Purpose 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 2 nd grade students trained in cause and effect (Hall, Sabey & McClellan, 2005; Reutzel, Smith, & Fawson, 2005; Williams et al., 2005, 2009).Methodology 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. 1 st and 2 nd 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. Abstract Independent Practice of Multiple Criteria Text Independent Practice of Multiple Criteria Text Predicted Scored Over Time for Developing Decoders Purpose Examined the impact of independent practice of multiple criteria text that targeted high frequency words, decodability, and meaningfulnessMethodology 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 testResults 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 decodersDiscussion 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 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 University Download books at TEXTS: 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. KindergartenSeq ConditionCE ConditionCC Condition Tp value es Tp value es Tp value es C/C Items C/E Items S Items First Grade C/C Items C/E Items S Items Second Grade C/C Items C/E Items S Items Distal Assessments: Pre/Post WJ-III Oral Language WJ-III Listening Comprehension WJ-III Oral Comprehension KindergartenSeq ConditionCE ConditionCC Condition Tp value es Tp value es Tp value es WJ Oral Lang WJ List Comp WJ Oral Comp First Grade WJ Oral Lang WJ List Comp WJ Oral Comp Second Grade WJ Oral Lang WJ List Comp WJ Oral Comp The Two Boys (same/different) 2 nd 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 Causal Connectives “Clue words” Oral Language and Listening Comprehension Reading Comprehension Word Reading Discussion 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 2 nd 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. Results Acknowledgments: Support for carrying out this research was provided in part by grants R324A and R305F 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.