common Core Standards. Specifically, this refers to: Standard 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Here's how text complexity is described in the MN LA CCSS...
Reading: Text complexity and the growth of comprehension: The Reading standards place equal emphasis on the sophistication of what students read and the skill with which they read. Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade "staircase" of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning reading to the college and career readiness level. Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.

And here are the specific standards at each grade level dealing with text complexity...
Kindergarten: 
0.1.10.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding, including the appropriate selection of texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.
First Grade:
 1.1.10.10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1 as well as select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.
Second Grade:
2.1.10.10 By the end of the year, select, read and comprehend literature including stories and poetry for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Third Grade:
3.1.10.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.
Fourth & Fifth Grades:
4/5.1.10.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, drama, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently and independently with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.
6th - 8th Grades:
6/7/8.4.10.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently and independently with appropriate scaffolding for texts at the high end of the range. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints. 
Ninth & Tenth Grades:
9.4.10.10 By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints.
Eleventh & Twelfth Grades:
11.4.10.10 By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints.

So what does this mean and why the focus in the standards? Though by many objectives measures (NAEP, PISA), our students are performing at a consistent level in reading and writing tasks, employers and colleges are noting a need for students to have more practice reading (and writing) complex texts, promoting critical thinking, multiple perspectives, and a greater stamina for reading difficult texts. We know that students need lots of practice reading self-selected texts (as evidenced in the standards), but they also need practiced reading increasingly longer, more complex texts - the types of discipline-specific texts they are likely to encounter in subjects outside of language arts and throughout their college and employment careers. And this refers to print and digital texts - students need practice with their digital literacy skills for the marketplace, higher ed, and their general societal participation.

So how do we know complex text when we see it? According to the MN LA Standards, there are three factors that influence text complexity:

1. Qualitative evaluation of the text: Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands [this includes things like vocabulary, genre, sentence and text structure and organization, and coherence of the text]
2. Quantitative evaluation of the text: Readability measures and other scores of text complexity [measures like Fry Readability, Lexile, or other readability schemes]
3. Matching reader to text and task: Reader variables (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and task variables (such as purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and the questions posed) [also including students' background knowledge, if a purpose has been set for the reading, students' self-efficacy and self-regulation, students' decoding, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary development]

In a research study that I was a part of in graduate school, we asked students to rate the difficulty of texts that they encountered on am MCA-like assessment. When they rated texts, many of the students blamed the words for whether or not a text was easy, hard, or just right for them. Students don't always know these measures of text complexity, but they do know whether or not they stumble over the words in the text. Sometimes this is due to other factors - like coherence and structure, and sometimes it is really that they don't have the vocabulary development for the text. Analyzing the combination of qualitative and quantitative factors that lie within the text, and the readers that are to  engage with the text helps you determine the complexity of the text.

So what can you do? Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey (2012) suggest that one major thing for teachers to do to meet these standards is to build students' decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. One way to do this is to encourage multiple readings of texts, interactive reading guides to help build comprehension, and ongoing vocabulary instruction helping students learn connections between words and concepts, not just definitions. Another thing teachers can do is establish a purpose for the texts that you are reading in class. Students will be better able to tackle complex texts if they know why they are reading the text and what will be asked of them at the end of reading the text. Students need lots of practice with close reading: annotating texts, rereading texts, and being a critical reader of texts. Teach text structures and (I've said this a bunch of times) teach students that they have to reread texts - whether they want to or not. Another thing to try is to help build students' stamina for reading text. Just like a runner wouldn't go out and run a marathon the first time they tie on their running shoes, you want students to build stamina for reading complex texts. This kind of work can help build students' persistence for texts. Some examples of lessons for this can be found at: ReadWriteThink and Achieve the Core. All content teachers can help meet these standards in their classes. Something that all teachers need to do, of course, is provide the scaffolding for students to read increasingly difficult texts. 

How are you thinking about text complexity in your position?

* References:
Minnesota Academic Standards: English Language Arts K-12, 2010
Varlas, L. (2012). It's complicated: Common Core State Standards focus on text complexity. ASCD Education Update, 54(4).
Shanahan, T., Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012). The challenge of challenging texts. Educational Leadership, 69(6), 58-62.

so you're going to be gone...

Welcome back from Education MN break! I hope those of you that attended the conference learned some helpful tips, strategies, or lesson ideas, heard some inspiring speakers, and/or enjoyed the day with some teacher-friends swapping stories. I certainly enjoyed the conference this year. And for those of you that spent the time recovering from a frenzied fall, I hope you are feeling refreshed and ready to go.

Fall is a wonderful time of year - changing leaves, cooler temps, apple cider and pumpkin pie. It's also the time of year that sickness can knock you sideways, particularly those of you new to teaching. And when you're really sick, though it is often more work to be gone than just to come in, you aren't doing you or your students any favors. Last December, I shared some advice for planning for and being a substitute teacher. And there are a few additional suggestions to help you in the event that you need to be gone from school.

