Text Complexity
Page Location: Common Core --> Reading --> Complex Text
Qualitative evaluation of the text
Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands
Quantitative evaluation of the text
Readability measures and other scores of text complexity
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)
Resources
Tools for Examining Text Complexity, Karin Hess, NCIEA & Steena Harvey, AUSSIE (2010, updated 2011)
New! Simplifying Text Complexity -- Teaching Channel
High school teacher Sarah Brown Wessling unpacks the idea of text complexity and discusses how teachers can design tasks with text complexity in mind. (19 minutes)
CCSSO Resource -- Navigating Text Complexity
Check the Specs: Why is Text Complexity Important? Where is Text Complexity Addressed in CCSS?
How do you measure text complexity?
Showroom Models: Navigate text complexity with a text roadmap, a tool that brings together the
quantitative measures, qualitative measures, and reader and task considerations of a text in one format.
Text Set Examples and Guide to Creating Text Sets
Take It for a Spin: Ripe Figs - Kate Chopin example
Take the Bridge to Instruction: Implications for Classroom Instruction; Creating Text-Dependent Questions;
Writing Resources
Accelerate with Additional Resources: Library of Additional Resources; Index of Blank Tools/Templates
Aspects of Text Complexity Project: Why Text Complexity Matters by David Liben
Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading - Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst
Notice and Note Worksheet for Analysis of Text Complexity of a Literary Text
Support noticing the signposts identified in Notice and Note with Signpost Bookmarks
designed by Char-Em ISD
Text Complexity Guide - NYC
Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric - Literary Texts - Vermont
Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric - Informational Texts - Vermont
Text Complexity Rubric for Literary Texts - Kansas
Text Complexity Rubric for Information Rubrics - Kansas
Companion to Qualitative Dimensions Scale (Achievethecore.org)
Shifts and Implications Ppt -- David and Meredith Liben Student Achievement Partners
Text Project - Santa Cruz Website
Text Complexity - 7 Actions Teachers Can Take Right Now
7 Actions PowerPoint
The View of Text Complexity within the Common Core State Standards: What does it mean for struggling readers? - PowerPoint
Narrative Benchmark Booklist
Using Strategies That Work with Complex Text: Examples
Article: Strategies That Work
Article: It's Complicated Common Core State Standards Focus on Text Complexity by Laura Varlas
Article: The Challenge of Challenging Text by Timothy Shanahan, Doublas Fisher, and Nancy Frey
Excerpt from Tough Talk, Tough Texts: Teaching English to Change the World, by Cindy O'Donnell-Allen
Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands
Quantitative evaluation of the text
Readability measures and other scores of text complexity
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)
Resources
Tools for Examining Text Complexity, Karin Hess, NCIEA & Steena Harvey, AUSSIE (2010, updated 2011)
New! Simplifying Text Complexity -- Teaching Channel
High school teacher Sarah Brown Wessling unpacks the idea of text complexity and discusses how teachers can design tasks with text complexity in mind. (19 minutes)
CCSSO Resource -- Navigating Text Complexity
Check the Specs: Why is Text Complexity Important? Where is Text Complexity Addressed in CCSS?
How do you measure text complexity?
Showroom Models: Navigate text complexity with a text roadmap, a tool that brings together the
quantitative measures, qualitative measures, and reader and task considerations of a text in one format.
Text Set Examples and Guide to Creating Text Sets
Take It for a Spin: Ripe Figs - Kate Chopin example
Take the Bridge to Instruction: Implications for Classroom Instruction; Creating Text-Dependent Questions;
Writing Resources
Accelerate with Additional Resources: Library of Additional Resources; Index of Blank Tools/Templates
Aspects of Text Complexity Project: Why Text Complexity Matters by David Liben
Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading - Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst
Notice and Note Worksheet for Analysis of Text Complexity of a Literary Text
Support noticing the signposts identified in Notice and Note with Signpost Bookmarks
designed by Char-Em ISD
Text Complexity Guide - NYC
Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric - Literary Texts - Vermont
Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric - Informational Texts - Vermont
Text Complexity Rubric for Literary Texts - Kansas
Text Complexity Rubric for Information Rubrics - Kansas
Companion to Qualitative Dimensions Scale (Achievethecore.org)
Shifts and Implications Ppt -- David and Meredith Liben Student Achievement Partners
Text Project - Santa Cruz Website
Text Complexity - 7 Actions Teachers Can Take Right Now
7 Actions PowerPoint
The View of Text Complexity within the Common Core State Standards: What does it mean for struggling readers? - PowerPoint
Narrative Benchmark Booklist
Using Strategies That Work with Complex Text: Examples
Article: Strategies That Work
Article: It's Complicated Common Core State Standards Focus on Text Complexity by Laura Varlas
Article: The Challenge of Challenging Text by Timothy Shanahan, Doublas Fisher, and Nancy Frey
Excerpt from Tough Talk, Tough Texts: Teaching English to Change the World, by Cindy O'Donnell-Allen