CCRS Key Advance 1, Complexity
English Language Arts
Rationale
These materials have been adapted from a suite of professional development
workshops created by StandardsWork on behalf of the Office of Career and
Technical Adult Education to support local understanding and implementation of
the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRS).
College and Career Readiness
English Language Arts
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Complexity
Module 3: Evidence
Module 4: Knowledge
In order to allow for immediate and time-efficient opportunities to engage with
the materials locally, the Adult Education Initiative office (AEI) at CDE has compiled
the resources into sections that include a brief overview and materials to apply
standards-based instruction principles to teaching practice. These materials
should be used for in-house staff training. Some familairity or prior training in
the CCRS is recommended.
Key Advance 1- Complexity
This review of text complexity follows the College and Career Readiness
Standards Introduction and precedes the review of Key Advance 2, Evidence;
and Key Advance 3, Knowledge. If this is your first exposure to the CCRS
it is recommended you review the materials in order.
Instructions
Read through the explanatory pages on text complexity and use the guide
and materials to apply this Key Advance to enhance your understanding of text
complexity and selection of appropriate text for adult learners at various reading
levels to inform standards-based instructional practices.
July, 2016
College and Career Readiness
Standards
English Language Arts
Key Advance 1: Complexity
Selecting Texts Worth Reading
StandardsWork, Inc.
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education
Three Key Advances
1. Complexity: Regular Practice With Complex Text (and
Its Academic Language)
2. Evidence: Reading, Writing, and Speaking Grounded in
Evidence From Text
3. Knowledge: Building Knowledge Through ContentRich Nonfiction
Structure of the ELA Standards
Four Strands: Reading, Writing,
Speaking and Listening, Language
Anchor Standards for Each Strand:
10 in Reading, 9 in Writing, 6 in Speaking and
Listening, and 6 in Language
Standards Listed by Level: A (K-1), B
(2-3), C (4-5), D (6-8), and E (9-12)
Strand
Anchor
Standard
LevelSpecific
Standards
ELA/Literacy Advance One:
Regular Practice With Complex Text
(and Its Academic Language)
Regular Practice With Complex Text
Relevance and Importance Based on the Research?
• What students can read, in terms of complexity, is
the greatest predictor of success in college (ACT
study).
• Gap between complexity of college and high school
texts is huge (four years!).
• Too many students are reading at too low a level.
(<50% of graduates can read sufficiently complex
texts).
Implications for Instruction
• Standards have raised the bar for what students
should read and understand at each level.
• Passages should be of high quality so that they are
worthy of close reading.
• Text complexity and text quality share powerful
links:
•
•
Only by reading a complex text is one able to increase
reading proficiency.
CCR-aligned questions cannot be asked of passages
lacking complexity and fully developed ideas.
Understanding the Key Terms and
Concepts Related to This Advance
What Is Complex Text, Exactly?
• Complex sentences
• Uncommon vocabulary
• Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review
or pull things together for the student
• Lengthy paragraphs
• Text structure that is less narrative and/or mixes
structures
Which components are most difficult for students?
What Is Complex Text (continued)
• Subtle and/or frequent transitions
• Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes
• Dense information
• Unfamiliar settings, topics or events
• Lack of repetition, overlap, or similarity in words and
sentences
Three Part System for Measuring Text:
1. Quantitative Scale
2. Qualitative Measures
3. Professional Judgment (of reader and task)
Components Work Together
1. Quantitative Scale: What a computer can “see”
and measure
2. Qualitative Measures: Text features best judged by
human evaluation (structure, language and
knowledge demands, and purpose)
3. Professional Judgment: What the instructor does
with this text to help students read and understand
See next 3 slides for more description…
1. Quantitative Scale
ATOS
Degrees of
Reading
Power
FleschKincaid
The Lexile
Framework
Reading
Maturity
SourceRater
B (2nd – 3rd)
2.75 – 5.14
42 – 54
1.98 – 5.34
420 – 820
3.53 – 6.13
0.05 – 2.48
C (4th – 5th)
4.97 – 7.03
52 – 60
4.51 – 7.73
740 – 1010
5.42 – 7.92
0.84 – 5.75
D (6th – 8th)
7.00 – 9.98
57 – 67
6.51 – 10.34
925 – 1185
7.04 – 9.57
4.11 – 10.66
E (9th – 10th)
9.67 – 12.01
62 – 72
8.32 – 12.12
1050 – 1335
8.41 – 10.81
9.02 – 13.93
E (11th –
CCR)
11.20 – 14.10
67 – 74
10.34 – 14.2
1185 – 1385
9.57 – 12.00 12.30 – 14.50
CCR Levels
of Learning
2. Qualitative Measures
Category
Notes and comments on
text, support for
placement in this band
Where to place within the level?
