My persistent issue is one that has been a part of my teaching career since the beginning. How do you determine the level of a text? How do you decide if a text is complex enough or too complex for a student or a class? When I started teaching I used the Frye Method to determine the approximate grade level of a text. It was one of many readability formulas, but at the time the most widely used. (If you are unfamiliar with that, just google it!) Now we talk in lexile levels, grade levels, or accelerated reader level, Fountas and Pinnell levels or Benchmark levels. Lexile levels have gained popularity due to the NWEA testing many of our schools adopted years ago. It too is simply a readability formula looking at the length of sentences, vocabulary and paragraph length. Thanks to the Common Core we are again refocusing on the complexity of texts used in the classroom or given to students. Many of us have heard and seen that the CCSS raises the bar, and it does; especially when our students are supposed to read at that level 'independently and proficiently'. We all know many students who will struggle with meeting these high levels on their own with any type of understanding. However, take a closer look at Appendix A of the CCSS and you will see a triangle that truly describes the definition of text complexity. It takes into account the quantitative, qualitative and reader and task dimensions of what makes a text difficult for students. All texts have supports and challenges for readers and all readers have supports and challenges that they bring to the text. I want us all to realize that what makes a text difficult is not just the length of the sentences or the syllables in the longest words. I presented last week at my conference in Portland on just this topic, and how absurd it would be if we just went by the numbers. How many of you have read The Grapes of Wrath? Probably not too many, but it used to be a very common text in the high school English cannon. Many an English teacher would tell you that is a difficult text... but oh really? Its lexile score is only a 680! That places it within the 3rd-4th grade text complexity band!! Now, would you give your fourth grader this text to read? Probably not! The length of the entire text, the background knowledge about the Dust Bowl, the stamina to make it through the long descriptions of the southern climate and land, as well as many other challenges would be reasons you would not use this text typically with a fourth grader or a fourth grade class. So my issue was that we need to continue to use our heads when it comes to choosing texts for our students. What is your purpose for using the text? How will you use it? With whom? Will it move the reader forward in skills and strategies? All these things that we already consider, need to continue to be on the forefront. We may need to consider how to increase student's stamina in reading so that they will stick with longer and more difficult texts. Allington says that we should have 90 minutes a day of uninterrupted reading time for all of our students in order to get them to meet these reading standards. Could your school do this? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could? It takes more than 10 minutes to really get into a book or a text, yet that is often the minimum schools are willing to give to SSR or DEAR. Think of all you've had to read for this course... granted we could do it at our own pace and in chunks as time allowed, but some of the work really requires a nice chunk of time to truly devour it all. Our students will need this too. It is part of why I think our students struggle so much when they enter college because their stamina for reading has been in short spurts, not long deep breaths. I created a one page document and an hour long powerpoint that explains the triangle of text complexity from the CCSS. If you'd like to see the either, I'll gladly share at request. What would happen if we started school earlier with a reading time each day? How would that change the focus of our schools and our scores in the long run?
Hi Melanie,
ReplyDeleteYou share very interesting points! In my classroom we have WEIRD time (We Enjoy Independent Reading Daily). It is for 30 minutes each day. Students have a book they are reading and they have written a contract with them on when they agreed to have their book and presentation for the book completed. The students really enjoy WEIRD time. I have family volunteers who come in and have literary discussions with students about the books they are reading to give students another opportunity to talk about their book, share their ideas and opinions, ask questions, and check for understanding. I am sure the students would love to have an even longer period for WEIRD time.
Interestingly enough, I have also read research that suggests that independent reading time in school has no advantages. There are classrooms in my school who do not have a specific time when all students read together independently. They may have a read-to-self literacy station or students may read if they finish a task early. I would be interested to do more research around this topic and I would also love to see your presentation if you wouldn't mind e-mailing it to me.
As far as determining the level of texts, that is a challenge. I do a mini-unit at the beginning of the school year where we talk about and discuss how to pick, "Good Fit Books." Of course this is easier for a fourth grader than a student in the primary grades. We discuss how the length of a book or picture on the cover does not necessarily demonstrate the text level. We practice reading the back cover and I recommend they read the first few pages of the book to see if they can understand the content and if they are drawn into the story and wish to continue reading. Students are always allowed to abandon a book if they are struggling to understand the text or not engaged by the text. I wish it was as easy as labeling books by grade (1st grade book, 2nd grade, etc.)- But where students are always in such different places, it certainly is a challenge. At least for me in 4th grade, the best way I have addressed this issue is by teaching students how to pick, "Good Fit Books."