Text Complexity and Academic VocabularyTully 7-12Catie ReevePhyllis LitzenbergerMarch 21, 2014

Common Core Literacy Shifts

1. Balancing Informational & Literary Texts (Grades PK-5)

2. Knowledge in the Disciplines (Grades 6-12)

3. Staircase of Complexity

4. Text-based Answers

5. Writing from Sources

6. Academic Vocabulary

Common Core Literacy Shifts

1. Building Knowledge Through Content Rich Nonfiction

2. Regular Practice with Complex Text and Its Academic Language

3. Reading and Writing Grounded in Evidence From Text, Both Literary and Informational

Current Understanding

In your grade level teams, discuss your current understanding of the Staircase of Complexity and Academic Vocabulary shifts.

On your tables…• Common Core Learning Standards

• Appendix A

• Supplemental Information for Appendix A

• Why Complex Texts Matter- David Liben

• Selection of Authentic Texts for Common Core Instruction: Guidance and a List of Resources for Text Selection

Know/Need to Know

What questions do you have? What are you wondering about the role of text complexity and academic vocabulary within a common core aligned curriculum ?

Common Understanding

Create common grade-level definitions of the Staircase of

Complexity and Academic Vocabulary shifts and record

them on chart paper.

Why complex texts?

Why complex texts?

Appendix A• Research indicates that:

• … while the reading demands of college, workforce training programs, and citizenship have held steady or risen over the past fifty years or so, K-12 texts have, if anything, become less demanding.

• Too many students reading at too low of a level. (Less than 50% of high school graduates can read sufficiently complex texts.)

• What students can read, in terms of complexity, is greatest predictor of success in college (2006 ACT study)

Increasing the staircase of Complexity

Standard 1:Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it…

Standard 10:Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

What Kinds of Complex Text?

Text Genres

Grades 6-12 ELA and

Literacy in History / Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

Balancing Informational and Literary Texts

“…the Standards demand that a significant amount of reading of informational texts take place in and outside the ELA classroom … Because the ELA classroom must focus on literature … as well as literary nonfiction, a great deal of informational reading in grades 6– 12 must take place in other classes.”

~New York State P-12 Common

Core Learning Standards for ELA and Literacy (p. 5)

Literature

Story grammar: characters,

setting, plot – problem,

important events, solution-

and theme _________________

Informational

Text

Predominantly expository structures with: print features

and captions, table of contents, index,

diagrams, glossary, and tables

Fictional

Narratives

Poetry

Drama

Narrative

Structures

Expository Structures

The standards emphasize arguments and other literary

nonfiction, built on informational (expository) text structures, rather than narrative literary

nonfiction that are structured as stories (such as memoirs or

biographies)

Short Stories Novels Myths/Fables/Tales Sonnets Free Verse Limericks Haiku Comedy Tragedy Melodrama Farce Biography Autobiography Memoir Description Sequence or Time / Order Compare and Contrast Cause and Effect Problem / Solution Essays Speeches Opinion Pieces Journalism Historical, Scientific and Other

Documents for a Broad Audience Created by Denise Alterio, Judy Carr, and Lynn Miller, Sullivan County BOCES, June 2012

Measuring text complexity:The three-part model

Quantitative•Computer Software

Qualitative•Human Reader

Reader and Task•Our students and what we ask of them

Quantitative measures

• Readability formulas that measure…• Word frequency• Word length• Sentence length• Text length• Text cohesion

ANYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED!

Text complexity bandsText Complexity Grade Bands in the Standards

Old Lexile Ranges Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR expectations

K-1 N/A N/A

2-3 450-725 420-820

4-5 645-845 740-1010

6-8 860-1010 925-1185

9-10 960-1115 1050-1335

11-CCR 1070-1220 1185-1385

www.lexile.com

Remember, however, that the quantitative measure is only the first part of the text complexity triangle. Quantitative measures should never be used in isolation!

Quantitative Measures

The quantitative measure may be validated, influenced, or even over-ruled by our examination of qualitative measures and the reader and task considerations.

Qualitative Measures

“…those aspects of text complexity best measured or only measurable by an attentive human reader…”CCSS, Appendix A, p. 4

• Density and Complexity

• Levels of meaning• Explicitly or

implicitly stated purpose

• Simplicity• Conventionality• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text features and

graphics

•Life Experience•Cultural Knowledge•Content Knowledge•Intertextuality

• Figurative language

• Familiarity• Vocabulary• Sentence structure

Meaning and

Purpose Structure

Knowledge Demands

Language

Use qualitative values to

identify specific

grade levels and teaching points.

Literary rubric

Informational rubric

Qualitative features of text complexity explained

Group work

• Get into groups of 3 or 4. Make sure your group contains at least one member from each discipline (ELA, Science and Social Studies).

• Discuss the qualitative features of text (Purpose, Structure, Language, Knowledge Demands). What questions do you have? Attempt to answer them within your group.

• What specific qualities make a text more complex within each feature?

• With a partner practice using the rubrics by analyzing at least one text from the selection in the folder at your table.

• Discuss your results with your table group.

Evaluating text

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabu-lary74%

Other Factors26%

Up to 74% of a student’s reading comprehension depends his understanding of the vocabulary.

Academic Vocabulary

Tier One • Words of everyday speech

Tier Two• Not specific to any one academic area• Generally not well-defined by context or explicitly defined within a text• Wide applicability to many types of reading

Tier Three• Domain specific• Low-frequency• Often explicitly defined • Usually heavily scaffolded

Academic Language

• Knowledge of the language of a discipline is necessary for student success in a subject.

• Words work differently in different disciplines (e.g., “function,”)

• Each discipline has their own set of words to represent their valued concepts and literacy processes.

