Text Complexity in the Common Core

“In many respects, text complexity is the hallmark of the Common Core…”(Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman 2010). If you’re curious about the Common Core and how this set of standards will be implemented in the classroom, consider picking up Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. Although there is still uncertainty surrounding how to best implement the standards, this book gives insight and guidance where few others have thus far. 

The Need for Complex Texts

The authors of Pathways to the Common Core highlight something most teachers are already know: if we use a reading passage to assess a student’s ability to find the main idea in a text, for example, and they mark the incorrect answer, we must consider the fact that the reading itself might be barring students from answering the question correctly. Instead of using this example to build a case that the student has not mastered a specific skill, we need to look at the reading itself. Researchers have realized that a lot of kids aren’t accessing the material because they can’t comprehend grade level, complex texts. This is what we need to change. 

The Key Question: How Do You Measure Text Complexity?

What exactly is a complex text? The Common Core State Standards Initiative has created a standard dedicated just to range, quality, and text complexity to ensure we’re bringing appropriately challenging text into our classrooms on a daily basis. The three-part model they’ve created encourages teachers to assess both the qualitative (structure, knowledge demands, etc.) and quantitative components (word length, word frequency, etc.) of a text, while keeping in mind the reader and the purpose for reading the text. The teacher is responsible for selecting stories, dramas, poetry, and/or nonfiction that fits this three-part model.

Text examples (by grade level) are provided on the website:

• Kindergartners might read Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold to fulfill text complexity within literature, and they might read How People Learned to Fly by Fran Hodgkins and True Kelley to fulfill text complexity in informational texts.
• A fourth grader might read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and A History of US by Joy Hakim.
• A ninth or tenth grader (remember, these grade levels are represented together) might read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and “Hope, Despair and Memory” by Elie Wiesel.

Tools to Measure Text Complexity

Because it’s difficult for humans to measure the quantitative dimension (word frequency, sentence length, text cohesion, etc.), a variety of tools have popped up to help teachers select texts for their classrooms. New research details seven new tools designed to measure text complexity. As discussed in the report, “The tools for measuring text complexity are at once useful and imperfect. Each of the tools described…has its limitations, and none is completely accurate” (Nelson et al. 2013). Keeping this in mind, two of these tools are still free, easy to use, and yield seemingly accurate results.

• ATOS by Renaissance Learning: Provide a text sample by either typing in the text or uploading a document. After ten seconds or so, your reading will receive a number (To Kill a Mockingbird received an 8.0, for example), and a chart will appear. Simply use the chart to find its recommended reading level. To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, falls in their 6^th-8^th-grade range (7.0-9.98). Another feature this tool offers is a suggestion for whether the text is appropriate for independent reading, or if it’s recommended for instructional use only.

• Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) by Questar Assessment, Inc.: Type or copy and paste a text selection into the box provided. The tool measures the readability level and shows (by placing an X next to the grade level), the recommended reading level. This feature is free, but the company also has a collection of 38,000 titles that complement the Common Core curriculum if your school is looking to buy software. Although the number scale is different from ATOS, To Kill a Mockingbird falls within the same 6^th-8^th-grade range (57-67), with an assigned score of 61.

As for measuring the qualitative components of a text, teams are currently designing tools for this as well. And when it comes to the third component of the Common Core’s three-part model, the reader and task portion relies entirely on the teacher’s discretion. So, while the dust begins to settle on Standard 10, use the tools currently available to measure the complexity of the texts you bring into your classroom. If the goal is to have all kids reading complex texts independently, we teachers need to be doing what we can to ensure that this is a reality.

References

• Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman, Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement. (New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2012).

• Measures of Text Difficulty