Download Choose texts that lend themselves to discussion about the text:

PLANNING A COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE (CIS) LESSON
PREREQUISITE: Selecting the Text
Text drives comprehension and vocabulary instruction. Selecting the appropriate text is critical to the
outcome of a comprehension lesson. The design and purpose of a text needs to align with the objective of the
lesson. For instance, texts designed for student practice in decoding and fluency such as decodable text and
leveled readers are designed to support development of independent reading. Typically, they are not complex
enough to challenge readers’ critical thinking in cognitively complex tasks. Teachers need to use more
complex text for such a purpose.
To select appropriate text for a comprehension lesson, teachers need to analyze the text’s structure, language,
knowledge demands, and levels of meaning. These elements of text complexity are described throughout this
handout to support efforts in identifying and selecting complex texts appropriate for vocabulary
comprehension instruction.
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Text Structure
Simple  Complex (Contains more than 1 type of text structure)
Explicit  Implicit
Conventional Unconventional
Events related in chronological order  Events related out of chronological order
Traits of a common genre or subgenre  Traits specific to a particular discipline
Simple graphics  sophisticated graphics
Graphics unnecessary/ supplemental to text understanding  Graphics essential to text understanding
GUIDING QUESTIONS: Text Structure
 Does the text contain a structure familiar to students – or -- is it a new pattern not yet taught?
 Does the text contain more than one text structure, making it more complex?
In order to comprehend and summarize what is read, readers need to know how to identify a text’s
organizational pattern. Text structure is the organizational pattern of the text. Readers organize the content as
they read by detecting how the author has organized the information in the text. Students who have learned
about text structure will have the clues available for them to extract important pieces of information from text.
Narrative text contains a story organizational pattern with characters, setting, various events, conflict,
resolution, and conclusion. Typically, these story elements are presented in the same order and include
language patterns and vocabulary that tend to be familiar to readers. In contrast, the structure of expository
text is quite different. Expository text can have one or more of a wide variety of different patterns. They can
contain comparisons, contrasts, or both. Some expository texts are organized by a cause and effect pattern.
Other patterns include sequence, description, or problem/solution. Each of these patterns has a different
structure. Also, expository texts focus on abstract topics, crossing the threshold into formal language with
more abstract terminology. As a result, readers can find expository text very challenging to understand.
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Language Demands
Literal  Figurative or ironic
Clear  Ambiguous or purposefully misleading
Contemporary, familiar  Archaic or otherwise unfamiliar
Conversational  General Academic and domain specific
Light vocabulary load: few unfamiliar or academic words Many words unfamiliar and high academic
vocabulary present
 Sentence structure straightforward Complex and varied sentence structures
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PLANNING A COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE (CIS) LESSON
GUIDING QUESTIONS: Language Demands
 Does the text contain general academic (i.e., diversion, perspective, etc.) or discipline-specific
vocabulary words (i.e., ecosystem, legislature, etc.)?
 Does the text include words that are unfamiliar, abstract, or figurative (perhaps even ironic)?
 Does the text include complex sentences structures with several different types of punctuation
marks (i.e., commas, colons, semi-colons, ellipses, etc.) and structures/patterns (i.e., compound
sentences, phrases, sentences etc.)?
Careful preview of the language in text is a critical part of the text selection process. Text language consists of all
the vocabulary and sentence structures in a text, and those containing language structures similar to that of typical
everyday conversation have a lower complexity. As vocabulary and sentence structures advance above the
conversational level, text language increases in complexity, placing greater cognitive demands upon the reader.
Complex text contains vocabulary with a larger proportion of general academic and/or discipline-specific words.
They can also contain words that are largely unfamiliar and abstract with ambiguous meanings. Others may be
either figurative or archaic in nature – or both. Besides vocabulary, sentences can be complex. They vary in
length and use of punctuation. Typically, complex sentences are longer, contain more than one complex phrase,
and can include several different types of punctuation marks. Although literary texts can have very complex
sentence structures, it is not unusual for vocabulary to boost the overall language complexity of expository texts
to exceed that of literary texts. High-level comprehension instruction utilizing complex texts challenges students
to learn and apply new vocabulary in discussion and writing, increasing both their oral and reading vocabulary.
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Knowledge Demands: Life Experience, Cultural/Literary, and Content
Simple theme  Complex or sophisticated themes
Single theme  Multiple themes
Easily detected experiences (common or clearly fantastical)  Experiences different from one’s own
Single perspective  Multiple perspectives
Perspective(s) like one’s own  Perspective(s) unlike or in opposition to one’s own
Everyday knowledge and familiarity with genre conventions  Cultural, literary, or discipline-specific content
knowledge useful or required
 Low inter-textuality (few references/allusions to other texts)  High inter-textuality (many text references)
GUIDING QUESTION: Knowledge Demands
Does the text present a set of options for students to choose a position, claim, or viewpoint?