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Antonacci & O’ Callaghan (2011)27

Academic Vocabulary in ELA

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Tier 3 Words

archetype

epic poetry

mythology

Odyssey

29

Tier 3 Words

abolition

radical

secede

martial law

Academic Vocabulary in History

Academic Vocabulary in Science

30

Tier 3 Words

cell membrane

cell wall

nucleus

cytoplasm

How to Build Academic Language• Make It Intentional

• Select high-leverage, meaningful vocabulary for explicit, student-centered, instruction.

• Make It Transparent • Make vocabulary instruction explicit through effective questioning,

modeling, and instruction that builds understanding of the word AND the text.

• Make It Useable • Provide regular opportunities for students to practice with high-

leverage vocabulary in writing tasks and in discussion about text.

• Make It Personal• Provide a volume, and variety of independent reading that includes

both fiction and non-fiction texts.

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(adapted from Fisher, 2008)

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Two Aspects of VocabularyContext

• Words students can figure out from content• Words for which the definition needs to be provided

Amount of Instructional Time• Words that need more time: abstract, have multiple

meanings, and/or are a part of a word family• Words that need less time: concrete or describe

events/processes/ideas/concepts/experiences that are familiar to students

EngageNY.org

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Misconception Alert!

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• License to ignore some words doesn’t mean ignore ALL words.

• Select words critical to understanding the text.• Select words critical to the disciplinary thinking

we do with text.

• Spending time on words doesn’t mean copying dictionary definitions• Commit to text-based word work

Try This: Text Analysis

• Vocabulary Analysis of an text.• Read the excerpt.• Annotate for vocabulary words potentially

challenging to your students.• Share your list with a partner.• In pairs, prioritize your words by placing your

annotated words on the blank Academic Vocabulary Quadrant Chart.

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Transparent Approaches

• Effective questioning of the language in the text:

• Open-ended• Text-dependent • Analyzes word relationships

• Explicit modeling of textual analysis.

MISCONCEPTION ALERTS: Questioning and modeling aren’t “transmitting.” Students must do

the work of learning.

(Marzano & Pickering 2005; Nagy, 1989; Nagy & Scott, 2000; Paribakht & Wesche, 1997)

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Useable Approaches• Using high-leverage vocabulary in writing tasks

• Quick write prompts, collaborative writing tasks, assessments

• Use high-leverage vocabulary in discussion tasks• Discuss language use

MISCONCEPTION ALERTS: Writing and talking about vocabulary does not mean writing and reciting

definitions. Use vocabulary to think, write, and talk about the text.

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In Action…• Teaching Academic and Scientific Vocabulary- Common Core Li

teracy

Vocabulary Strategies

•Frayer Model•Semantic Mapping•Semantic Feature Analysis•Linear Arrays

Frayer Model

Semantic Mapping

Semantic Feature Analysis

Linear Arrays

WRITING FROM SOURCESSUBSHIFTS

Common Core Literacy Shifts1. Balancing Informational & Literary Texts (Grades PK-5)

2. Knowledge in the Disciplines (Grades 6-12)

3. Staircase of Complexity

4. Text-based Answers

5. Writing from Sources

6. Academic Vocabulary

Writing from SourcesSubshifts

Subshift A Work with sources

Subshift BGrapple with complex text and content; leverage academic vocabulary

Subshift C Emphasize questioning, inquiry, and explaining understanding rather than defense

Subshift D Follow inquiry process:questions, sources, information, scope and plan product

Subshift E Use technology and other minds

Subshift F Repeat

Writing from SourcesWriting needs to emphasize the use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than personal

narrative or decontextualized prompts.

Writing from SourcesWhile narrative still has an important role, students

develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments

presented in the texts they read.

ELA/Literacy Shift 5: Writing from Sources

Our Students Need to…

• Generate more informational text

• Organize evidence to support a claim

• Compare evidence from multiple sources

• Make arguments using evidence

So We Need to…

• Spend less time on personal narrative

• Present opportunities to write from multiple sources

• Give opportunities to analyze and synthesize ideas

• Develop student’ ability to argue a point with evidence

• Give students permission to reach their own conclusions about what they read and articulate those conclusions

Writing Progressions

EngageNY.org50

Productive Inquiry

Productive Inquiry

“In essence, the standards and the tests that will assess them are

expecting that students become researchers – not graphic organizer

filler-in-ers, not text copiers, but independently thinking, curious ,

and rigorous researchers…”

“…Taking time to teach students to research well is taking time to

teach them the skills of the standards. Teaching students to research well is teaching them to

learn well.”

Christopher Lehman, Energize Research Reading & Writing, p.3

All roads lead to research!

Why do Core Research?

Our students need to be able to find,

evaluate, and apply information now.

More importantly, the ability to research and

to express an understanding of it are authentic college and

career ready skills.

How is Core Research different?The focus is on inquiry-based research.

It’s about research to help students deepen their understanding of a topic and support them as they express

that understanding.It’s not about searching for information to support

conclusions we’ve already made.

How is Core Research different?Inquiry Coverage

• Teacher selection and direction

• Assigned topics and isolated facts

• Student as information receiver

• Reliance on a textbook• Hearing about a discipline• One subject at a time

• Attitude of question and reflecting with cognition

• Start with a question• Investigation is open• Center is within student• Answers involving building

ideas• Messy, recursive• Open-ended

From Barbara K. Stripling “Inquiry-Based Learning.” Curriculum Connections through the Library

From Barbara K. Stripling “Inquiry-Based Learning.” Curriculum Connections through the Library

Inquiry Skills and Strategies

• Connect: Initiate Inquiry• Wonder: Generate Questions• Investigate: Gather Information• Construct: Deepen Understanding and

Finalize Inquiry• Express: Develop and Communicate

Evidence-Based Perspectives• REFLECT

Thank you!

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