Background he vocabulary found in a given text oten contributes to the complexity of that text. he vocabularies of stories and of informational texts can be quite difer- ent—diferences that can inluence students’ ability to comprehend and remember texts. One misconception is that the vocabulary of informational texts is consider- ably harder than the vocabulary of narrative texts. But this pattern is not always so—especially in elementary texts where content words (e.g., photosynthesis) are Text Complexity and the Common Core State Standards Overview Read and Learn Activity 1 Read foundation material: • Unique Words Require Unique Instruction: Teaching Words in Stories and Informational Books, Text Matters Reflect and Respond Activity 2 Compare vocabulary in two texts to examine the words that fall beyond the core or high frequency vocabulary Analyze and Apply Activity 3 Identify ways in which the unique vocabulary of the two texts might be taught and identify relevant instructional routines and cognitive strategies Activity 4 Explore what the differences in complexity of vocabulary found in texts for PK–12 students mean for instruction Activity 5 (optional) Select a vocabulary instructional routine suitable for narrative and informational texts analyzed at various websites For more information about the TextProject Teacher Development Series, visit www.textproject.org/tds v.1.0 © 2012 TextProject, Inc. Some rights reserved (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/). ™ TextProject TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SERIES Module 4 of 5 Instructor Edition Analyzing the Words in Narrative and Informational Texts Dana L. Grisham, Thomas DeVere Wolsey & Elfrieda H. Hiebert Instructor Edition This edition features margin notes of special interest to instructors (with additional content or activity notes), but is otherwise identical to the participant edition.