Masters of Complexity: Helping Students Master Complex Text

What does it mean to be a proficient reader? It's a whole lot more than just sounding out words. Proficient readers are able to read, comprehend, and engage with a broad range of text types- including complex text, both literary and informative. Proficiency with complex text is a key component of career and college readiness. But many students struggle to make the leap from simple narrative and expository styles to the more nuanced and complicated text types they will have to engage with in college or in the workplace. How do you recognize when a text is complex? And what tools do students need for deep comprehension and engagement with complex texts?

What Makes a Text Complex?

Most people have an intuitive understanding that a complex text is one that is somehow "harder" to read and understand. But what do we mean by harder? Lexile level (or grade-appropriate reading level) is one way to measure text difficulty, but the Lexile score is only one small component of text complexity. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as most individual state standards, use multiple factors when determining text complexity. The CCSS defines complexity using three elements:

• Quantitative: Quantitative measures of text complexity include word frequency, sentence length and text cohesion. These are the metrics that can be quantified using a Lexile score or other similar measure. According to The College Board, students should be comfortable with texts that measure 1185 - 1385 on the Lexile scale by the time they head to college.
• Qualitative: Qualitative metrics are harder to measure, but are often even more important than the quantitative score. These include elements such as text structure, purpose, language clarity and conventions, vocabulary and language use (especially obscure, archaic, or domain-specific language), the use of literary devices, the use of graphs and visuals in informational text, and the amount of background knowledge readers are expected to bring to the reading experience. Many classic books (such as The Grapes of Wrath, Lexile score 680, or A Farewell to Arms, Lexile score 730) score relatively low when judged by quantitative standards alone, but are clearly highly complex when evaluated using these qualitative metrics.
• Reader and task considerations: The CCSS expects teachers to "employ professional judgment to match texts to particular tasks or classes of students." In other words, the appropriate level of complexity must be matched to the needs and ability levels of the class and individual students. A text that is considered "complex" for third graders will not be complex enough to meet the requirement for the average high school student. In addition, complexity is also determined by what the teacher is asking the reader to do with the text. Are they being asked to demonstrate surface-level understanding or engage deeply with the author's purpose, themes, language use, and other text elements?

While different states may each have their own unique definition of text complexity, most have a similar mix of quantitative, qualitative, and task-specific metrics when defining a complex text. Understanding these elements will help teachers ensure that their students are reading both literary and informational texts of adequate complexity. Looking at these elements can also help us understand the kind of supports students will need to be successful with complex texts.

Tools for Mastering Complex Texts

When encountering a complex text, students will need to employ higher-level strategies to extract meaning and interpret the text correctly. These strategies may include:

• Close reading
• Text annotation
• Text-dependent questions
• Paired passages

Close reading is a term that is closely associated with complex texts. Close reading requires students to engage deeply with the text—asking questions, making predictions, analyzing text structure, paying attention to elements such as style and syntax, interpreting vocabulary and figures of speech, and determining the author's purpose. It also requires students to bring in their own experiences and background knowledge as they look for deeper meanings in the text and consider its social or historical context and relationships with other texts. In other words, students must think critically and creatively about what they are reading. Close reading and text interpretation are skills that students must be explicitly taught in order to be successful with complex texts. Important elements for success with complex text include:

• vocabulary analysis and development; and
• using text structures to identify main ideas and details.

Thinking Maps can make the process of analyzing and interpreting complex texts easier for students and teachers. Thinking Maps help students organize their thoughts and make their thinking visible. For example, students can visually map out the text structure, analyze characters or other text elements, compare two different texts, or define vocabulary in context.

Flow Maps can help students analyze text structure and understand sequence.

This student used a Circle Map to identify character traits.

A Multi-Flow Map helped this fourth grade student analyze the theme of a story.

Mastering complex texts will prepare students for the kinds of reading tasks they will be faced with in the college classroom and on the job- if they can handle complex texts, they can learn virtually anything! Comfort with complex text types will also open up whole new worlds in literature, entertainment, and lifelong learning. The human experience is complex, and many of the best texts, are, too. With Thinking Maps, accessing these complex texts is a whole lot simpler.

For Further Reading:

• Close Reading Without Tears (Nancy Boyles)
• Close Reading, Text Annotation, Text-Dependent Questions, and Paired Passages – Oh My!!! (Cathy Buyrn)
• The Art and Science of Teaching/Analyzing Complex Texts (Robert Marzano)
• Teaching Complex Texts: A Guide (Lorna Collier)
• What is a "Complex Text" Anyway? (Catlin Tucker)