The variety of knowledge demands that the text places upon readers is another important aspect of text
selection. Texts with multiple perspectives, conflicts, or issues that relate to life experience present reading
challenges; however, at the same time, these complex texts present interesting options for students to choose a
position, claim, or viewpoint. Such dynamics can sustain meaningful class discussion over several days as
students read, reread, think, write, and discuss to confirm or reconsider their position, claim, or viewpoint.
This propels critical thinking. Consequently, a successful high-level comprehension lesson requires text with
complex elements relating to life experience, cultural and/or literary knowledge, as well as content knowledge.
Levels of Meaning
 Single level of meaning Multiple levels of meaning
 Explicitly stated purpose  Implicit purpose, may be hidden or obscure
GUIDING QUESTIONS: Levels of Meaning
 Does the text explicitly define or state text information (i.e., word meanings, main ideas)?
 If the text is too explicit in one small section only, is it possible to use the remainder of the text
for the lesson?
 Does the text have an implicit communication approach, forcing the reader to apply effort in
comprehending?
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PLANNING A COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE (CIS) LESSON
The last element to examine is the manner in which the author or publisher presents ideas throughout the text.
This entails looking at whether the levels of meaning are explicit or implicit. A text that is too explicit can
restrict student thinking. For example, explicit introduction of a text’s purpose or major ideas can leave little for
readers to discuss. Text that explicitly states its main idea suppresses a purpose for reading, and those that
explicitly define terminology throughout can stifle curiosity. In contrast, text ideas that are implicit can force the
reader to grapple with a text’s message and launch a discussion. The reader must compare and contrast
information within the text, clarify the message, and, finally, synthesize the last of the evidence that the reader
has gathered to draw a final conclusion. Text with an implicit approach of presenting information can challenge
students to read more closely and, therefore, remain more actively engaged in thinking as they read.
I am using this text because . . .
In order for students to be college and career ready, they need exposure to different types of texts to read for
specific and various reasons. The chart below lists several reasons for using texts. Some texts work well for
some purposes but not for others.
Objective
What is the purpose for using text?
Text That Aligns
What do I need from the text?
Independent Practice:
To provide independent reading
practice.
Students independently read and
comprehend texts that are within
their range of fluent decoding.
Text Structure:
To introduce a new organizational text
pattern.
Language:
To introduce new complex words that
increase student vocabulary and
language development
Texts with a specific text structure
(i.e., cause/effect, comparison,
contrast, etc.)
Complex texts above students’
level of instruction, presenting
academic & discipline-specific
words and/or complex sentence
structure.
Texts with specific new contentarea concepts.
Knowledge Demands:
To introduce new content knowledge.
Levels of Meaning:
To challenge students to
- think critically
- use/justify text evidence
- research information
Teacher-Selected Text
What text fits this purpose?
Texts that contain:
- new, abstract, or complex ideas
- multiple perspectives
- argumentation (i.e., essay)
GENERAL GUIDING QUESTIONS:
 Overall, does this text fit my purpose for using it?
 Does my instruction provide students with a broad spectrum of reasons for relating to texts – or –
does my instruction need to expand to include other purposes?
PLANNING NOTE: For those students in the class who are challenged to independently decode a complex
text, teachers can provide support by simultaneously using the following options during instruction:
 Pairing Students: Have challenged students partner with a stronger reader to read the text together.
 Oral Reading: The teacher could either read the complex text aloud or provide a text recording while
students read to follow along silently.
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Text-Marking: As a means of informal assessment, the teacher could have students engage in
text-marking while they read complex text. Student placement of text-marking codes on the page
will alert the teacher of any comprehension difficulties students may be experiencing.
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PLANNING A COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE (CIS) LESSON
TEXT FOR COMPREHENSION LESSON:
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea
Stuart Little, the small mouse with big parents, had nothing on baby marsupials. Marsupials (“mar-SOUPee-ulz”) are special kinds of mammals. Even the biggest ones give birth to babies that are incredibly small.
A two-hundred-pound six-foot mother kangaroo, for instance, gives birth to a baby as small as a lima
bean. That’s what makes marsupials marsupials. Their babies are born so tiny that in order to survive they
must live in a pouch on the mother’s tummy. The pouch is called a marsupium. (Don’t you wish you had
one?)
A baby marsupial lives hidden in the mother’s warm moist pouch for months. There it sucks milk from a
nipple like other baby mammals. One day it’s big enough to poke its head out to see the world. The
European explorers who saw kangaroos for the first time in Australia reported they had discovered a twoheaded animal—with one head on the neck and another in the belly.
North America has only one marsupial. You may have seen it: The Virginia opossum actually lives in
most of the United States, not just Virginia. South America also has marsupials. But most marsupials live
in or near Australia. They include the koala (which is not a bear), two species of wombat, the toothy black
Tasmania devil, four species of black and white spotted “native cats” (though they’re not cats at all), and
many others.
The most famous marsupials, however, are the kangaroos. All kangaroos hop—some of them six feet high
and faster than forty miles an hour. More than fifty different species of kangaroo hop around on the
ground—from the big red kangaroo to the musky rat kangaroo.
Excerpt from QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea by Sy
Montgomery. Text Copyright © 2006 by Sy Montgomery. Used by Permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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