read me closely How to Select Works that have text Appeal

Des Floyd

Researchers have attended to features of different genres of text that might shape people’s comprehension but we know less about how texts are actually used in different domains (e.g., homes, communities, churches, etc.).

In the dark

-The Role of Text in Disciplinary Learning (2010)

Text: organized networks of meaning that people generate or use to make meaning either for themselves or for others.

Defined

- Wade & Moje (2000)

Multimodal view

Examples Aural Visual Gestures Letters/print Symbols Internet Television Video

ON CHOOSING PRINT

Stories

Historical fiction

Mysteries

Myths

Science fiction

Realistic fiction

Satire

Graphic novels

Plays

Poems

Essays

Speeches

Opinion pieces

Biographies

Memoirs

Historical accounts

Scientific accounts

Technical accounts

Journalism

TEXT SELECTION

3 FACTORS TO CONSIDER

Potential for reader

engagement/interaction

Levels of meaning

Features of the text

#1 The potential for engagement

Question: Does the text offer opportunities for

knowledge-use, knowledge-building, and/or personal

connection?

{ Read me

works that have text appeal

“The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon, all moans

and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell, and then he

sang a song about the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little

lamb was left out in the cold. Then he said: "Won't you come?

Won't you come to Jesus? Young lambs, won't you come?" And he

held out his arms to all us young sinners there on the mourners'

bench. And the little girls cried. And some of them jumped up and

went to Jesus right away. But most of us just sat there.”

- Excerpt from Salvation Langston Hughes

The Fire Made its Own Draft “By Wednesday afternoon, inside of twelve hours, half the heart of the city was gone. At that time I watched the vast conflagration from out on the bay. It was dead calm. Not a flicker of wind stirred. Yet from every side wind was pouring in upon the city. East, west, north, and south, strong winds were blowing upon the doomed city. The heated air rising made an enormous suck. Thus did the fire of itself build its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere. Day and night this dead calm continued, and yet, near to the flames, the wind was often half a gale, so mighty was the suck. Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city. Dynamite was lavishly used, and many of San Francisco's proudest structures were crumbled by man himself into ruins, but there was no withstanding the onrush of the flames. Time and again successful stands were made by the fire-fighters, and every time the flames flanked around on either side or came up from the rear, and turned to defeat the hard-won victory. An enumeration of the buildings destroyed would be a directory of San Francisco. An enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses. An enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie medal fund. An enumeration of the dead will never be made. All vestiges of them were destroyed by the flames. The number of the victims of the earthquake will never be known.”

Excerpt from The Story of an Eyewitness: The San Francisco Earthquake

By Jack London

From the Testimony of Jeanne Levy About Wanting to Live and Wanting to Die in Auschwitz-Birkenau

“Now, this "rivier", that was kind of "Dante's inferno". There was a little bit farther

away was a girl lying that was a neighbor of Greet of Amsterdam, in the Jewish quarter.

And she was lying there and she was crying, "I would like to die, I would like to die. I

will not live." And Greet spoke to her and said to her also in Dutch, "Mariege, you are so

nice, you are so beautiful. The boys were standing in rows. You have to be strong, you

have to go through that."....(not clear) Now Greet got better and was sent out, so I tried

to speak with Mariege and said, "I heard from Greet how the boys stood in a row and

really, Mariege, you have to be strong and to try to be better. You will get better." She

said, "Ah, what do you know? What do you know? I lie here in my own dirt already days

and I would like to die and I have to die. I can't live any longer." And that went on and

then she didn't stop saying "I will die, I will die, I will die." And suddenly it stopped and

where she lay they broke through. The beds there were only some wooden planks and

some instead of one were three or five only lying and there we were lying on. And then

the second went - she was in the upper bed - the second broke down and then the third

and I thought aren't I lucky that I was not lying there, but the nurses didn't like to bring

her outside - those who died they put outside and the "dead commando" came to fetch

them in the morning...”

How Mark Twain Conquered Stage Fright “It was dark and lonely behind the scenes in that theater, and I peeked through the little peek holes they have in theater curtains and looked into the big auditorium. That was dark and empty, too. By and by it lighted up, and the audience began to arrive. I had got a number of friends of mine, stalwart men, to sprinkle themselves through the audience armed with big clubs. Every time I said anything they could possibly guess I intended to be funny, they were to pound those clubs on the floor. Then there was a kind lady in a box up there, also a good friend of mine, the wife of the governor. She was to watch me intently, and whenever I glanced toward her she was going to deliver a gubernatorial laugh that would lead the whole audience into applause. At last I began. I had the manuscript tucked under a United States flag in front of me where I could get at it in case of need. But I managed to get started without it. I walked up and down--I was young in those days and needed the exercise--and talked and talked. Right in the middle of the speech I had placed a gem. I had put in a moving, pathetic part which was to get at the hearts and souls of my hearers. When I delivered it they did just what I hoped and expected. They sat silent and awed. I had touched them. Then I happened to glance up at the box where the Governor's wife was--you know what happened.”

Excerpt from

How I Conquered Stage Fright by Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Help me to remember…

Help me to forget…

“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” ~William Shakespeare~

Through texts, we can extend our communities

and learn from the experiences of others.

“I am a reflection of my community.” -TUPAC SHAKUR

When we see ourselves in

what we read, we are hooked.

