Text Complexity

Topic- Photosynthesis

Fictional- Oh Say Can You Seed?

Qualitative-

            The qualitative measure of this book is intended for second to third grade reading levels.  It is developmentally appropriate due to its text structure and usage of rhyming.  It is intended to use fictional characters to help students understand the process of photosynthesis and of the life cycle of a seed.   There are some vocabulary words like minerals and thorn that students may need preteaching of in order to understand the text.

Quantitative-

            The quantitative measure of this book is intended for a high first grade to third grade reading level.  The Lexile level is a 530 due to its use of words and sentence structure.  Most sentences tend to be short since it is in the poem/rhyming type of text.

Reader/Text Factors-

            This story has many characters from the Dr. Seuss’s books that many children would find relatable because they have seen them before. This might help their motivation and interest in the story and help them in reading the text.  The text has many rhyming words which some students may also find engaging and interesting to read.

Informational- The Magic School Bus Gets Planted

Qualitative-

            The qualitative measure of this book is intended for a second to third grade reading level.  It is developmentally appropriate for these grade levels due to the developmental appropriateness as well as the reading difficultly.  There were some higher level vocabulary words within the story that the students may need some frontloading on in order to comprehend the text. 

Quantitative-

            The quantitative measure of this book is intended for a second to third grade reading level.  The Lexile level is a 530 meaning it can be read anywhere from a first to third grade reading level.  The sentences are of varying structure, although most tend to be shorter.

Reader/Text Factors-

            Readers would find this book interesting as photosynthesis is a topic of science studied typically around these grade levels. The book is full of many illustrations and has characters that the students may have knowledge of since the book is a part of a much larger series.  Students may also be motivated to read this text because of the sentence structure and dialogue between the characters.

Informational- Photosynthesis: Changing Sunlight into Food

Qualitative-

            The qualitative measure of this book is intended for a late second to early fourth grade reading level due to its developmental appropriateness.  This text is leveled higher than the other two texts in this blog and I believe it has to do with the higher level vocabulary words found in the text.  Some of these words are evaporate, cacti, shirks, and expand.  Students may not be developmentally ready to understand these words before the end of second grade.  As stated in the quantitative section, this book is intended to be used as a resource and students need to understand how the organization of resource books work as well in order to comprehend this text.

Quantitative- 

The quantitative measure of this book is intended for a late second to early fourth grade reading level.  The Lexile level of the story is a 710.  The Lexile reading system also categorizes this book as an ‘IG’ book meaning illustrated guide.  This means that they recommend that this text is used as a guide for a reference and not meant to read in its entirety.  

Reader/Text Factors-

            Students may have some background knowledge of photosynthesis and plants before reading this book, which may help with their interest level of the story.  There are many real life photographs that students can use as a visual to understand the new concepts.  The text is set up as a true information text with headings, content table and bolded words among other informational text features.  Students who are curious about learning about the process of photosynthesis even further, would possibly be interested in reading this text. 

Vocabulary in these Texts

I believe the role of vocabulary did have a play in the complexity of the texts chosen for this assignment. The topic area that I chose was plants and photosynthesis.  The word photosynthesis alone is such a complex word, even though the mean of the word is relatively simple.  Many of the vocabulary words were also not decodable in the sounding out or chunking strategies, which could also make the texts harder for students to understand as well.

In the article we read for class (here) it states,  “This instruction should focus not just on domain-specific words and phrases that describe the central concepts in the subject area, but also on general academic words.”  I think this is a very important concept to remember as it is our job as teachers to front load these vocabulary terms in the various texts to help students comprehend the material.  I believe that with these specific texts, as long as the new science terms are discussed, students should be able to comprehend the texts.