Text Complexity

in the Content
Implications
Areas: for Instruction

TITO M. ENDRINA
Education Program Supervisor

1
Department o f Education
Pre-Session Activity (2 minutes)
If the selection in the textbook is too difficult
for most of your students, what do you
usually do?
A. Explain what the text says, using simpler
language
B. Continue using it anyway because that is
the one required.
C. Others (please specify)

Write your answer in the Chat box.

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Why complex texts?

Research shows nearly half of the

students graduating high school need some
kind of remediation to cope with the
reading required in college and during their
careers. The research also shows that the
clearest differentiator in reading between
students who are and are not college
ready is the ability to comprehend complex
texts.
(ACT,
2006).

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 Objectives
1. Explain the nature of text complexity
2. Describe the tools used to measure text
complexity
3. Articulate the knowledge and skills
teachers need to match students with the
right texts/tasks
4. Apply text complexity diagnostic tools to a
content area text
5. Recommend appropriate pedagogical
support to help students cope with the
demands/challenges posed by the
text
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 What is text complexity?
There is no exact science for determining
the complexity of a text. Nor is there a
single source of information that can
accurately summarize the complexity of a
text. Teachers need to use their
professional judgment as they take into
consideration a range of factors.

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 3 Sources for Measuring Text Complexity

What a Text features

computer can best judged
“see” and by human
measure evaluation

What the teacher does with the text to

help students read and understand it

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 Readability Formulas
Assigning a single
measure (grade level
equivalent or number)
•based
Sentence
on and word length
• Frequency of unfamiliar words
• Number of personal pronouns You can do
• Number of prepositional these manually
phrases or online.
Dale-Chall Readability Formula
Flesch Reading Ease Readability Formula
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Readability Formula
Fry Readability Graph
Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG) Readability
Formula
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 Readability Formulas
Computer Software for Measuring
Readability

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Readability Formulas

Text sample:
The Happy Prince
Range: 800L – 1100L
Grade 5-8

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Readability Formulas

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Readability Formulas
Quantitative Scale: Complexity Bands

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Readability Formulas
Quantitative Scale: Complexity Bands

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 ACTIVITY: Guess the readability level.
LEXILE
TEXT ONE
SCORE

People have been experimenting with

crops for thousands of years. In the 560L
1900s, some people put chemicals on Gr 3
crops. This made the crops mutate. A
mutation is a change in the crop's genes.
Changing their genes made the crops
different. It gave some of them new
colors. Many crops grown today come
from mutated crops.

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 ACTIVITY: Guess the readability level.
TEXT TWO LEXILE
SCORE

Humans have been manipulating crop

genetics for thousands of years, crossing and 1060L
selecting plants that exhibit desirable traits. In Gr 7
the last century, breeders exposed crops to
radiation and chemicals that caused them to
mutate. A mutation is a change in a crop's
genes that may be passed down to later
generations. Mutations can give fruits and
vegerables new colors and make crops
disease resistant. Most grains, vegetables
and fruits are descendants of mutant varieties.

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 ACTIVITY: Guess the readability level.
TEXT ONE LEXILE
SCORE

Teghan Lucas, an anthropologist, published a study

on the subject of doppelgangers in the 2015 1150L
International Journal of Legal Medicine. For the Gr 8
study, she compared people for eight facial and
eight body measurements to see how alike they
really were. Some of the exact facial and head
measurements she refers to include ear length,
head circumference and the distance between the
centers of the right and left pupils.
"If we are talking about measurements of the face,
there is a 1 in a trillion chance that two or more
people will match one another on eight
measurements of the face," she said.

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 ACTIVITY: Guess the readability level.
LEXILE
TEXT ONE
SCORE

Teghan Lucas is a scientist who studies

humans and how culture develops. She 490L
published a study on doppelgangers in 2015. In Gr 4
her study, she compared people for eight face
and eight body measurements. She wanted to
see how alike they really were. Some of the
measured included ear length, the distance
around the head and the distance between the
eyes.
There is a 1 in a trillion chance that two or more
people will match face measurements.
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 QUALITATIVE VALUES

• Text features
• Layers of meaning • Genre
• Purpose • Organization
• Concept
complexity
• Content
• Vocabulary
knowledge
• Sentence length
• Disciplinary
and structure
knowledge
• Figurative
• Intertextuality
language • Background &
• Regional/histori
experiences
cal
usage (dialects) Department o f Education 17
 QUALITATIVE VALUES

