Six Traits for Identifying Complex Texts

November 14, 2012

The Common Core State Standards for Reading call upon students in grades K-12 to read and comprehend complex literary and information texts independently and proficiently. But before students can learn how to tackle complex texts, teachers must be able to identify texts that meet this challenge. In Big Skills for the Common Core: Literary Strategies for the 6-12 Classroom Amy Benjamin and Michael Hugelmeyer outline six traits that can be used to identify complex texts and the difference between informational texts and literary nonfiction.

What Defines Text Complexity?

This document provides research-based guidance on academic literacy instruction in the content areas, specifically focusing on the effective use of text in content areas. It reviews the research evidence about content-area literacy instruction for adolescents and suggests ways teachers can use content-area texts to enable students to understand the vocabulary and concepts they contain. This document also provides a brief synopsis of working with adult learners and the most promising professional development practices identified in research. Intended for use by literacy specialists and other technical assistance providers in their work with states to improve educational policy and practice in adolescent literacy, it describes ways to assist states, districts, and schools in helping teachers develop the kinds of pedagogical skills needed to implement instructional practices that have been shown to improve student literacy outcomes.
 
This document can facilitate effective literacy instruction in the content areas for schools implementing School Improvement Grants (SIG) and/or College and Career Ready Standards (including Common Core State Standards.  

The Center on Instruction held a webinar July 22,2010, to provide an introduction to this document. The archived WebEx file and PowerPoint presentation can be accessed here.