Beginning
of Level
Structure
Language Clarity and
Conventions
Knowledge Demands
Purpose
Overall Placement
This chart
will be used
in the activity
that follows
Middle
of Level
Top of
Level
NOT
Suited
to Level
3. Professional Judgment
“Students who struggle greatly to read texts within (or even
below) their text complexity [level] must be given the
support needed to enable them to read at an appropriate
level of complexity. Even many students on course for
college and career readiness are likely to need scaffolding as
they master higher levels of text complexity.”
(From Appendix A, p.9, CCSS – ELA)
Determining Text Complexity
General Rule: Use the quantitative measures to place a
text within a band, and qualitative measures to place
the text at the top, middle, or bottom of the band.
www.ccsso.org/Navigating_Text_Complexity.html
You will now have an opportunity to practice
determining text complexity on the following pages!
Foundational
Unit
2
WORKSHOP MATERIALS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS/LITERACY
Selecting texts
worth reading
Produced Under U.S. Department of Education
Contract No. ED-VAE-13-C-0066 With StandardsWork, Inc.
2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
For Participants
Directions for Participants .......................................................................................1
Worksheet: Qualitative Analysis of Text ...................................................................2
Resource: Excerpt from The Words We Live By:
Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution................................................................3
Resource: Quantitative Analysis Chart for Determining Text Complexity ..................4
Resource: Qualitative Analysis Rubric for Informational Texts ..................................5
Worksheet: Qualitative Analysis of Text ..................................................................6
Resource: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Speech to the Members
of the American Civil Liberties Union .......................................................................8
For Facilitators
Answer Key: Qualitative Analysis of Text (The Words We Live By:
Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution)...............................................................9
Answer Key: Qualitative Analysis of Text (Eleanor Roosevelt’s
Speech to the Members of the American Civil Liberties Union)...............................10
Directions for Participants
1. Read the excerpt from The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution.
Decide whether to read the text aloud at your table while others follow along, or to read
silently.
2. Look at the quantitative measures listed at the top of the Qualitative Analysis of Text
worksheet for The Words We Live By. Consult the Quantitative Analysis Chart for
Determining Text Complexity to determine in what level of learning the text belongs. When
different measures indicate adjacent bands, look at the overlap in ranges between bands to
decide in which level to place the text.
3. Review the Qualitative Analysis Rubric for Informational Texts. For each category or text
feature (structure, language clarity and conventions, knowledge demands, and purpose),
provide evidence in the blank space for why you think the text is or is not especially
challenging in that category. Share your insights with a partner.
4. Share your evidence with other participants at your table and discuss any points of
agreement or disagreement. Rather than discussing the rating itself, focus on the evidence
from the text that supports your rating on the qualitative rubric.
 What did you read in the text that made you think about it in this way?
 Can you point to a specific example?
 Why does [refer to the specific example] seem to be more moderately complex
than very complex?
5. At your table, assign placement ratings in each category, and finally an overall placement of
how complex the text is when you consider all of its features. Remember, you are thinking
about this text for a certain level of adult education students, so consider how challenging it
is for students at that level.
6. Explain your overall placement for how complex the text is in the bottom row of the chart.
Worksheet: Qualitative Analysis of Text
The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
Lexile: 1250
ATOS: 9.4
Type of Text (Literary/Informational): Informational
Category
Structure
Language
Clarity and
Conventions
Knowledge
Demands
Purpose
Overall
Placement
Notes and Comments on the Characteristics of the Text
(Support for Placement in This Band)
How complex is it for this level?
