Interrupting the "Common Sense" of Text Complexity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Political and Practical Issues in Standards Implementation

Abstract

I illustrate the process and discuss the obstacles I encountered as I enacted the Common Core Standard’s (CCSS) three-part model to determine text complexity with an urban literature text. Drawing on elements of discourse analysis, I demonstrate how language and literacy is being “naturalized” by this model by appealing to our “common sense,” how this naturalization perpetuates patterns of academic success and failure, and how roles of race, class, and gender are privileged (or not) in this process. Implications for teaching include interrupting this process of naturalization by shifting the focus of text complexity to more participatory practices.

Author

• Erica H. Newhouse, Mercy College