Reading and

Responding HISTORICAL FICTION

School: PS 6

Title: Book Club Conversation

meeting Common Core

expectations

Synopsis: A video of a fifth

grade book club from PS 6

engaging in accountable talk

around historical fiction at

grade-level text complexity.

Grade 05 Video: Text-based Discussion (next slide)

Narrated by Lucy Calkins

#2 Levels of Meaning

Question: Does the text offer multiple levels of

meaning (e.g., readily accessible, moderate challenge,

sophisticated) as readers progress from decoding to

meaning-making and ultimately to meaning-use?

Factors that influence

access to meaning

Low High

Simple, conventional structures Complex, implicit structures

Events relayed in chronological order (literary)

Frequent flashbacks/forwards (literary)

Common genres/subgenres (informational)

Variety of structures, discipline-specific (informational)

Literal, conversational language Figurative, archaic/unfamiliar language

Shallow cultural/literary/disciplinary knowledge necessary

Deep cultural/literary/disciplinary knowledge necessary

{ Read me

Works that have text appeal

(even as levels of meaning are considered)

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.

- from Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5)

William Shakespeare

“Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon;”

Excerpt from Chapter XVII Is it better to be loved or feared?

Machiavelli

“It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively,

finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I

had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the

dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish,

nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up

and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees. [The moon] I gazed with a kind of

wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of

berries. I was still cold when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I

covered myself, and sat down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was

confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my

ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I could distinguish was

the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure.”

Excerpt from Chapter 11 FRANKENSTEIN

Mary Shelly

Food for Thought Selecting texts for student reading should not only

depend on text complexity but also on considerations of quality and coherence.

Quantitative Features of Texts: Measures Both Useful and Imperfect

#3 Features of the Text

Question: Consider the quantitative features of the text

(features difficult to evaluate without using computer

software). How might certain textual features help or

hinder reading comprehension?

The quantitative dimension of text complexity refers to

those aspects—such as word frequency, sentence length,

and text cohesion (just to name a few)—that are difficult

for a human reader to evaluate when examining a text.

These factors are more efficiently measured by computer

programs.

MEASURE

ATOS by Renaissance Learning takes into account three

variables: words per sentence,

average grade level of words

(established via the Graded

Vocabulary List), and characters per

word.

Flesch-Kincaid (public domain) uses word and sentence length as

proxies for semantic and syntactic

complexity respectively (i.e., proxies

for vocabulary difficulty and sentence

structure).

The Lexile® Framework For Reading

by MetaMetrics

Lexile® measures are expressed as

numeric measures followed by an “L”

(for example, 850L), which are then

placed on the Lexile® scale for

measuring reader ability and text

complexity (ranging from below 200L

for beginning readers and beginning-

reader materials to above 1600L for

advanced readers and materials).

Degrees of Reading Power® (DRP®) by

Questar Assessment, Inc.

The DRP Analyzer employs a derivation of a

Bormuth mean cloze readability formula based on

three measureable features of text: word length,

sentence length, and word familiarity. DRP text

difficulty is expressed in DRP units on a

continuous scale with a theoretical range from 0

to 100.

Reading Maturity by Pearson Education The Pearson Reading Maturity Metric uses the

computational language model Latent Semantic

Analysis (LSA) to estimate how much language

experience is required to achieve adult knowledge

of the meaning of each word, sentence, and

paragraph in a text.

SourceRater by Educational Testing

Service

SourceRater employs a variety of natural language

processing techniques to extract evidence of text

standing relative to eight construct-relevant

dimensions of text variation: syntactic complexity,

vocabulary difficulty, level of abstractness,

referential cohesion, connective cohesion, degree

of academic orientation, degree of narrative

orientation, and paragraph structure.

{ Read me

Works that have text appeal

(consider quantitative text features)

A quick revisit

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.

- from Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5)

William Shakespeare

Lexile score = 950

“Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon;”

Excerpt from Chapter XVII Is it better to be loved or feared?

Machiavelli

Lexile score = 1170

“It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively,

finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I

had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the

dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish,

nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up

and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees. [The moon] I gazed with a kind of

wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of

berries. I was still cold when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I

covered myself, and sat down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was

confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my

ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I could distinguish was

the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure.”

Excerpt from Chapter 11 FRANKENSTEIN

Mary Shelly

Lexile score = 810 Where does this fall within the

CCSS grade bands?

Remember, quantitative measures of

complexity are both useful and imperfect.

WHEN SELECTING TEXTS

CONSIDER ALL 3 FACTORS

Potential for reader

engagement/interaction

Levels of meaning

Features of the text

Fair Use

“Fair Use” doctrine gives teachers more latitude than others when it comes to copyright for educational purposes (Aufderheide & Jaszi, 2011).

Search for Texts Online

Google Books

Bartleby

Literature

Poetry

Gutenberg

National Governors Association Center for Best

Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers,

Washington D.C., 2010.

www.gutenberg.org (sample public domain

works)

http://www.readingonline.org/articles/handbook/

wade/

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-

Literacy/standard-10-range-quality-

complexity/range-of-text-types-for-612

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resou

rce_center/item.asp?GATE=Z&list_type=2-

24&type_id=5&total=N

http://www.lexile.com/using-lexile/lexile-

measures-and-the-ccssi/text-complexity-grade-

bands-and-lexile-ranges/

http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/co

mmon-core-standards/ccs-videos.html

REFERENCES