The Role of the Text in Comprehension Sociocultural Comprehension Task/Activity Text Teacher/Teaching Reader Context

Goals for Understanding: How text features support (or do not support) readers in constructing a coherent mental representation of a text How to analyze a text for its resources and challenges How to use text analysis to set learning goals for a discussion about the text Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Key Text Features that Influence Comprehension Genre Text organization (e.g. chronology, cause/effect) Graphics and typographic features Transitions Connectives Referents Cohesion Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Text Analysis What features of text cause difficulty or challenge readers? What features of text support readers in comprehending text ideas? Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Ways of thinking about text features and text difficulty we have investigated Readability measures: Text difficulty is judged by vocabulary (how long the words are/how many syllables) and the length of sentences Readability measures assume that: Longer sentences are more difficult to process Bigger/longer words, or words that appear less frequently are less familiar to readers We discovered some problems with readability measures. Many other features besides vocabulary and sentence length influence how a reader constructs meaning from text Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

What are the other features influence how a reader constructs meaning? We already thought of some features, like Text Structure (narrative, expository, hybrid, genre) Text organization (chronology, cause/effect) Graphics Typographical features (type face, bold, italics, etc.) Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Let’s Look at these Text Features More Closely Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Text Structure: Genre Understanding the genre of a text (e.g., folk tale, nonfiction, historical fiction, mystery or biography) allows readers to have certain expectations about the content and organization of the text. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Hybrid texts include more than one genre Story on one side, biography on the other Narrative story of Mrs. Frizzle and her class (problem, events…) intertwined with scientific explanation of phenomenon Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Text organization: Chronology Well-organized accounts of events can help readers understand the order in which events took place. The tense of verbs (past, present, and future) can help readers keep track of the sequence of events. Words like first, next, then, finally, after help the reader keep track of sequence/time. BUT, authors may use other devices such as “flash-forward” or “flash-back.” Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Text Organization: Cause and Effect In well-organized accounts of events related by cause and effect, authors connect the cause and effect by using words and phrases like as a result, because, and therefore. The distance between the information provided about the cause-and-effect relationship also contributes to text difficulty. BP Tries to Shift Blame for Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Graphics Graphics, such as photos, tables, charts, maps, and illustrations, can support readers to build coherent mental representations BUT, graphics can also interfere with that process How do we know if graphics are helpful? Location (where are they placed?) Relationship between the graphic and the text (location, and how explicitly they are connected) Clarity Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Typographic features Typographic features and the layout of text also influence the ease of reading. Typographic features include: boldface, italics, size of type headings and subheadings Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Let’s Look at Some Other Text Features that Influence Text Difficulty Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Transitions Well-constructed texts support readers by providing transitions between paragraphs. One kind of transition lets the reader know that the topic of the same paragraph is still being considered. For example, if a paragraph is about photosynthesis, the following paragraph may begin with a sentence like this: There is more that scientists know about photosynthesis. Such a sentence cues readers that they will be reading more about this topic. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Transitions, Continued Authors often choose to repeat the key word to support the transition to a new paragraph about the same topic. Transitions can also signal that a new topic is going to be introduced. For example, a sentence like the following indicates that the author is moving from the topic of year-round schools to the topic of school size: Although year-round schools have received a lot of attention in predicting student success, others think that school size is the more important factor in predicting school success. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Text Organization: Connectives Authors signal how ideas are connected by using words known as “connectives” (e.g., because, so, either-or, however, therefore, despite). Sometimes authors don’t provide these connectives, and readers have to do the work of building connections. For example: Many citizens were outraged. When the polls were scheduled to close, some voters who were still in line to vote had been turned away. The local election board called for an investigation. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Referents Referents are words that refer to the same person, thing, place, or idea; for example, he, they, it, who,which, here. Pronouns are common referents Sometimes authors use phrases to refer to the same person. For example, in a text about Roberto Clemente, Roberto is referred to as “the young man,” “the right fielder,” and “the young Puerto Rican.” Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 Language Figurative language such as Metaphor Simile Personification Figurative language is most often found in literary or fiction text (narrative) Colloquialisms/vernacular dialect (again, found in narrative) Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 The role of cohesion in thinking about text features and text difficulty Cohesion is the “linguistic glue” that links events and concepts together in a text A whole text can be cohesive, but there is also cohesion between sentences, groups of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters Cohesive texts support readers in building coherent mental representations of a text Less cohesive texts require readers to infer more information to build coherent mental representations Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010

Constructing a coherent mental representation Cohesive Text Text ideas are well connected Readers understand how text ideas relate to one another Non-Cohesive Text Connections among text ideas are not clear Readers must make inferences to connect text ideas Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010