1. Challenging Texts and Measures of Text Difficulty
EDC423
Dr. Julie Coiro

2. Where are we in the semester?
Core Areas of Reading / Factors that influence comprehension
Reader factors and contextual factors (motivation, interests, skills from interview, language differences)
Other factors: Texts, tasks, and teaching practices (explicit teaching > I do, we do, you do)
What is comprehension? And informational text structures…
Designing Guided Reading Supports to build students’ comprehension of hybrid texts (MTH Unit)
Building students’ comprehension of informational texts
Building comprehension of narrative texts
Assessing higher level comprehension skills

3. Today’s Learning Objectives (Set a purpose)
Identify examples of what makes a text challenging
Identify measures are available to help determine the difficulty level of a text?
Calculate readability using Fry’s formula
Analyze an informational text to identify resources and challenges

4. Text Complexity Factors
Common Core Standards, Appendix A
HUMAN RATED
Levels of meaning
Structure
Language conventionality
Clarity
Knowledge demands
COMPUTER SCORED
Word length
Word frequency
Sentence length
Text Cohesion
Co-Metrix and Lexiles
READER
Motivation
Knowledge
Experiences
TASK
Purpose/Context
Complexity
Questions Posed

5. What makes a text difficult to read? (or complex)
Level of coherence: lots of connections (informational text markers; first, next; if > then, ) or if readers need to make lots of inferences
Genre: narrative (easier) than informational (harder)
Vocabulary: at grade level (easier); length, root words vs. prefixes/suffixes;
Text features: title, headings, bolded words, boxes (footnotes, captions, glossary); graphs, diagrams, tables, summary questions
No repetition: more (easier); less (harder) and length of the sentence: short (easier) longer (harder)
Number of words per page; font size; Sentence structure (n/v, length); vocabulary (academic, difficulty); Level that's on the book; pictures (lack = more challenging)
content (more common = easier); book thickness/number of pages (most likely more pages = more difficult); genre (informational, fictional, fantasy/mystery); dialogue; text formatting, text coherence

6. Simplistic Versions of Computing Text Difficulty
Fry Readability Formula
Sentence Length and Word Length
3 Random 100-word samples
Count and average # of sentences
Count # of syllables in 100 words; average across three samples
Plot the intersection of average sentences (side) and average syllables (bottom)

7. ONLY CONSIDERS 2 LIMITED TEXT FEATURES

8. Try It Out
#1: 15 sentences; 140 syllables (many one and two word sentences)
#2: 5.5 sentences (wow what a difference in sentence complexity) and 136 syllables
#3: 9.5 sentences; 120 syllables
Sentences: 16.5/3 = 5.5 sentences
Number of Syllables: 396/3 = 132 syllables
About middle of 7th grade Lexiles

9. Other Measures of Text Difficulty
Quickly find readability of a book?
Lexile Level of a book or a text you wrote!
Scholastic - A-Z Leveling
Juicy Studio (readability of a website)
Type text into MS Word > Spelling/Grammar check
Lexile Levels (
What grades go with what levels?
Levels Correlation Table: Guided Reading / Reading Recovery / Reading A-Z

10. Increased Expectations About Text Complexity in CCSS
CCSS Appendix A; Standard #10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently

11. What about the human factor?
HUMAN RATED
Levels of meaning
Structure
Language conventionality
Clarity
Knowledge demands

12. Already learned… Expository/Informational texts: Hybrid texts:
Varied organizational structures in same text
Academic vocabulary; Lack of coherence
Referential challenges and causal inferences
Hybrid texts:
Author combines elements of narrative and exposition to convey information about natural or social world

13. What other strategies are there?
Determining the resources and challenges that are in a particular text

14. Homework Finish Panda Text
Resources and Challenges for two more sections
Ancient Roman Units:

15. Small Group Assignments for Homework
P. 19: SNAP
P. 19: Eating A Lot & New Arrival
P. 20: Getting Stronger & Stepping Out
P. 21: Unexpected Guests & Photos 21-22
P. 22 A Shrinking Refuge & Dwindling Nos
P. 22: Unlocking the Secrets & Wordwise
P Title, Border, and Snap!
P. 19: Eating A Lot & New Arrival
P. 23 (all): Last picture/caption

16. Looking for More Support of CCSS and Instructional Shifts?

17. Hi – I’m Dr. Coiro Accessing Panda Texts
Click on Part 4 in left menu
Click on Panda Text.pdf
OR Dr. Deeney’s EDC 423 wikispace under Class Notes

18. Practicing in Groups: Panda Mania!
Main Idea
Big Idea
Learning Goals
Assigned pages: Text challenges and resources to comprehension
How would you launch the text?
Assigned pages: Potential stopping points and questions to ask
How to follow-up?

20. Resources & Challenges in these categories

21. Panda Mania (1st two para)
Main idea: Pandas eat bamboo (how/what)
STOP: After first two paragraphs (smacks her lips as she chews)
Q: So, what do we know so far?
A: She’s eating bamboo
F: But the author told us here that the bamboo “piles up on her lap.” How can it pile up if she’s eating it?
A: she’s eating the inside part.
F: How do you know that?
NOTE: Kids may not get this. If not, back up: Let’s read that part again.
“She nibbles the green leaves.” So what has she done?
A: Eaten the leaves
Q: “Finally she bites the stem. The bamboo snaps.” What does that mean? What’s the panda doing to the bamboo?
A: Breaking it
Q: Then it says, “inside the stem, the bamboo is soft. The panda smacks her lips as she chews.” So what is she really eating?
A: The inside.
Q: So what does the author mean when she says the bamboo is piling up in the panda’s lap?
A: All the stems are piling up—the parts that she doesn’t eat.
Q. Let’s to find out more about the panda.

22. Your section of Pandamania
Main idea:
STOP: Q: A: F: A. Q.
Purpose: Let’s read the next section to …

23. Your section Main idea:
STOP: (indicate text section read in left column)
Discussion Sequence (in right column) Q: A: F: A.
Purpose: Let’s read the next section to …

24. Example from Chrysanthemum