What is so complex about text complexity?

1. What is so complex about text complexity? Tamara Maxwell English Language Arts Consultant Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

2. Back Channeling • Type http://todaysmeet.com/into the url • Type your name • Click join • Participate in discussion • Respond to questions • Ask questions • Post resources • Post comments • Refer back to TodaysMeet 2

3. Topics

4. Topics

5. Timeline New accountability system begins & AYP ends (ESEA waiver) New proficiency benchmarks for WKCE reading & mathematics established Title I Priority & Focus schools identified Educator Effectiveness system design continues; Act 166 passed SMARTER Balanced assessment field testing Educator Effectiveness statewide system pilot ASSETS for ELL assessment in use All districts on SSIS New school report cards first issued (2011-12 accountability reports) New system of support for Title I Priority & Focus schools begins New kindergarten literacy screeneradministered statewide DPI provides curricular resources for Common Core State Standards implementation First districts using State Student Information System (SSIS) First districts begin developmental pilot of Educator Effectiveness system Higher graduation requirements (targeted –needs legislation) Common Core State Standards fully incorporated into school/district curricula Smarter Balanced & Dynamic Learning Maps replace WKCE & WAA-SwD in mathematics and English/Language Arts, including reading and writing Educator Effectiveness system implemented statewide

6. Wisconsin’s Vision • for ALL Learners “Every child must graduate ready for future education and the workforce. We must align our efforts so all our students are prepared to succeed in college or a career.” - State Superintendent Tony Evers

7. Agenda 2017 Standards & Instruction • What and how should kids learn? Assessments and Data Systems • How do we know if they learned it? School and Educator Effectiveness • How do we ensure that students have highly effective teachers and schools? School Finance Reform • How should we pay for schools?

8. Target Goals • Further increase graduation rate from 85.7 percent to 92 percent. • Increase career and college readiness from 32 percent to 67 percent. • Close graduation and career and college readiness gaps by 50 percent. • Increase the percentage of students scoringproficient in third-grade reading and eighth-grade mathematics. • Adopt the Fair Funding for Our Future plan to make school finance more equitable and transparent. 8

9. Common Core State Standards Implementation Team

10. Every student has the right to learn. Instruction must be rigorous and relevant. Purposeful assessment drives instruction and affects learning. Responsive environments engage learners. Learning is a collaborative responsibility. • Guiding Principles of • Teaching and Learning

11. Response to Intervention

12. Wisconsin Common Core • State Standards

13. Portrait of a Literate Student

14. Topics

15. Texts Write 5 titles, one on each Post-it Note, of texts your students are reading this year.

16. Text

23. Nonfiction Fiction Types of Texts

24. Literary Nonfiction • Definition: • Texts that blend literature and nonfiction, allowing the writer both to narrate facts and to search for truth • Characteristics: • Presents factual information as well as insight about that information • Emphasizes precise and skilled use of words and tone • Lures reader into the subject with the character of the writing • Uses literary style and technique • Shares passion for a topic Literary Nonfiction A.K.A. Creative Nonfiction New Journalism Literary Journalism • Examples: • The Tipping Point, Blink, • Outliers by Malcolm • Gladwell • Into Thin Air, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot • “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. • “Hope, Despair and Memory” by ElieWiesel • Nonexamples: • Soldby Patricia McCormick • Front page news • “Functional” texts 24

25. Literature: Stories Informational Texts: Nonfiction Literature: Drama Informational Texts: Literary Nonfiction Literature: Poetry Text Types Sort your titles into their text types. What do you notice? Record your thoughts on TodaysMeet.

26. Range of Texts “To measure students’ growth toward college and career readiness, assessments aligned with the CCSS should adhere to the distribution of texts across grades cited in the NAEP framework.”

27. Topics

28. Anchor Standard: R.CCR.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. Example Grade-level Standard: RI.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. CCSS Text Complexity

29. Complexity of texts students are expected to read is below what is required to achieve college and career readiness: High school textbooks have declined in all subject areas over the last several decades. Average length of sentences in K-8 textbooks has declined from 20 to 14 words. Vocabulary demands have declined since the 1960s: 8th grade textbooks = former 5th grade texts 12th grade anthologies = former 7th grade texts Complexity of college and career texts has remained steady or increased, resulting in a gap Text Complexity: Why is this important? Adopted from the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy (SRCL) Center

30. Levels of meaning • Structure • Language conventionality and clarity • Knowledge demands • Word frequency • Sentence length • Text cohesion Text Complexity • Motivation • Knowledge/experiences • Purpose • Task complexity

31. Quantitative Measures Qualitative Quantitative Reader and Task

33. 590L 890L 820L 750L 760L 770L 1020L 600L

34. Levels of meaning • Structure • Language conventionality and clarity • Knowledge demands • Word frequency • Sentence length • Text cohesion Text Complexity • Motivation • Knowledge/experiences • Purpose • Task complexity

35. Qualitative Measures Quantitative Qualitative Reader and Task

36. R.L.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

37. Literary Texts: Meaning RL.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

38. Literary Texts: Text Structure RL.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

39. Literary Text Structure

40. Literary Texts: Language Features

41. Conventionality

42. Literary Texts: Language Features

43. Sentence Structure

44. Sentence Structure

45. Simple Sentences "He came to the river. The river was there." - Ernest Hemingway"Big Two-Hearted River" They race. They race in the rain and they race in the snow. Although they race side by side, they are actually racing away from each other, sifting themselves apart. I am fast. You are slow. I win. You lose.- Jerry SpinelliManiac Magee "Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” - Alice Walker • “You had me at ‘hello.’” • Dorothy Boyd • Jerry McGuire

46. Compound Sentences “Eyes may be the window to the soul, but shoes are the gateway to the psyche.”— Linda O'Keeffe • "Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in” (4). • Sandra Cisneros • The House on Mango Street "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.“- John F. Kennedy • "I could have screamed, but I didn't. I could have fought, but I didn't” (1). • Maggie Stiefvater • Shiver

47. Complex Sentences "As writers, we learn most of what we know just by watching the pros, don't we?" - John R. Trimble • “If you build it, he will come.” • Shoeless Joe Jackson • Field of Dreams • "If I hadn't gone outside, I don't know if I would have heard the scream“ (38). • Maggie Stiefvater • Shiver "As if a magician's wand had touched him, the garland of roses transformed him into a vision of Oriental beauty“ (150).- Kate Chopin The Awakening

48. Compound-Complex Sentences • “These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after I was gone” (320). • Alice Sebold • The Lovely Bones: “Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common."- Allie The Notebook

49. Literary Texts: Language Features L.6 Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. L.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

50. Literary Texts: Knowledge Demands R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.