“There is a big difference between assigning complex texts and teaching complex texts…” ---Doug, Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Dianne Lapp ….And that’s the crux, isn’t it? That’s why in this brand new edition of the bestselling Text Complexity, the renowned author team provide four new chapters that lay open the instructional routines that take students to new places as readers. No matter what discipline you teach, you will learn how to craft purposeful instruction pitched to your readers’ comprehension capacities, your curriculum’s themes, and your own assessments on what students need next. Doug, Nancy, and Diane provide: • How-to’s for measuring word and sentence length and other countable features of any written work while giving ample consideration to the readers in your room, and how their background knowledge, experiences, and motivations come into play • A rubric for analyzing literary texts for plot structure, point of view, imagery, clarity, and more—and a complexity scalefor analyzing informational texts that describe, inform, and explain • Classroom scenarios of teachers and students engaging with fiction and nonfiction texts that provide enough of a stretch, so you’ll know the difference between a healthy struggle and frustration • The authors’ latest thinking on routines that invite students to interact with complex texts and with one another, including teacher modeling, close reading, scaffolded small group reading, and independent reading It’s time to see text complexity as a dynamic, powerful tool for sliding the right text in front of our students’ at just the right time. Think of this second edition as Text Complexity-2-Go, because it’s all about the movement of minds at work, going deeper than anyone ever thought possible.

Text Complexity in a New Light

Text Complexity in a New Light

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Who would have expected Charlotte’s Web, the beloved children’s classic by E. B. White, first published in 1952, to become so controversial? This book seems to have become the so-called line in the sand, pitting elementary educators against one another. Should its home continue to reside in fourth grade, where it has been traditionally used? Is it better used as a third-grade book, given its 680 Lexile score? Or maybe it should be in second grade, where it could serve as a way to stretch the comprehension of younger students. Or is it best used with first graders as a read-aloud and discussion text? We’ve variously encountered fourth-grade teachers in ...

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