Slightly Moderately
Very
Exceedingly
Complex Complex Complex Complex
Resource: Excerpt from Linda R. Monk,
The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
From “The Preamble: We the People”
The first three words of the Constitution are the most important. They clearly state that the
people—not the king, not the legislature, not the courts—are the true rulers in American
government. This principle is known as popular sovereignty.
But who are “We the People”? This question troubled the nation for centuries. As Lucy Stone,
one of America’s first advocates for women’s rights, asked in 1853, “‘We the People’? Which
‘We the People’? The women were not included.” Neither were white males who did not own
property, American Indians, or African-Americans—slave or free. Justice Thurgood Marshall,
the first African-American on the Supreme Court, described the limitation:
“For a sense of the evolving nature of the Constitution, we need look no further than the
first three words of the document’s preamble: ‘we the people.’ When the founding
fathers used this phrase in 1787, they did not have in mind the majority of America’s
citizens … the men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 could not … have imagined,
nor would they have accepted, that the document they were drafting would one day be
construed by a Supreme Court to which had been appointed a woman and the
descendant of an African slave.”
Through the Amendment process, more and more Americans were eventually included in the
Constitution’s definition of “We the People.” After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment
ended slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment gave African-Americans citizenship, and the
Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave
women the right to vote nationwide, and in 1971, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment extended
suffrage to eighteen-year-olds.
Resource: Quantitative Analysis Chart for Determining Text Complexity1
CCR Levels
of Learning
ATOS
Degrees of
Reading
Power
B (2nd – 3rd)
2.75 – 5.14
42 – 54
1.98 – 5.34
420 – 820
3.53 – 6.13
C (4th – 5th)
4.97 – 7.03
52 – 60
4.51 – 7.73
740 – 1010
5.42 – 7.92
D (6th – 8th)
7.00 – 9.98
57 – 67
6.51 – 10.34
925 – 1185
7.04 – 9.57
E (9th – 10th)
9.67 – 12.01
62 – 72
8.32 – 12.12
1050 – 1335
8.41 – 10.81
E (11th – CCR) 11.20 – 14.10
67 – 74
10.34 – 14.2
1185 – 1385
9.57 – 12.00
FleschKincaid
The Lexile
Framework
Reading
Maturity
(ATOS and Lexile appear in bold outlines because they are the two measures used to analyze the text excerpt used
in this unit.)
1
Note that this chart only identifies text complexity for Levels B through E. That’s because at Level A, students are just learning how to
read. It is not appropriate to focus on the complexity of the texts students are reading until they reach Level B.
Resource: Qualitative Analysis Rubric for Informational Texts
Text Title___________________________________________
Feature
Slightly Complex
Organization: Connections
among ideas, processes, or
events are explicit and clear;
organization of text is
chronological, sequential, or
easy to predict
STRUCTURE
LANGUAGE
CLARITY AND
CONVENTIONS
Moderately Complex
Very Complex
Exceedingly Complex
Organization: Connections
among an expanded range of
ideas, processes, or events are
often implicit or subtle;
organization may contain
multiple pathways or exhibit
some discipline-specific traits
Organization: Connections
among an extensive range of
ideas, processes, or events are
deep, intricate, and often
ambiguous; organization is
intricate or discipline-specific
Text Features: If used, help
Text Features: If used,
the reader navigate and
enhance the reader’s
understand content but are not understanding of content
essential to understanding
content
Use of Graphics: If used, are
Use of Graphics: If used, are mostly supplemental to
simple and unnecessary to
understanding the text
understanding the text, but
they may support and assist
readers in understanding the
text
Text Features: If used, directly
enhance the reader’s
understanding of content
Text Features: If used, are
essential in understanding
content
Use of Graphics: If used,
support or are integral to
understanding the text
Use of Graphics: If used, are
intricate, extensive, and integral
to making meaning of the text;
may provide information not
otherwise conveyed in the text
Conventionality: Language is
explicit, literal,
straightforward, and easy to
understand
Conventionality: Language is
fairly complex; contains some
abstract, ironic, and/or figurative
language
Conventionality: Language is
dense and complex; contains
considerable abstract, ironic,
and/or figurative language
Vocabulary: Words are fairly
complex and sometimes
unfamiliar, archaic, subjectspecific, or overly academic
Vocabulary: Words are