Of course you need to have detailed lesson plans. It helps to have things typed out, just for ease in reading them as a sub. Remember, your sub won't know what W-12 AB means, even if you know exactly what lesson that refers to in your math guide. So, err on the side of extra explanation as you write out your plans. I also never left photocopying for the sub - you just never know what might happen. Whenever possible, I had the necessary copies already made, ready for the sub. Of course, emergencies come up, but when possible, try to have everything all ready to go.

When planning for a sub, have this info readily available:

• a phone number where you can be reached (if possible)
• seating charts (with photos of kids, if possible)
• key contacts (main office, attendance, nurse, as well as the nearby teachers)
• evacuation plans for fire drills, lockdown procedures, tornado plans 
• a map of the school (in case someone is really new to the building)
• a master list of the weekly pull-out schedule (i.e. which students leave when and where do they go?)
• daily/weekly schedule and any regular routines (attendance, morning meeting, advisory, lunch/recess, spelling etc) 
• any additional duties (hall, recess, bus etc)
• any class rules and consequences
• have pens, pencils, bandaids, paper clips post-its, hall passes all readily available (perhaps in a plastic bin on top of your desk, so the sub doesn't have to dig through drawers)

I kept this info on a clipboard labeled "Substitute Teacher Info" and had it on my desk, just in case something were to happen and that info needed to be used.

I also had "in case of emergency" activities available. Games or other activities that the substitute could do if they had extra time or if students finished really early. In my school, we had to develop an emergency sub folder with activities that were independent and could be completed in the event that something happened that kept you from even being able to complete emergency sub plans. Something to think about putting together. Even in these situations, your colleagues can usually pull something together (at least, I did that for colleagues!) so that plans can be somewhat linked to what the students have been working on, but as they always say, you just never know.

What are some ways that you plan for a substitute?

Apps_Documenting learning

With EM break coming up (for those of you in Minnesota), perhaps you'll have a few moments to check out some apps to incorporate into your teaching. Today, I'll share some cool apps used to create, document, and share learning in a variety of formats.

educreations is a free app that allows users to create files combining images, text, and audio on a whiteboard like surface. It can be used as a way for students to create a video documenting their learning about a particular topic, and it can also be used as a way to teach a certain topic to students. Create a free profile and videos can be uploaded and viewed publicly on the educreations website!





ShowMe is another app used to create tutorials. Similar to educreations (and also free!) I think this one is really easy to use right away. It's a way to document and record what you know about something. It provides a great template for students to use when presenting new learning, or to share with others about something they already know about. Like with educreations, tutorials can be uploaded to the ShowMe website and shared with others.





Skitch is an app that allows users to annotate and edit photos, screenshots, or other images and email or upload to other apps to incorporate into presentations. It is linked to Evernote, which is another tool for creating tutorials like ShowMe and educreations. Which means, that when you edit an image in Skitch, it automatically shows up in your Evernote files, ready to incorporate into a new presentation. Cool, huh?


 

Idea Sketch is a mind-mapping, outline creating tool. It allows users to create a visual representation of learning. It is pretty intuitive to use, and once completed, sketches can be emailed to the teacher, other students, or themselves for future access. This is helpful, given that most teachers have access to carts of iPads and don't have 1-to-1 iPad options for students.





What other apps are you using to document learning?

teaching abroad

In summer 2011, I wrote a post about international teaching positions. I've been talking to a number of teachers (preservice and inservice) that are intrigued by the idea of teaching in another country.

Many teachers have the experience that they wanted to study abroad in college, but if they completed education as a major in college, it was difficult to fit into the demanding course sequence. Also, financially it can be difficult to make a study abroad opportunity work for some. But, that doesn't mean you lost your chance to live and work abroad.

There are lots of opportunities to teach abroad, and if you are seriously considering it, you'll want to look seriously at the UNI Overseas Recruiting Fair, held in January 2013. There is a cost associated, and those that register before Dec 3 get a cheaper price. If you're finishing your teacher prep program this and will have a license before Fall 2013 (or you're already licensed and looking for an amazing new teaching opportunity), check it out.

I've known several teachers that have gone to the fair, and secured teaching jobs in places like Greece, China, Thailand, Brazil, and Columbia. And have had life-changing experiences spending 2 years teaching abroad - gaining valuable teaching experience, as well as learning about another culture. Often, schools are looking for teachers with experience, but there are schools that will hire new college grads with the right qualifications for a certain position.

Something to think about...

teaching the 2012 elections

With the first presidential debate underway, I decided that the time was now to address teaching the 2012 elections. Politics can seem like a scary topic to teach, but with the right resources at hand, you can teach students about the process, the issues, and the candidates, and leave the decisions up to them.

The National Council for the Social Studies has a number of resources on the elections. Many of them are available only to members, but they link to several free resources as well. The New York Times Teaching and Learning Network has an election unit that could be adapted at many grade levels. Edutopia provides an overview of possible election projects and a political ad campaign project for high schoolers. Thinkfinity linked to a number of election season lessons and projects. C-Span Classroom has lots of great primary source materials for teaching about the election. You can find additional resources for teaching about the elections here, here, and here.

How will you be teaching about the elections in your classroom?