Once upon a time, I taught “point of view” by using a picture book called Earthlets. The book was written from an alien’s perspective, humorously examining the human life form. This close encounter was not complex. In fact, it was easy, poignant, and effectively taught the subject matter. While this might be a good mentor text for point of view, it was only a hook to get students ready for a more difficult task requiring sustained concentration. The millennial generation finds longer, more sustained, complex reading difficult. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Appendix A, put it this way:

The research shows that while the complexity of reading demands for college, career, and citizenship have held steady or risen over the past half century, the complexity of texts students are exposed to has steadily decreased in that same interval (since 1962). In order to address this gap, the CCSS emphasize increasing the complexity of texts students read as a key element in improving reading comprehension.—CCSSO, Appendix A Supplement

WHY COMPLEXITY MATTERS

Along with this steady decline over the last fifty years, the difficulty of college textbooks had increased, widening the gap. Complex texts are what students face when they graduate high school. Both college level texts and career manuals such as Chilton’s, military manuals, HVAC guides, and other “[w]orkplace reading, measured in Lexiles, exceed grade 12 complexity significantly” (CCSS, Appendix A). Studies also indicated when students were given complex text they were likely required to “find” answers via a skimming or scanning method, thus multiplying the problem. Therefore, a college or career-ready student needs to read complex text.

Perhaps the most poignant paragraph in Appendix A is one that describes our students. If you read nothing else from Appendix A, let it be this educational warning:

Being able to read complex text independently and proficiently is essential for high achievement in college and the workplace and important in numerous life tasks. Moreover, current trends suggest that if students cannot read challenging texts with understanding—if they have not developed the skill, concentration, and stamina to read such texts—they will read less in general. In particular, if students cannot read complex expository text to gain information, they will likely turn to text-free or text-light sources, such as video, podcasts, and tweets.

Easy information sources, “while not without value, cannot capture the nuance, subtlety, depth, or breadth of ideas” needed to breed doctors, lawyers, actuaries, engineers, research scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, thinking adults, civilians who can scrutinize corrupt politicians, and other individuals who will change the world in their own ways and contribute positively to society while others sit on the couch eating snacks and watching soaps.

Without the ability to read complex texts, the next generation will be ill-equipped to innovatively govern this planet.

PREVIOUS FAUX PAS

There are many warnings in the Common Core Appendix A—“examinations” of past practices which have contributed to “poor scores” on the NAEP exams, which rank countries’ educational systems. Most experienced teachers can point to times where they have committed these faux pas:

• Pre-digesting difficult text by simplifying words or re-writing
• Delivering the meaning of the text to the students ahead of time—moral of the story
• Embedding bold print and charts which chunk meaning and eliminate the need to read closely
• Asking low-level thought questions about text, merely finding an answer hidden in the text

WHAT DEFINES A GOOD COMPLEX TEXT?

Keep three thoughts in mind as you choose a complex text: complexity, quality, and reader and the task. Buried within the “quality” measurement are significant features to keep in mind. Rubrics for “quality review” are available through many organizations and state educational agencies, but they all examine qualities that include:

• Quantity measure: What is the “readability” measure of this article (Lexile, ATOS, DRP, F-K, etc.)?
• Quality appraisals: Does this article demonstrate quality writing? Are there longer, complex sentences within the document to model quality grammar and stretch my students’ abilities?
• Is this article somewhat intriguing for younger minds?
• Does this article demonstrate the real-world application (relevance) of the content?
• Vocabulary of the discipline: Does this article, primary source, or excerpt include the curriculum content vocabulary that is vital to understanding this topic?
• Does this article require sustained concentration on the part of the student (to challenge their lack of attention to detail and ability to focus)?
• Does this article link to prior knowledge which has been taught?
• Does this article drive home a curriculum message?
• Task considerations: Does this article provide an opportunity to “react” to the text via higher level thought questions? What can I ask the students to do with this article?
• What text-dependent questions can I ask requiring the students to react with the text?

An experienced teacher does this naturally. They may read an article and say, “Oh, this is great. I could use this in class. It has all the core content vocabulary in it and challenges my students to digest the meaning of [genetic engineering], presenting them with a sociological caveats of [genetically modified frankenfruit].”

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN AND HOW DO I MOVE BEYOND THE RESOURCE RESERVOIR MODE?

The most obvious role librarians play across America is to help teachers find quality articles, primary source documents, novellas, and other quality texts that can be used in the classroom. This is what we have done for eons—providing resources and supporting classroom instruction. However, we need to move beyond this role and realize that “everyone is in the literacy business,” and that includes librarians.

