“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.
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Author Bio
Douglas Fisher is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He is a member of the California Reading Hall of Fame and was honored as an exemplary leader by the Conference on English Leadership. He has published numerous articles on improving student achievement.
Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University. Frey also teaches classes at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego. She is a recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Teacher Education from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Early Career Award from the Literacy Research Association. She has published many articles and books on literacy and instruction.
Diane Lapp is a distinguished Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University (SDSU), where she teaches both preservice and graduate courses in literacy education. Lapp’s major areas of research and instruction are issues related to struggling readers and writers, their families, and their teachers.