Max Crimp

EDUC 302-303
Prof. Terpstra
Addressing Text Complexity
The article titled Addressing CCSS Anchor Standard 10: Text Complexity,
written by Douglas Fischer and Nancy Frey, is one that I wish I had come across
earlier in the making of my unit plan. However, always better late than never. This
article dives into the topic of whether the Common Core standards are allowing the
text given to students to read is too simple for their learning abilities. The article
focused on these three main topics: the reader, the text, and the activity or purpose
for reading (Fischer, Frey, 2014). These three topics struck me as very important
because it showed that they took everything into consideration when writing this
article, and not just a select group of learners. The article goes on to explain that
with the new Common Core Standards will come more complex texts. Students will
will be expected to read, analyze, and understand more complex text than was
expected in previous years (Fischer, Frey, 2014). This was exciting for me too see.
In my unit plan, I found that some of the readings had been too easy for the
students. Even when I teaching readings that were not from my unit, I could tell that
most of the texts that the students were required to read were not challenging them
intellectually. The authors intended appeared to be teachers in similar situations to
me. The article was certainly an advocate for the strengthening of the content of
students required texts.
Seeing as some of my material was on the simpler side, and the article saying
that more in depth texts are on the way, I wish I d given my students more
challenging texts. I was worried about the material being too difficult and taking up
too much time, but looking back on it, that may have been a better route to go. For
the next time that I teach this unit, I will definitely try and turn the difficulty up a
notch. This way, deeper thinking and a more complete understanding of the texts
will be more attainable. That was one of my main goals of the unit, and I think
bringing in more complex text is a step in that direction.

Fischer, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Addressing CCSS Anchor Standard 10: Text
Complexity (4th ed., Vol. 91, pp. 236-250). San Diego, CA: National Council Of
Teachers Of English. Retrieved May 6, 2014, from
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0914-
mar2014/LA0914Addressing.pdf.


What Works in Writing Instruction
The second article that I came across to use for my professional literature
was an article written by Leslie Laud. In this article, Laud explains the benefits of
writing and the attention that good writing requires. One thing that Laud suggests is
that schools put a professional focus on writing, as the Worcester Arts Magnet
School in Worcester, Mass. did. The school decided to have a two-day professional
workshop that focuses on strengthening teachers abilities to teach students writing.
The workshop was a major success. The teachers really like the workshop, and the
results showed that the students heavily benefited from the teachers new methods
and pedagogies. The teachers reviewed a round of writing samplesand they found
that their students' writing, on average, now contained 75 percent of opinion text-
type elements in the common standards. As of this writing, teachers are reporting
that most students have now mastered all of the elements (Laud, 2013). This shows
the benefit of keeping current with the information and continually attending
professional workshops.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend a professional workshop. However,
this article showed me the importance of staying current with the current
pedagogies when it comes to teaching. This can span over all subjects, not just
writing. For this unit, I will have to talk with my teacher to make sure I am using an
effective pedagogy, and not one that has been outdated or is not taught anymore.
This means teaching current content to the students, too. Not only will my teaching
pedagogy have to be current, but the methods, techniques, and content that I teach
the students will also have to be current. This is something that I will have to use
now, and also in the future as a teacher.

Laud, L. (2013). What Works In Writing. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from Education
Week Teacher .