Qualitative Measures of Text Complexity

What can you control? And how? HUMAN RATED Levels of meaning Structure Language conventionality Clarity Knowledge demands COMPUTER SCORED Word length Word frequency Sentence length Text Cohesion Co-Metrix and Lexiles NO – JUST BY SELECTION NO – JUST BY SELECTION How can you design/change/scaffold the task?

The Case for Struggle Failure vs. Productive Struggle Struggle Alone vs. Struggle With Support “Perhaps one of the mistakes in past efforts to improve reading achievement as been the removal of struggle. As a profession, we may have made reading tasks too easy. We do not suggest that we should plan students’ failure, but rather that students should be provided with opportunities to struggle, and to learn about themselves as readers when they struggle, persevere, and eventually succeed.” (Fisher, Fry, & Lapp, 2012, p. 11) p. 11: students should be provided with opportunities to struggle and to learn about themselves as readers when they struggle, persevere, and eventually succeed How does the teacher support students (manipulatives, partners, small group work with peer support – “using their own language”

Modeling Mindsets & Agency Take Ownership Over One’s Learning Meets benchmarks Seeks feedback Tackles & monitors learning Actively participates Builds relationships Impacts self & community See more in Agency Rubric Handout Developing Growth Mindset Uses effort and practice to grow Seeks challenge Grows from setbacks Builds confidence Finds personal relevance

The Case for Struggle? Failure vs. Struggle Struggle Alone vs. Struggle With Support Productive Failure (Fisher & Fry, Ch 1, p. 11) = Supported Struggle Role of “easy” texts with big, complex ideas Role of guided high-level questioning before, during, and after reading Role of conversation/dialogue during re-readings Role of summary, synthesis, transformation

Activity 1: Noticing Good Teaching (In groups of three) What are ten effective teaching techniques that Ms. Chin uses that foster “supported struggle” with a complex text? (she revisits to help students achieve a deeper level of analysis of character development)

10 Effective Teaching Techniques for Supported Struggle Pre-read with authentic purpose (character change) Pre: Provide organizer (Beginning, middle, end) During: Read hard text indep. for purpose (get familiar with character, language, and how change) During: (Time 1) Annotate and note author craft After: (Time 1) Dialogue/conversation with evidence-based reasoning During: (Time 2) Revisit purpose to analyze more closely During: (Time 2) Think-aloud (notice strategy links) After: (Time 2) Discuss with text-dependent questions After: Respond/Transform (Write/new dialogue) Together: Use dialogues and writing as multiple forms of formative assessment (to prepare for PARRC test!)

The Issue Considerate texts facilitate comprehension and have been written to be responsive to readers (Fisher & Fry, p. 42) Three elements: Structure + Coherence + Audience Appropriateness Other measures: (see rubric) levels of meaning & purpose language conventionality clarity, knowledge demands But not all texts are considerate, or as Tovani would say “accessible” for many students. Yet, the Common Core expects all students to read complex texts independently and proficiently at their grade level.

Activity 2 How well can you analyze text complexity? Select one of the texts (The Book Thief or Physics) Work with others to skim the text and review highlighted challenge areas using qualitative features you read about for homework. Rate the text using the complexity rubric on the back to examine layout, purpose & meaning, structure, language features, and knowledge demands

Discussion Web Part 1

Discussion Web Part 2

The Conversation Are considerate (Fisher & Fry) and accessible (Tovani) the same thing? Why/why not? Can considerate texts also be complex? Does using accessible texts have to sacrifice rigor in thinking and learning? State your claim and use evidence (data) from your readings or our previous conversations to substantiate your claim. Listen to other people’s claims and consider how to build on them with your own perspectives and evidence.

Real Rigor: Connecting Students with Accessible Text (Tovani) Accessible text is interesting, well written, and appropriately matched Effective practices: Support thinking, build background knowledge and provide lots of practice; Provide choice; connect to real world; think-aloud as disciplinary expert with “real texts” not textbooks; read provocative texts Weave use of Complex and Alternative texts to build fluency and confidence (and background knowledge) Text sets >> Diverse Text Assignment (see wiki)

Homework

Essay Assignment