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Text Complexity Project

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40 views

Text Complexity Project

Uploaded by

api-240286998
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RUNNING HEAD: TEXT COMPLEXITY PROJECT

Text Complexity Project Jessica Steele EDU 742 July 21, 2013

Running Head: Text Complexity Project

The text I selected for this project was located in a CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) workbook for Grade 4 learners in South Africa. I chose this text because when I first encountered it I thought it was quite simple for a Grade 4 students study on the skeletal system. This passage was introductory in a sense and was used to start a small unit on breaking bones. I used the Lexile Analyzer for this text and found that it fell within the Lexile band for Grades 4-5, which did surprise me. With a lexile score of 930L, a word count of 418, and a mean sentence length of 15.48, it fell near the top of the band. However, upon completing a qualitative rubric for informational texts I found there to be a discrepancy in the level. I utilized the text complexity analysis form to lay out my findings on the text using the Lexile data, qualitative rubric data and my notes on the reader-task considerations. This graphic organizer helped me to realise that as a classroom teacher, my own judgement as far as texts in my classroom can be heard. I believe the text should be lowered a grade band for students in Grade 2-3 as its structure was very simple, required very little background knowledge and used largely conversational language apart from some simple contextualized vocabulary. The process to determine text complexity is not a challenging one, which I find refreshing, as often times as teachers we have a lot on our plate. In listening to the webinar I learned that the various quantitative measuring tools (Lexile, ATOS, etc) are all relatively equal as determiners of text complexity and their ability to predict success for students in texts on tests.

Running Head: Text Complexity Project

One of the most interesting things I learned in my exploration of text complexity was that the authors of the ACT, a college readiness assessment, have found that the ability to work within more complex texts is the greatest determiner of success in college. As a classroom teacher, this tells me that what I do now to help my students with complex texts in the classroom can radically affect their future. As a classroom teacher in the intermediate grades I have always needed to take into account student reading levels when selecting texts or when preparing units. Knowing about text complexity will help me to more accurately pair students with appropriate texts by knowing what the reading experience will likely be like for each student in my class. This will allow me to deliver support for more complex texts to students who need it and additional resources for students who do not. Through understanding text complexity, I can better plan for instructional strategies to build the deeper, more disciplinary specific comprehension strategies that my students needs to utilize according to the texts complexity. The main challenge that I see within this process it that my struggling readers will need even more support. With the text complexity expanding in the school grades, it is even more essential that they receive intensive support for their basic comprehension skills, while receiving intensive support for these more complex comprehension skills. However, the relatively simple access to text complexity analyzing tools will help me to find texts that work for my struggling students.

The purpose of the text feels purely informational and is easily distinguished based on the text content.

The text Breaking a Bone falls within the Grade 4-5 band according to its Lexile measure of 930L.

Running Head: Text Complexity Project

The structure of the text is simple and easily understood. There is an introductory paragraph which provides the basic background knowledge that the reader needs.

The language used is largely simply and very clear. There are some vocabulary words that are specific to the topic, but they are heavily contextualized to make their meaning clear.

I feel that the reader in a grade 4 classroom would need little to no support to read and understand this informational text passage. This would be a text that I am confident they could read independently and understand. The unit on human bodies is always one that interests our students and thus I do feel that they would be engaged with the overall topic; however, I do not feel that this text holds enough new information that they would not already possess through general knowledge of their bodies or perhaps through past experience with breaking a bone.

The basic background knowledge that might be needed to understand the text is largely given in the introductory paragraph. This means that the text does not demand a large amount of prior knowledge for its information to be understood.

I would recommend that this text be lowered a grade level band to students in Grade 2-3, as the text structure is very simple, little to no background knowledge is needed, the language is largely conversational or heavily laden with context clues to decipher.

Running Head: Text Complexity Project

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