SIMPLE TEXT COMPLEX TEXT

Single level of meaning Multiple levels of meaning

Explicit in purpose Implicit, hidden, obscure

Conventional Structure:
Chronological, traits of a
common genre
purpose
Unconventional structure:
Frequent use of flashbacks,
other manipulations of time and
sequence

Simple language: Clear, Complex language: Figurative,

contemporary, familiar ironic, ambiguous, archaic,
conversational academic, domain-specific

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 QUALITATIVE VALUES

SIMPLE TEXT COMPLEX TEXT

Graphics: Unnecessary, Graphics: Essential, providing
supplemental information not conveyed by
text

Common everyday Experiences distinctly

experiences different from one’s own
Single perspective/ Multiple perspectives/
Perspective like one’s own Perspective unlike one’s
own

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QUALITATIVE VALUES

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QUALITATIVE VALUES

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 QUALITATIVE VALUES
Need for professional
judgment

A qualitative analyses of text complexity

represents an informed decision about
complexity in terms of several factors
discernible to a human reader applying trained
judgment to the task. It’s important that this
analysis is done systematically.
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QUALITATIVE VALUES

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 QUALITATIVE VALUES

Simple Somewhat Complex Very

complex complex

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 QUALITATIVE VALUES

La yout

Purp ose &

Meaning
Structure

Language
Structure
Knowledge
Demands
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 Layout

It is the look and layout of the text

that students react to first. Small,
Layout closely packed, uninterrupted text
will put many readers o ff. The size
of the font, layout of the text, use of
illustrations, graphics, glossaries
and signposting within the text can
provide supports or challenges for
readers, depending on how they are
used.

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 Purpose and Meaning

Informational texts that have the

Purpose & single purpose of conveying factual
Meaning
information are going to be easier to
read than texts that require

examining or evaluating
theoretical and contested
information.

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 Text Structure

Text structure takes into account

how the ideas are organized. Texts
that are chronological tend to be
Text less complex than those that are
Structure non linear.

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 Language Structure

Language features include

vocabulary used, the sentence
structure, and the style used by the
writer. Informational texts that have
complex sentences, with dense
conceptual content, high
nominalization, and includes
extensive academic vocabulary, will
Language
Structure be far more difficult to read than texts
with simple sentences, and familiar
vocabulary.
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 Language Structure

The prior knowledge that a reader

brings to the text is a very important
Know ledge consideration when selecting texts.
Demands
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QUALITATIVE VALUES

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 QUALITATIVE VALUES

CAVEAT:

Not all descriptors described in each of

the categories will necessarily occur
together at each level of complexity.
A text may have very simple vocabulary
and short, simple sentences yet still be
complex because the ideas expressed
are subtle.

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 READER AND TASK
Does the text demand prior/content
knowledge in order to construct meaning?
Are the ideas simple or complex and
challenging?

Simple

Text
Very
s
complex
Texts
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 READER AND TASK
Tasks, like texts, become more
complex as students consider ideas
and information in different ways.

Simple Task Complex Task

Locating and Locating, evaluating,
evaluating and synthesizing
topical information from
information several sources

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READER AND TASK

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What Teachers Need to Do

• Know their students

as readers
• Understand the
complexity of the
texts
• Be able to use a
range of
instructional
strategies flexibly

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Balancing Support and Challenge

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Scaffolding Readers

Dorn, 2013

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 Concluding Thought

There is no magic fairy who is

going to do this work for
us.With
the new curriculum, with the
addition of Senior High, with 21st century
demands, text will become increasingly
complex. It’s the job of the teacher to
figure out why it’s complex and what to
do about it.
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Concluding Thought

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 ACTIVITY (Breakout Groups)

Materials
Activity Guide, Text, Rubrics, Report Form
Time: 45 minutes

1. Read the instructions in the Activity Guide.

2. Read the sample text provided to your group.
3. As a group, go through the tasks in evaluating
the text using the Rubric for Informational Text.
4. Prepare your Output Report.
5. A designated member will present the group
output to the bigger group/plenary.

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 INDEPENDENT WORK

1. Study the texts you are going to use.

2. Apply the text complexity tools you have
learned on those texts, when
appropriate.
3. Make sure the texts are developmentally
appropriate for your grade level.
4. Identify areas where teacher support is
needed.
5. Be on the alert for strategies you can use
to scaffold the student’s learning.

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nnhermosa1@gmail.com

Department o f Education