Levels of Complexity

Hi all! Just some thinking aloud - what I found really striking was the issue of text complexity. I was stunned to see that even though college and career level texts have increased in complexity, the high school and lower levels have actually decreased! I wonder if, in our rush to make texts "exciting" and "relatable," if we sometimes choose texts of lower complexity. I know I've done that on occasion - but what's the solution??

I was interested in the ways to assess a text's complexity. Interesting that Grapes of Wrath is on a 2nd or 3rd grade level in some ways - but of course, the background knowledge needed for understanding is at a much higher level.

I think it's important to take your time when approaching a difficult text. This is where scaffolding comes in. I believe we need to work more in depth and worry less about breadth. You can teach many standards through a single challenging text.

In my simple world, text complexity will never trump the importance of the message.

I think that text complexity must be balanced with the complexity of thought and ideas. If the background knowledge...i.e. life experience, reference, inferences, etc is complex then the vocabulary and sentence length should really be secondary. I mean, isn't it the goal to make students "think" on a higher level? If they can recognize complex vocab. but can't make the connection to higher thought processes or make them relative advanced learning what is the point?