This document addresses teacher concerns about the Common Core State Standards' text exemplar lists and how to measure text complexity. It explains that schools are in the early stages of implementing the standards and are not required to use every text on the lists. It emphasizes bringing more informational texts into the curriculum and using both quantitative and qualitative measures to select appropriately challenging "stretch texts" while providing scaffolding. The document provides examples and clarifies that teachers should use their professional judgment to determine suitable texts for their classes.

1. THE COMMON CORE:
Language Arts
Addressing Concerns about
the “Text Exemplar” List
and
“Measuring Text Complexity”

2. CONCERNS regarding
the “Text Exemplar” Lists:
• Our school doesn’t have all those novels on that list!
Is someone giving us money to buy new novels?
• The novel I’ve always taught to my 10th graders is
now on the 9th grade list!
• Do we have to teach EVERYTHING on that list?
• Who’s going to tell those 6th grade teachers to stop
teaching the novel I am supposed to be teaching
now in 7th grade?

3. • The story I’m supposed to be teaching my 8th
graders is in the 9th grade anthology!
• The poem I’m supposed to be teaching my 11th
graders is in the 12th grade anthology!
• Are we getting new anthologies?
• Do I have to use those Language Arts units on the
Common Core “Mapping” site, or are they just
suggestions?

4. Everybody breathe………

5. •We are only in the introduction and orientation
stages of implementing the Common Core--a
process that will take several years.
•Re-aligning our school and district “text-lists” to
match the new core will be a later discussion. For
now, use what you have, and add to it when
possible!
•The samples in Appendix B (Text Exemplars)
primarily serve to exemplify the level of text
complexity and quality that the standards require.
While they would be excellent choices for you to
use with students, you are not required to teach
all of, or only, those titles from the lists or from
the suggested units on the Mapping site.

6. What big ideas SHOULD we take away,
from the “Text Exemplar” List & the new
Common Core?
 Begin NOW to bring more INFORMATIONAL text
into your curriculum.
 Make an effort to “bridge the gap” for your
students by making 20% of your classroom
reading grade-level- challenging text or
“stretch-text.”
 Be sure to offer an appropriate amount of
“scaffolding” in order for students to be able to
access this challenging text!

7. How can WE assess a
text that we’d like to
use in our classroom
for appropriate grade-
level complexity?

8. Measuring Text Complexity
includes:
1. Quantitative Measures: Fry Readability test,
etc. (Look for the Readability Formulas link on the blogroll!)
2. Qualitative Measures:
A. Structure
B. Levels of Meaning or Purpose
C. Language Conventionality and Clarity
D. Knowledge Demands
3. Reader and Task Assessment: YOU are the best
judge of what your students can manage.

9. Traditional Quantitative
Measures for Assessing
Readability
 Counting the number of syllables in
each word.
 Counting the number of words in each
sentence.
 Determining a readability level based
on those two variables.

10. Understanding
Qualitative
Measures:

11. Structure:
Complicated text-structures (chronological, problem-solution, cause-effect, etc.) will
add to a text’s complexity level.
*Holes, by Louis Sachar
Quantitative Measurement: 4.9 (Fry Readability value).
Qualitative Measurement:
Structure: Story continuously jumps back and forth between three
different time periods/settings, and character groups.
Adjusted text-complexity value: 5.9 – 7.5 for independent reading.
• Possible “Stretch-Text” : In order to challenge students’ reading capacity—stretching
them to grow to a higher reading level--teachers might have students read the
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, (7.9) describing the effects of racism during
the slavery period.
• Scaffolding needed: Teacher should provide critical backgound knowledge, along with
teacher-directed reading of the text.

12. *Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Quantitative Measurement: 5.9 (Fry Readability value).
Qualitative Measurement:
Structure: Narrated as a series of memories through the point of
view of an “unreliable narrator” with many emotional
insecurities, who provides continual commentary and
judgments about the events he describes.
Adjusted text-complexity value (plus mature content): 9.0 – 10.5.
Possible “Stretch Texts” : Other psychological studies, such as Hamlet (10.5 – 12.0)
by William Shakespeare.
*Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Quantitative Measurement: 6.2 (Fry Readability value).
Qualitative Measurement:
Structure: The 1st person narrator ages as the story progresses, so his
understanding of the events in the early part of his life
lacks maturity. In addition, the author makes certain
stylistic writing choices, such as a very spare use of
punctuation, which adds to the text’s complexity.
Adjusted text-complexity value (plus mature content): 9.5+
Possible “Stretch Texts” : Other works by Irish authors, such as Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man (10.5+) by James Joyce, or “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathon Swift.