complex and generally
unfamiliar, archaic, subjectspecific, or overly academic;
may be ambiguous or
purposefully misleading
Vocabulary: Words are
contemporary, familiar, and
conversational
Organization: Connections
among some ideas or events are
implicit or subtle; organization
is evident and generally
sequential or chronological
Text Author_____________________________________
Conventionality: Language is
largely explicit and easy to
understand, with some
occasions for more complex
meaning
Vocabulary: Words are mostly
contemporary, familiar, and
conversational; rarely overly
academic
Feature
Slightly Complex
Moderately Complex
Very Complex
Exceedingly Complex
Sentence Structure: Uses
mainly simple sentences
Sentence Structure: Uses
primarily simple and compound
sentences, with some complex
constructions
Sentence Structure: Uses many
complex sentences, with several
subordinate phrases or clauses
and transition words
Sentence Structure: Uses
mainly complex sentences, with
several subordinate clauses or
phrases and transition words;
sentences often contain multiple
concepts
Subject Matter Knowledge:
Relies on everyday, practical
knowledge; includes simple,
concrete ideas
Subject Matter Knowledge:
Relies on common practical
knowledge and some disciplinespecific content knowledge;
includes a mix of simple and
more complicated, abstract ideas
Subject Matter Knowledge:
Relies on moderate levels of
discipline-specific or theoretical
knowledge; includes a mix of
recognizable ideas and
challenging abstract concepts
Subject Matter Knowledge:
Relies on extensive levels of
discipline-specific or theoretical
knowledge; includes a range of
challenging abstract concepts
Intertextuality: Includes no
references or allusions to other
texts, or outside ideas, theories,
etc.
Intertextuality: Includes few
references or allusions to other
texts or outside ideas, theories,
etc.
Intertextuality: Includes some
references or allusions to other
texts or outside ideas, theories,
etc.
Intertextuality: Includes many
references or allusions to other
texts or outside ideas, theories,
etc.
Purpose: Explicitly stated,
clear, concrete, and narrowly
focused
Purpose: Implied but easy to
identify based on context or
source
Purpose: Implicit or subtle but
fairly easy to infer; more
theoretical or abstract than
concrete
Purpose: Subtle and intricate,
and difficult to determine;
includes many theoretical or
abstract elements
KNOWLEDGE
DEMANDS
PURPOSE
Worksheet: Qualitative Analysis of Text
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Speech to the Members of the
American Civil Liberties Union
Lexile: 1350 ATOS: 8.4
Type of Text (Literary/Informational): Informational
Category
Structure
Language
Clarity and
Conventions
Knowledge
Demands
Purpose
Overall
Placement
Notes and Comments on the Characteristics of the Text
(Support for Placement in This Band)
How complex is it for this level?
Slightly Moderately Very Exceedingly
Complex Complex Complex Complex
Resource: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Speech to the Members of the American Civil Liberties Union
Chicago, March 14, 1940
Now I listened to the broadcast this afternoon with a great deal of interest. I almost forgot what
a fight had been made to assure the rights of the working man. I know there was a time when
hours were longer and wages lower, but I had forgotten just how long that fight for freedom, to
bargain collectively, and to have freedom of assembly, had taken.
Sometimes, until some particular thing comes to your notice, you think something has been
won for every working man, and then you come across, as I did the other day, a case where
someone had taken the law into his own hands and beaten up a labor organizer. I didn’t think
we did those things any more in this country, but it appears that we do. Therefore, someone
must be always on the lookout to see that someone is ready to take up the cudgels to defend
those who can’t defend themselves. That is the only way we are going to keep this country a
law-abiding country, where law is looked upon with respect and where it is not considered
necessary for anybody to take the law into his own hands. The minute you allow that, then you
have acknowledged that you are no longer able to trust in your courts and in your lawenforcing machinery, and civil liberties are not very well off when anything like that happens;
so I think that after listening to the broadcast today, I would like to remind you that behind all
those who fight for the Constitution as it was written, for the rights of the weak and for the
preservation of civil liberties, we have a long line of courageous people, which is something to
be proud of and something to hold on to. Its only value lies, however, in the fact that we profit
by example and continue the tradition in the future.
