By Danielle Murray & Christopher Mazzino, Curriculum Supervisors
With the demand for increase rigor in instruction, it is only natural for students to see more complex texts as part of their reading experiences. The call for text complexity in schools includes all grade levels and all subjects. Exposing students to more fiction and non-fiction texts, texts that demand careful and close reading, will offer students the skills necessary to be careful and close readers throughout life. Reading standards strongly focus on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read.
In 2014, the Pennsylvania Department of Education introduced the Text-Dependent Analysis question in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSSA) for grades 4-8. As the name suggests, a TDA specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. The question relies solely on the student's ability to glean specific information from the text to support his assertions; it does not require that the student have any prior knowledge or experience about the subject being addressed. Even though the skills necessary to complete a TDA are not formally assessed by PDE, instruction of these skills begins in kindergarten.
The format of the assessment of TDA's includes some form of a complex text (letter, article, excerpt, etc.) and a question that related directly back to the text. The following are some examples of a TDA's across the grades:
Grades K-1: Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd - Question: How are humans helping or harming starfish?
Grades 2-3: The Raft, a narrative by Jim Lamarche - Question: What is Nicky's relationship with his grandma? How does it change and develop over the course of the story?
Grades 4-5: About Time by Bruce Koscielniak - Question: What are the pros and cons of Daylight Saving Time? Should the United States still implement it?
Grades 6-8: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe - Question: How does Poe address the theme of good versus evil?
While the high school assessment, the Keystone Exams, does not officially use TDA's, the same skills are still assessed. The following is a sample of what a high school level TDA might look like:
Grades 9-12: A Very Short Story by Ernest Hemmingway - This text was written and published in 1924 by Hemmingway, a WWI Veteran. He was injured in Italy and fell in love with an Italian nurse-this story is based on their relationship. Who does the author think is to blame for their relationship to have gone wrong and why?
The goal behind TDA's is to balance the reader and the text so that each is involved in the transaction of reading. Close reading of complex texts builds strong positive habits for students, habits that will serve them well throughout their lives.
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