Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ® Scaffolding Challenging Texts for All Readers with Christina Cover
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Jul 18, 2025 In this episode, Christina Cover, a high school special educator and literacy coordinator, shares her insights into making complex texts accessible for all students. She introduces the Getting the Gist strategy for summarization and discusses the significance of vocabulary and morphology in reading comprehension. Christina also highlights how writing can deepen understanding and examines the balance between deep comprehension and test prep. Her practical tips will inspire educators to transform their literacy instruction and engage students effectively.
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High School Texts And Student Reactions
- Christina teaches 9–12 students in a Bronx high school using a wide curriculum including 57 Bus, Romeo and Juliet, and Night.
- Students respond variably: some power through, others feel discouraged by challenging texts.
Complexity Goes Beyond Lexile Scores
- Lexile or sentence-level measures don't capture topical or emotional complexity.
- Texts like Night can be lexically simple yet cognitively and emotionally demanding.
Teach Focused Gist Statements
- Teach students to identify the who/what and the most important information in short chunks of text.
- Require a concise gist statement (set a strict word limit) to force synthesis and revision.
