1. Text Complexity Accessible and Rigorous https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0uZwDP6cGo

2. Dimensions of Text Complexity

3. Quantitative ● Sentence Length ● Word Length ● Word Frequency ● Construction of Sentences

4. Qualitative ● Purpose ● Knowledge Demands ● Language Convention ● Complexity of Meaning

5. Reader and Task ● Motivation ● Experiences of Reader ● Previous Knowledge ● Focus of Reading ● Questions Posed

6. Example “Anyway, the fascinating thing was that I read in National Geographic that there are more people alive now than have died in all of human history. In other words, if everyone wanted to play Hamlet at once, the couldn’t, because there aren’t enough skulls! (Foer, 2005, p.3)

7. Ways to measure quantitative text complexity ● Lexile Problems: ● inaccurate in regards to meaning ● A lower or higher lexile does not always reflect true complexity ● Coh-Metrix ● difficult to interpret (http://cohmetrix.com/)http://cohmetrix.com/ ● Zone of Proximal development

9. Qualitatively Gauging Text Complexity Purpose Genre Figurative Language Structure Visuals

10. Five Registers 1. Fixed or Frozen 2. Formal 3. Consultative 4. Casual 5. Intimate

11. Matching Readers to Texts and Tasks Motivating students to Read ● A text checklist can help Practices such as ● Relevance ● Choice ● Success ● Collaboration ● Thematic Units

12. The Common Core How does this fit in? ● Asking Better Questions ● Modeling Text ● Shifting Expectations It is time to step up a bit and teach students to read-and read well. This can’t happen without an understanding of text complexity.