Text Complexity Paper

Text complexity is a term used to determine how challenging a reading material is for the child at their specific grade level. Qualitative measures, examine text features that can only be assessed by the person that is reading the passage or book. Quantitative measures are used to determine the difficulty of a text, such as word length, sentence length, and text cohesion. Reader and task considerations is the last component of text complexity. It centers on an understanding that every reader has different skills and background in reading.
b. This article was written by two professors in the Department of Elementary Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz. It opened up with a second grade teacher, Ms. Lunaras who wasn’t satisfied with the classroom library she acquired from the previous teacher. Her students shared their opinions about it, which were “disappointed glances that turned into strong voiced verbal complaints.” (pg. 82) She grabbed a copy of the CCSS in hopes that it would help her fix this issue. She started her search by rereading the College and Career

After reading the example, Mrs. Lunaras was worried because her students weren’t reading only texts at this level of complexity. She was able to feel more at ease once she examined the Appendix A of the CCSS, which gives support for teachers when selecting texts. The appendix states that teachers “will employ professional judgement to match texts to particular readers and tasks.” (pg. 83) The classroom should have a wide range of texts, across a range of complexity. The class collection can range from wordless picture books to grade level texts, in order to meet the different interests of students. Having a variety of texts in the classroom is a great way to motivate students to read. They have the opportunity to engage in reading for both pleasure and for gathering