Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading

The Common Core State Standards place an emphasis on teaching students to read and understand increasingly complex texts. That teaching requires more than just assigning students hard books and hoping they get better at reading. Teaching starts with a deep understanding about what makes text complex. In this book, you'll learn about the quantitative factors of text complexity as well as the ways in which readers can be matched with texts and tasks. The book focuses on instruction and assessment of complex texts through close readings and extensive discussions. With this understanding, lessons can be developed that ensure students are prepared for the wide range of reading and writing they will do for the rest of their lives.

''Close'' reading of this text will reward educators with the most insightful, information-rich, and practical foundation and perspective on text complexity available to date. In the context of the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts, the authors provide (1) a masterful synthesis of traditional and more contemporary research exploring those factors in the text, the context, and the reader that contribute to the complexity of any text; and (2) substantive, practical instructional applications that will lead to the types of deep and consequential student engagements with texts for which educators have always strived. --Shane Templeton, Foundation Professor Emeritus of Literacy Studies, University of Nevada, Reno