13. Levels of Meaning or Purpose:
Texts that contain multiple levels of meaning or purpose (connotative or implicit language,
satire in narrative texts; informational texts with implicit purposes) have a greater text
complexity than texts with a singular meaning or purpose.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Quantitative Measurement (Fry): 5.8
Qualitative Measurement: Hemingway uses
images and word choice to convey emotion
rather than describing it; words are sparse
but and have multiple connotative meanings;
the novel as a the story contains multiple themes.
Adjusted text-complexity value: 11.5+
Similar “stretch-texts”: The poems of Emily Dickinson (11.5+) and
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (12+) also use sparse, precise word
choice with multiple connotations.

14. Levels of Meaning or Purpose:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Quantitative Measurement (Fry): 7.3
Qualitative Measurement: Orwell uses political
satire -- the explicit purpose is different
from the implicit purpose.
Adjusted text-complexity value: 11
Similar “stretch-texts”: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (12+), “A
Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift (11+),
The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (12+).
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Quantitative Measurement (Fry): 4.9
Qualitative Measurement: The heavy use of
symbolism and allusion result in multiple
inferences and author commentaries.
Adjusted text-complexity value: 9-10
Similar “stretch-texts”: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman (10), “Hills Like White Elephants” by
Ernest Hemingway (11), The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
(10-11).

15. Language Conventionality & Clarity:
Texts that rely on literal, clear, contemporary, and conversational language tend to be easier to
read than texts that rely on figurative, ironic, ambiguous, purposefully misleading, archaic or
otherwise unfamiliar language or on general academic and domain-specific vocabulary.
• Examples:
– Shakespeare
– Arcane classics
– Medieval, Puritan, or other dialects/ language
patterns
The actual reading level is not difficult, but due to
unfamiliar language patterns and old-fashioned
language, the reading becomes more difficult.

16. Complex Language/Text adds to the
Reading Level of a Text
• Quantitative Measurement: 4.9 (Fry)
• Qualitative Measurement: • Quantitative Measurement: 5.0 (Fry)
• Qualitative Measurement:
Language Conventionality: Language
Language Conventionality: Language
patterns of the Puritan societies patterns and dialects from
in the 1600s, along with mature Medieval England.
content. Adjusted text-complexity value: 7.0
Adjusted text-complexity value: 10.0 + • Possible “stretch texts”: Other Medieval
stories, such as The Once and Future King
• Possible “stretch texts”: Another Puritan-life
(8.0+).
study, such as The Scarlet Letter (11.0+).

17. Knowledge Demands:
“Texts that make that make few assumptions about the extent of readers’ life experiences and the depths of
their cultural/literary and content/discipline knowledge are generally less complex than are texts that make
many assumptions in one or more of those areas.”
*A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
Quantitative Measurement: 6.8 (Fry Readability value).
Qualitative Measurement:
Knowledge Demands: To fully understand and appreciate the play, students
require a knowledge of the following: assimilationist debate
Pan-African Movement, the Great Migration, racial tension of
the time period, race/real estate issues
Adjusted text-complexity value: 9-11
• Possible “Stretch-Text” : In order to challenge students’ reading levels and “bridge
the gap” to the next reading level, teachers might also want
students to read Black Boy by Richard Wright (10-11) or
Black Like Me by John Griffin (10-11)
• Scaffolding needed: Teacher should provide critical backgound knowledge along with
teacher-directed reading of the text.

18. Knowledge Demands
*Chew on This, by Eric Schlosser
Quantitative Measurement: 8.7 (Fry Readability value).
Qualitative Measurement:
Knowledge Demands: History of fast food; familiarity with
food industry and the role that
government and politics play in this
industry; lasting and ongoing inpact of
fast food on our country and on our
health;the correlation between fast
food and poverty.
Adjusted text-complexity value: 10-11.

19. Knowledge Demands
Possible “Stretch Texts” : Other books that address
the history of fast food and the impact of choices on
the overall value of life—Nickel and Dimed, by
Barbara Ehrenreich (11+); Fast Food Nation, by Eric
Schlosser (11+); The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (10+)

20. Knowledge Demands
Specific examples:
• Life Experiences/Cultural/Literary/Content & Discipline Knowledge
– Simple theme vs. complex or sophisticated theme
– Single theme vs. multiple themes
– Single perspective vs. multiple perspectives
– Perspective(s) like one’s own vs. perspective(s) unlike or in opposition to one’s
own
– Everyday knowledge vs. cultural and literary knowledge
– Few allusions to other texts vs. many allusions to other texts
– Low intertextuality (few or no references to other texts)vs. high intertextuality
(many references or citations to other texts)

21. SO, Teachers…
We hope that helps take a little of
the confusion and trepidation
out of
approaching the new Common Core standards
and utilizing them in your own classes.
FEEL EMPOWERED!!!
And remember…

22. When determining whether a text is
suitable for use in your class:
“Such assessments are best made
by the teachers employing their
professional judgment, experience,
and knowledge of their students and
the subject.”
Common Core
State Standards for English,
Appendix A, p. 4

23. Thanks for all you do!