Putting Text Complexity in Context: Refocusing on Comprehension of Complex Text

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts have prompted enormous attention to issues of text complexity. The purpose of this article is to put text complexity in perspective by moving from a primary focus on the text itself to a focus on the comprehension of complex text. We argue th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Elementary school journal 2014-12, Vol.115 (2), p.270-289
Main Authors: Valencia, Sheila W., Wixson, Karen K., Pearson, P. David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult literacy
Context Effect
Core Curriculum
Curricula
Difficulty Level
Elementary Secondary Education
English Instruction
English language
Integration tables
Language Arts
Measurement Techniques
Modeling
Narratives
Readability
Reading Comprehension
Reading instruction
State Standards
Teachers
Teaching methods
Text analytics
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts have prompted enormous attention to issues of text complexity. The purpose of this article is to put text complexity in perspective by moving from a primary focus on the text itself to a focus on the comprehension of complex text. We argue that a focus on comprehension is at the heart of the Common Core Standards for ELA and that characteristics of the text represent only one of several factors that influence comprehension. Using both theoretical and empirical sources, we highlight the relationship between texts and tasks. We propose a Text-Task Scenario framework in which the simultaneous consideration of text and task results in a more nuanced and more instructionally responsive estimate of the comprehension of complex text.
ISSN:0013-5984
1554-8279
DOI:10.1086/678296