Social Studies Middle School Guide

TEXT COMPLEXITY

A critical component of the Utah Core Standards for Reading is the requirement that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. Being able to read complex text independently and proficiently is essential for high achievement in college and the workplace and important in numerous life tasks. Moreover, current trends suggest that if students cannot read challenging texts with understanding—if they have not developed the skill, concentration, and stamina to read such texts—they will read less in general. To grow, our students must read a lot, more

specifically they must read a lot of complex texts that offer them new language, new knowledge, and new modes of thought. The Utah Core Standards define a three-part model for determining how easy or difficult a particular text is to read as well as grade-by-grade specifications for increasing text complexity in successive years of schooling (Reading standard 10). These are to be used together with grade-specific standards that require increasing sophistication in students’ reading comprehension abilities (Reading standards 1–9). In this way, the Standards approach the intertwined issues of what and how students read. The three-part model includes quantitative and qualitative measures of text complexity as well as reader and task considerations.

Quantiative

Qualitative

Reader & Task Considerations

Readability and other scores of text complexity often best measured by computer software.

Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarify, and knowledge demands often best measured by an attentive human reader.

Background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned often best made by educators employing their professional judgement. Considerations such as motivation, prior knowledge, purpose for reading, complexity of task assigned regarding text.

Word length, word frequency, word difficulty, sentence length, text length, text cohesion

Levels of meaning, levels of purpose, structure, organization, language coventionality, language clarity, prior knowledge demands

Determine lexile level of a text at lexile.com

Use the text complexity rubrics

Reader & Task Considerations

Revisiting How We Match Readers and Texts “For decades, teachers have been told that quality instruction requires a careful matching of materials to students. The goal has been to select materials that are neither too difficult nor too easy for student. Typically, students are assessed on their ability to orally read and comprehend text. Then, instructional materials are selected to match the students’ current performance” (Fisher, Frey, & Lapp, 2012). The main issue with this approach is it limits what students can read with instruction and creates a divide between what the Standards are calling for and what students’ access. “There is evidence that students learn, and perhaps more, when they are taught from challenging texts“ (Morgan, Wilcox, & Eldredge, 2000; O’Connor, Swanson, & Geraghty, 2010).