Purpose and Literature ReviewPurpose and Literature Review

• To teach children the structure of expository text and the associated clue words

• Found no empirical studies with kindergarten or first grade or that focused on sequence

• Found 1 study with 2nd grade students trained in cause and effect (Hall, Sabey & McClellan,

2005; Reutzel, Smith, & Fawson, 2005; Williams et al., 2005, 2009).

MethodologyMethodology

• K-2 students (qualified on standard score of <100 on WJ-III Passage Comprehension

(Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2006) and <50% correct on researcher-made multiple choice

text structure screener

• Intervention: 20-minute lessons 4 days/week in small groups

• (1) Sequencing uses numerical or chronological order to list items or events

• (2) Compare/Contrast compares and contrasts two or more similar things

• (3) Cause and Effect delineates one or more causes and then describes the ensuing effects

• Lesson Structure followed a scripted direct instruction format

•Explicit Teaching: Read text, teach clue words, link to graphic organizer

•Guided Practice: Teacher and children read the text, identify clue words, complete

individual graphic organizers, and orally retell the story

•Independent Practice: Kindergartners use pictures to follow graphic organizer and

orally retell story using clue words. 1st and 2nd graders create their own graphic

organizer and retell the story using clue words

• Pre/Post Proximal Unit Test

1) Identification of clue words from an expository story

2) Oral recall of clue words without looking at the story

3) Multiple choice questions/text structure questions about an expository story

• Pre/Post Distal: WJ-III: Oral Language; Listening Comprehension; Understanding Directions;

Oral Comprehension

Research on Characteristics of Early Reading Text and Implications for Practice

This presentation describes evidence from two randomized control trial studies examining the influence of early reading text types for struggling and at-risk readers. The first study examined the impact of independent practice of multiple criteria text targeting high-frequency words, decodability, and meaningfulness with second graders. The second study focused on expository text instruction with kindergarten through second graders, examining the impact of directly teaching students about text structure. Implications for practice are provided.

AbstractAbstract

Independent Practice of Multiple Criteria TextIndependent Practice of Multiple Criteria Text

Predicted Scored Over Time for Developing DecodersPredicted Scored Over Time for Developing Decoders

PurposePurpose

• Examined the impact of independent practice of multiple criteria text that targeted high

frequency words, decodability, and meaningfulness

MethodologyMethodology

•Second grade students random assignment to treatment or contrast group within classrooms

•During daily 30-minute independent reading time for 10 weeks

•Treatment group (n = 34) read multiple-criteria text

•Contrast group (n = 28) that read authentic literature

•Treatment group text: multiple-criteria text designed to target high-frequency words (both

decodable and irregular words), decodability, and meaningfulness; students were given a

placement test to assign them to one of four levels of text

•Contrast group text: authentic literature from the classroom or school library that was in the

range of the student’s reading level

•Pre-post test: Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE; Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 1999)

Sight Word Efficiency and Phonemic Decoding Efficiency subtests

•Progress monitoring every two weeks: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills

(DIBELS; Good & Kaminski, 2002) Nonsense Word Fluency and Oral Reading Fluency

•Students categorized as “developing” or “advanced” decoders for analysis based on

performance on the TOWRE Phonemic Decoding Efficiency test

ResultsResults

•No statistically significant differences on t-tests when comparing all treatment students to all

contrast students

•Moderate effect size of .67 on pre-post analysis of TOWRE Sight Word Efficiency for developing

decoders

•HLM model of best fit revealed significant impact of treatment on NWF for students who began

the study as developing decoders

DiscussionDiscussion

•Preliminary evidence that practice with multiple-criteria text may be more effective than practice

with authentic literature for developing decoders

•Minimal intervention; just changed text read during pre-existing reading time

•Some benefit for some students

Level 1 Reader Example Page

Multiple Criteria Text CharacteristicsMultiple Criteria Text Characteristics

• 50 Books written for the study

• Systematically introduced irregular high-frequency words

• Maximized the use of words that were both regularly spelled and high frequency, while

avoiding low frequency words that were likely to be unfamiliar to students

• Natural use of language

• Used content words comprised of either irregular or advanced decoding patterns with icons

underneath the words to provide scaffolding

• Several instructional design principles within the text: varied sentence structure, included

discriminant words, repeated common words, and provided cumulative practice

Jill Allor, Ed. D.Stephanie Al Otaiba, Ph. D.Jennifer Cheatham, Ph. D.