We must not let those people in back of us down; we must have courage; we must not succumb
to fears of any kind; and we must live up to the things that we believe in and see that justice is
done to the people under the Constitution, whether they belong to minority groups or not. This
country is a united country in which all people have the same rights as citizens. We are grateful
that we can trust in the youth of the nation that they are going on to uphold the real principles
of democracy and put them into action in this country. They are going to make us an even more
truly democratic nation.
Answer Key: Qualitative Analysis of Text
The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
Lexile: 1250
ATOS: 9.4
Type of Text (Literary/Informational): Informational
Category
Structure
Language
Clarity and
Conventions
Knowledge
Demands
Purpose
Overall
Placement
Notes and Comments on the Characteristics of the Text
(Support for Placement in This Band)
The form of this piece is fairly straightforward for this level: An opening
statement followed by a question that is answered by considering quotes,
and then offering a brief chronology. The block quote might throw off some
readers, but overall the structure of the explication is direct and clear.
The language overall is fairly explicit and literal, but Monk uses several
academic words that would be challenging to students at this level and are
important to the meaning of the essay. However, except for the quote by
Marshall, the sentence structures are generally simple and direct, with a
minimum of subordination.
The subject matter of the text requires some understanding of basic
principles of a democratic government, but students at this level should not
struggle too much with that expectation and the overarching idea (i.e., who
is included in “We the People”) that drives the discussion.
The purpose of the text is simple and direct, though of course the history
behind answering the question is complex and multifaceted. Those facets,
however, are presented in a direct fashion and directly linked to the central
focus on the source of sovereignty.
The clarity of the explanation and the focus on one theme, despite the
occasional academic vocabulary and the complexity of Marshall’s remarks,
make this text appropriate for the beginning of the level.
How complex is it for this level?
Slightly Moderately
Very
Exceedingly
Complex
Complex
Complex Complex





Answer Key: Qualitative Analysis of Text
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Speech to the Members of the American Civil Liberties Union
Lexile: 1350 ATOS: 8.4
Type of Text (Literary/Informational): Informational
Notes and Comments on the Characteristics of the Text
Category
(Support for Placement in This Band)
Structure
Language
Clarity and
Conventions
Knowledge
Demands
The connections between ideas are not always clear. Roosevelt is responding
to a broadcast we have not heard and making subtle references to the
Constitution and events she heard about. As a speech, it is narrative and not
structurally complex. However, as her statements indicate, it was impromptu
(“Now I listened to the broadcast this afternoon,” “We must not let those
people in back of us down”) and therefore not highly organized or planned.
Roosevelt uses some archaic language, such as “ready to take up the cudgels,”
and some notions, like a broadcast, might be unfamiliar, but they are not hard
to figure out. Most of the language and sentence structures are
straightforward.
Roosevelt is speaking to a crowd that is hard to visualize in a non-contemporary time
(1940). She doesn’t paint their concerns very clearly; we know they relate to labor
organizing and the right to do so, which may or may not be a topic familiar to
readers. She assumes her audience has familiarity with the Constitution and can
make the connection between the Constitution and the rule of law. In addition,
readers are unlikely to understand—with the breadth she assumes—the struggles
throughout U.S. history to defend the rule of law. Without this knowledge, students
will struggle to make sense of her message of continuing that struggle to keep
democracy strong and rights intact. However, they may be able to connect it to labor
organizing and to that history in the U.S.
How complex is it for this level?
Slightly Moderately Very
Exceedingly
Complex Complex Complex Complex



Purpose
Overall
Placement
By her very presence, Roosevelt is defending the right of people to organize
into collective bargaining units. However, that is not explicitly stated at all,
and she is subtle in her message (“I almost forgot what a fight had been made
to assure the rights of the working man”). She is modest and understated, and
her argument, which connects the right to organize with the preservation of a
law-respecting society, is subtle.
If this piece were being studied in the context of a unit on 20th-century
American history or the history of the labor movement and civil rights in the
U.S., it might not be nearly as challenging as it is in this placement.
If it is being read as a speech with little context, it will be challenging for
students to overlook the parts that confuse them to arrive at Roosevelt’s
message that the right of working people to organize without obstruction is
essential to preserving a free and law-abiding society.