Librarians in a fixed schedule model may realize that every reading activity they do should model elements of a close reading activity. Even read-alouds should have a purpose in addition to merely modeling fluency. If the book you want to read does not provide a rich vocabulary, you are missing an opportunity to embed one instructional shift into your lesson.

This simple assessment checklist may prove valuable when considering what to read.

READING IS NO LONGER A PASSIVE ACTIVITY

The theory behind close reading embraces the concept that reading has evolved. While pleasure reading may still be a passive entertaining experience, instructional close reading has migrated to an activity where students have a purpose to read, discover, uncover meaning, and react to the text. Passivity has been invaded by activity, thereby enabling students to sustain their focus longer and own the assignment. This active learning model transfers the task from a teacher-directed activity to a student-centered task. Librarians operating in a fixed schedule mode can take advantage of their time and help support close reading objectives.

• Find an appropriately Lexiled, intriguing article (perhaps related to the classroom curriculum) which can be read in half your library time. For this purpose you may not be focusing on sustained reading, but can merely attack the close reading. Your time does not allow for the “sustained” element. A quality read does not have to be an article. It can be a well-chosen poem, short book, or other resource which stretches the minds of your students.
• Develop one or two essential questions for discussion at a table.
• Prepare a graphic organizer to complete for your objective and to facilitate the table discussion.
• Have tables share their findings or students contribute to a “summary wall” (poster papers, etc.).

Let me model the above guidelines with this example below, which could be used for a sixth grade class that is studying ancient civilizations. Please note how this close read embraces the shifts in the Common Core, weaving together elements of the Common Core, and demonstrates that you are part of the achievement solution:

• Copy Jack Prelutsky’s poem The Mummy for each student (this fits within fair use guidelines). When you read this poem, please note that there are at least seventeen academic SAT vocabulary words within the poem. It is brilliantly written and most every sixth grader will enjoy it. At the end of the activity, they will likely understand the meaning of at least half of these words and get those words into their “receptive” vocabulary, if not their “productive” vocabulary.
• Read students the first stanza to model fluency. Ask them to continue reading silently before discussing it with their table.
• Suggest they underline “cool” words that they may not know as they read. After the first read, for the “flow,” ask them to re-read the poem to answer the essential question “How did Jack Prelutsky demonstrate his knowledge of ancient Egypt through this poem?” This is their second chance to read the poem. It is a carefully chosen quality resource that you have tricked them in to reading—multiple times.
• Provide them with a graphic organizer which makes an evidence-based claim. Students will have to claim the author demonstrates his knowledge, identifying details from the text to support that claim.
• The students should be allowed to work collaboratively to strengthen their claim, discussion, and understanding. This should require the students to read the poem for a third and, perhaps, fourth time as they discuss their claim.

At the end of this activity, good pedagogy would require that you give the students a chance to share their knowledge and findings, which validates their discussion and conclusions. If you find they do not have enough knowledge of ancient Egypt to answer the essential question, you could follow this lesson up with a research task the following week in the library (i.e., the reader and the task).

By following this simple model, librarians can become building leaders in demonstrating their knowledge of the Common Core Standards and close reading supporting “literacy across the disciplines.” Read-alouds are now an opportunity to read and react to the text. Common Core experts are asking us to carefully craft read-aloud time into a more academic, meaningful experience. Merely reading a book to model fluency does not require a master’s degree. Please consider choosing your book and following up the book with a vocabulary game, a discussion of details, a task to hunt for details, or other investigative activities which will stretch the minds of our students. After all, our students should be “reading like a detective and writing like a reporter.” This requires close reading, dissection, discovery, and sustained attention—all of which are alien activities for children who have spent their formative years on a couch playing video games. If you understand the elements, you can keep your creativity alive and weave pieces of close reading activities into your instruction.

Many teacher-librarians will likely not get through this article because it requires “sustained reading” time and is written above a comfortable leisure reading level. Even educated adults have migrated to the reading habits of the semi-literate, says Dr. Daniel Sheard (who has a Ph.D. in orality). Good for you for focusing this long and reading to discover, digest, note details, and improve your instruction.

RUBRICS FOR CLOSE READING EVALUATION

Informational Text Rubric from the CCSSO: http://bit.ly/Uz3eVD

Literary Rubric from the CCSSO: http://bit.ly/19Rhlzy

Reader and the Task from the CCSSO: http://bit.ly/15ClK8w

Rich Text Rubric—WSWHE BOCES: http://bit.ly/14IiGYx