Southern Methodist Universityjallor@smu.edu www.JillAllor.com

Download books at www.EducationInspired.com

TEXTS: Teaching Expository Text StructuresTEXTS: Teaching Expository Text Structures

Level 2 Reader Example Page

Level 3 Reader Example Page

Level 4 Reader Example Page

Lesson Plan

Logic Model

Proximal Unit Test: Multiple Choice Assessment• Students read/hear an

expository story within their condition.

• They are asked to answer a series of multiple choice questions. Questions are written to test knowledge across conditions.

Kindergarten Seq Condition CE Condition CC Condition

T p value es T p value es T p value es

C/C Items 0.00 1.00 0.00 -0.32 0.75 -0.11 9.90 0.00 2.76

C/E Items 1.58 0.14 0.62 6.89 0.00 2.02 2.18 0.04 0.73

S Items 5.93 0.00 1.79 1.76 0.10 0.61 0.90 0.38 0.31

First Grade                  

C/C Items 0.37 0.72 0.11 0.00 1.00 0.00 8.51 0.00 2.61

C/E Items 0.57 0.58 0.15 5.63 0.00 1.46 0.44 0.67 0.14

S Items 4.42 0.00 1.44 0.62 0.54 0.12 2.03 0.06 0.58

Second Grade                  

C/C Items 1.76 0.10 0.61 0.00 1.00 0.00 5.75 0.00 1.53

C/E Items 1.59 0.13 0.58 3.20 0.00 1.24 0.93 0.37 0.29

S Items 0.77 0.45 0.26 1.92 0.07 0.64 1.00 0.33 0.31

Distal Assessments: Pre/Post • WJ-III Oral Language• WJ-III Listening Comprehension• WJ-III Oral Comprehension

Kindergarten Seq Condition CE Condition CC Condition

T p value es T p value es T p value es

WJ Oral Lang 3.91 0.00 0.74 4.38 0.00 0.74 6.67 0.00 1.17

WJ List Comp 3.51 0.00 0.35 2.71 0.02 0.52 4.84 0.00 0.67

WJ Oral Comp 2.46 0.03 0.40 2.32 0.03 0.53 2.64 0.02 0.53

First Grade                  

WJ Oral Lang 6.90 0.00 1.15 5.27 0.00 1.22 5.21 0.00 1.00

WJ List Comp 2.38 0.03 0.43 3.46 0.00 0.70 4.07 0.00 0.55

WJ Oral Comp 1.01 0.33 0.21 3.44 0.00 0.73 2.40 0.03 0.47

Second Grade                  

WJ Oral Lang 3.11 0.01 0.76 2.50 0.02 0.73 2.40 0.03 0.44

WJ List Comp 2.03 0.06 0.55 2.57 0.02 0.65 0.99 0.34 0.19

WJ Oral Comp 1.83 0.09 0.47 1.48 0.16 0.46 1.00 0.33 0.26

The Two Boys (same/different)

2nd Grade Text Sample Text

• This is a story about how two boys are the same and different.

• Both boys have black curly hair. This is the same.

• One boy has a red collar, but the other boy does not. This is different.

Visual Examples: Day 1 and 2• Use graphic organizer to demonstrate the text

structure

Text Structure

Knowledge

Text Structure

Knowledge

Causal Connectives “Clue words”

Causal Connectives “Clue words”

Oral Language and Listening

Comprehension

Oral Language and Listening

Comprehension

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension

Word Reading

Word Reading

DiscussionDiscussion

•Preliminary evidence that students mastered the text structures taught with large effect sizes on

word identification and oral recall of clue words and on multiple choice questions (except

sequencing in 2nd grade).

•Across conditions, students in K and 1 made significant growth on all measures; students in 2

made significant growth on oral language.

•Teachers and interventionists were highly positive about the content of intervention, feasibility, and

their perceptions of children’s engagement, response, and learning.

ResultsResults

Acknowledgments: Support for carrying out this research was provided in part by grants R324A130102 and R305F100027 from the Institute of Education Sciences. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and have not been reviewed or approved by the granting agencies.