Text Complexity

In 2009 when David Coleman, William McCallum, Jason Zimba and Susan Pimetel sat to create the ELA Common Core Standards, one large focus was on text complexity. The ELA Anchor Standard 10 for Reading states:

Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

So much power is put into so little words!

One of the big debates in education is making complex text available to all students: those that excel, those that are striving readers, the whole shebang. While the focus of this post is not to go into the debate at length, it is important to know that reading and comprehending complex text is expected of all students. If it interests you, Dr. Freddy Hiebert discusses this topic and need for complex texts in the classroom in this webinar and you can also check out her website in which she explores many topics on the Common Core. 

In this post, I am going to explain the different stages of determining text complexity (according to the Common Core). 

image from teachingthecore.wordpress.com

There are 3 different ways in which you can determine text complexity: qualitatively, quantitatively, and relating to the reader & task. In short, evaluating if a text is complex or not is determined by the following factors:

Quantitative: Determined by algorithm - a numerical product of looking deeply at number of syllables in sentences, word length, word frequency/uniqueness, etc.

I used www.readabilityforumulas.com to calculate the quantitative results. I have interpreted the results using the Fry Readability Graph.

Qualitative: Determined by humans - how is the text organized, what are the deep meanings of the text, etc. In this evaluation, I will look at the quality of text using the following wordage:

Slightly Complex
Moderately Complex
Very Complex
Exceedingly Complex

I used rubrics from http://achievethecore.org/ in order to look at qualitative complexity. This is a great website that looks at the Common Core and gives resources in order to help make the standards comprehensible.

Reader & Text: Determined by teacher - how the teacher can use the text within the classroom

I will go through one of the units I am currently teaching my 4th and 5th graders and demonstrate how I determine text complexity for the mentor texts that I am using.

Social studies is integrated into my literacy curriculum, so at the moment I am teaching through the lens of the American Revolution. My students and I are currently tackling the causes of the revolution and looking at the essential question: What causes change? Through this topic, I have been teaching point-of-view, author's purpose and text structure.

Book #1: The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble, Illustrated by Robert Papp
Type of Text: Historical Fiction Literature

at amazon.com

Reader & Task: 
I use this book to teach about perspective and point of view. The little girl in the book is a Patriot and devises a plan with her brother to spy on British ships in the Boston Harbor. I would recommend this book to teachers who are interested in teaching how author's play with language. There is a lot of good figurative language that is very rich and if a student were to read this in the intermediate levels, he or she may need teacher supports.

Quantitative Results:

Quantitatively, this picture book is at the 9th grade level. This may surprise some as picture books are often thought of as an "elementary" text. This book has complex words in it like "tradesfolk", "glistening" and "rebellion". This is to be expected, however, since there is a lot of domain specific vocabulary unique to the American Revolutionary war. 

Qualitative Results: 

Text Structure: Exceedingly Complex -- The structure includes subplots, time shifts, point of view of a patriot girl, and has multiple, complex characters.

Language Features: Very Complex -- Language in this text is very specific to the American Revolutionary War; therefore, the vocabulary is very domain specific.

Meaning: Exceedingly Complex -- There is a subtle, overarching theme relating to the cost of war which is very ambiguous.

Knowledge Demands: Exceedingly Complex -- There is a lot of knowledge about life during the 18th century that needs to be known, especially how allegiance was classified during that time.

----------

Book #2: The Split History of the American Revolution: A Perspectives Flip Book by Michael Burgan
Type of Text: Informational Text

     

at amazon.com

Reader & Task:
This book is a part of a series that shows two perspectives to the same topic in history. In this particular book, one side of the book details the British point of view while the other side looks at the Patriot point of view. This text acts and looks like a typical social studies text but in a picture book form. I use excerpts from this book to teach about the Boston Riot/Massacre (wording depends on who you ask!) and the incidence of bias within historical accounts. To use with a class, use excerpts as a read aloud and analyze perspective and bias.

Quantitative Results: 

This book is considered to be at the 9th grade level, although it is "teetering" on the 10th grade side. Domain specific vocabulary that is showcased in this book includes "representatives", "smuggling" and "molasses", very discipline specific vocabulary.

Qualitative Results: 

Text Structure: Moderately Complex -- The structure is what to be expected in a "typical" informational text. It is in chronological order, has graphics that relates to the text, and is clear about the history of the American Revolutionary War. It does have two perspectives; therefore, making the text a bit more complex.

Language Features: Very Complex -- Language in this text is very specific to the American Revolutionary War; therefore, the vocabulary is very domain specific.

Meaning: Moderately Complex -- Meaning of the content is laid out explicitly with having two perspectives of the American Revolutionary War.

Knowledge Demands: Exceedingly Complex -- There is a lot of knowledge about life during the 18th century that needs to be known.

----------

Book #3: Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen

Type of Text: Historical Fiction/Informational Text Hybrid

at amazon.com

Reader & Task:

This novel gives a fictional historical account of a boy who is caught in between the American Revolutionary War. It is a hybrid because before every chapter, there is a small informational passage that gives real, historical context about the war to craft the setting in the book. I use this book as a read aloud and we analyze the organization of the text. This is important because the students learn how to navigate a hybrid text.

Quantitative Results: 

According to the scale, this book lands at around a seventh grade reading level. The sentences are less complex and shorter. There are not as many multisyllabic words. There are some domain specific words related to the time period, but not as much.

Qualitative Results: 

Text Structure: Moderately Complex -- This book is a hybrid novel that alternates between a fictional historic point of view and informational text that supports the setting. The weaving of the two story lines makes this text moderately complex.

Language Features: Moderately Complex  -- Some language is specific to the American Revolutionary War time period, but the language is conversational. There are some places where language complexity appears.

Meaning: Moderately Complex -- Theme is there and pretty much explicit but there are some subtleties within that theme.

Knowledge Demands: Very Complex -- Paulsen does a great job giving context to the reader about the American Revolutionary War, but there are parts in which a student would comprehend better if background knowledge is presented in order to make the experience more common to the reader.

----------

Looking at the evaluation of text complexity with these specific texts, I would recommend that a teacher use these texts in the intermediate elementary levels only if appropriate scaffolds are in place. I am not suggesting that we over scaffold, but in order to hit the strategies that could be taught with these books such as point of view, bias, etc., it is necessary for some scaffolds to be in place such as read alouds, shared reading, vocabulary support if needed, etc. These books are being used in my classroom at the moment and are embedded into a study of the American Revolutionary War; therefore, students have some experience with the historical time period. 

I was somewhat surprised that my picture book, after evaluation, is considered to be more complex than my chapter book. It's amazing what stigma comes with "types" of text, but this evaluation shows that text can be complex in many different ways!