503

CCSS Language 9 says, "Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches that authors take."

Comparing complex text is the highest form of analyzing a text. It is what we call synthesizing texts and information found within that text.

In order to teach my students to analyze a complex text, we must first chunk and scaffold the text for them. I learned the hard way why this is so important for struggling readers.

My 7th and 8th graders were reading the short story "A Crush" by Cynthia Rylant. The basic plot is a mentally challenged 33-year-old man has fallen in love with Dolores, a local hardware store worker whom he's never met. The problem with my students' misunderstanding stemmed from the fact that the story begins at the end--with everyone in town wondering why Dolores, of all the women in town, was getting flowers from a secret admirer. My students couldn't understand the flashback element of the story. I was trying to teach them to identify the author's purpose, but we got no where near that because of my first-year-teacher mistake of not scaffolding the students. It was a mistake that I could have easily avoided if I'd thought ahead and really analyzed the complexity of the text.

How do we teach our students to navigate a complex text? We need to scaffold the text for our struggling and non-struggling students. Scaffolding should not be confused with differentiation of text. Scaffolding is a support for all students and all types of text.

Use scaffolding before reading in a variety of ways. If you know that vocabulary is going to be a problem, then preteach that vocabulary. Create a word wall or mural with the words so that the students can see the words while reading the text. Words should never be a barrier to their understanding of the complex text.

Many struggling readers have trouble understanding text that does not follow a conventional structure. When informational texts are not chronological or lack headings or other guides, students may feel lost in the text. In these cases, highlighting troublesome words or phrases or areas of text that is confusing may be helpful. Highlight portions of a text such as flashbacks or changes in points of view to guide students through the text. Alerting students to these unique characteristics can prepare them for what is to come and help them to understand a complex text.

Another thing we can do to help students navigate complex text is to develop and ask text-dependent questions. Text-dependent questions are the driving force of close reading. They serve as scaffolding for learning as they require students to return to the text as the basis for their answers. These questions frame the extended discussion of a text and invite student to co-construct knowledge in the company of their teacher. These questions advance students through a process of more deeply understanding text.