Teaching Complex Text
Don’t start from nothing every time you are teaching complex text. Streamline your work with an influential roadmap.
How Complex Texts Should Be Utilized in the Classroom
According to researchers like Timothy Shanahan, all students should get the opportunity to read complex grade-level text in order to have the best opportunities to advance their reading skills. The tension for teachers is how to bring this material in when students do not seem ready to tackle it. However, there is tension between what is and what could be.
To determine text complexity, use
- Lexile level
- Complex features (background knowledge, syntax, structure, and/or concepts)
- Reader information (course level and student data–not assumptions about student ability)
I defer to Lexile level but adjust if text features or reader intel point me otherwise. I want to protect myself from biased assumptions and believe that I and they can achieve understanding together as much as possible.
Reading Routines for Students
Grade-Level Complex Text (most times)
I use this routine for general education classes at their proclaimed grade level, so 10th-grade texts for English 10. I would even start here for an advanced class (to support twice-exceptional students). For classes where everyone is below grade-level (e.g. a sheltered ELL section), this is what I use for students at their comprehensible input level. After the routine, I can adjust it as I see fit for whatever group.
Above Grade-Level Complex Text (sometimes)
I use this routine when general education classes are reading an even more complex text or when everyone is below grade-level (e.g. a sheltered ELL section reading) and needs exposure to what would technically be grade level For example, I teach an English 9 class for English Learners where comprehensible input is at about the 3rd grade level. However, these students are between 15 and 20 years old. Reading third-grade texts all year will not help them advance (and rarely cover the topics they need to understand). To try text engineering, check out Colorin Colorado’s information. It helped me get started.
Below Grade-Level Complex Text (sometimes)
This doesn’t require a very specific routine, but it is important to acknowledge when students are reading something easier than they are capable of reading. When this happens, it’s a great opportunity to examine transfer. Students can take greater leadership in discussion and writing activities. My sub plans are a good resource for these lessons.
Teaching Skills for Complex Texts
I prefer letting the skills emerge authentically as we navigate complex texts together, but these are my North stars. All of these skills are predicated on the belief that texts make sense. I hold this stance and cultivate it in my students. Here are the ones that I teach
- Identifying and accurately addressing gaps in vocabulary, conceptual, and background knowledge.
- Breaking long sentences into meaningful chunks and interpreting them.
- Breaking a text into structural chunks.
- Summarizing the main idea of structural chunks.
- Analyzing the author’s choices and their impact.
- Integrating knowledge with the self, literature, and the world using questions and connections.
[…] There are also a lot of missed opportunities here. This is one of the rare chances a student has to read an entire book with a teacher. Save the more general tasks for when students are reading different books independently. Take advantage of the unique opportunities for togetherness. Here is a general routine to use. […]