Blog #3 - Confidence in Complexity

No matter what grade students are in, academic reading is a daunting task. Complex texts are tricky to navigate, even for advanced readers. Although it is difficult, Common Core State Standards (CCSS) mandates that students learn how to read academic texts. Teaching students how to read complex texts is no easy task, but deliberate reading practice in the classroom can help students become stronger readers in multiple content areas.

As students progress through middle school and high school, CCSS requires that students read increasingly more informational texts so that they are prepared to handle the academic load of college or other post-secondary education (Hinchman, 2014, p. 100). In fact, text difficulty and comprehension of challenging texts is so important to CCSS that it has its own section in the standards. In CCSS there are literacy standards, and within that main group there is a subgroup called “Reading” that includes the reading standards. It is within this subgroup that a section called “Text Complexity and Growth of Comprehension” can be found (Text Complexity). Text complexity is determined based on three different measures: qualitative measures; quantitative measures; and reader and task considerations (Hinchman, 2014, p. 101). Qualitative measures are based on the reader’s opinions of how difficult the text is to read and how easy or difficult it is to comprehend, while quantitative measures are based off of word and sentence length, average number of words or syllables in a paragraph, or anything else that can be determined by a computer (Text Complexity). Deliberate practice encourages students to improve their comprehension by slowly increasing complexity according to the three measures used by CCSS.

Learning to read is much like learning any other skill; in order to learn, the learner must be challenged enough to try something new, but comfortable enough to be confident in their trying. In other words, the learner needs to be in Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Hinchman, 2014, p. 109). Deliberate practice is used when learning many skills, whether it is reading or riding a bike. When using deliberate practice to teach reading, the material that students read gradually becomes more complex. Because this will be challenging to students, many will not enjoy it; mixing leisure reading and academic reading into the classroom will help students become more comfortable with different levels of text complexity (Hinchman, 2014, p. 113). Doing this will also help introduce a variety of reading materials into the classroom. Variety is another way to increase the complexity of reading material (Text Complexity). Students may be used to reading fiction; they may not be used to reading poetry, newspaper articles, or analyzing music videos or podcasts.

Once you have introduced a variety of materials to your class, both in genre and in complexity, the next step is assessing how well your students comprehend these different texts. Using traditional assessments will be helpful, but students improve the most when they are receiving immediate feedback (Hinchman, 2014, p. 114). This can be done through different computer softwares or through conversation with students about the text. If students know they are understanding complex texts, their confidence and ability will continue to increase. Building this confidence is what will carry students through high school and into college or another post-secondary education. Reading is inevitable, so it is important that teachers and students work together to build ability and confidence in multiple content areas.  

Resources

Hinchman, K.A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. 2014. Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction. New York, New York: the Guilford Press

Text Complexity: Simplifying Text Complexity and the Common Core. Retrieved from: https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/simplifying-text-complexity#!#video-sidebar_tab_video-guide-tab