1. 1 The Role of the Text in Comprehension Reader Task/Ac tivity Sociocultural Context Text Teacher/Te aching Comprehension

2. 2 Goals for Understanding: How to determine text difficulty/readability level How text features support (or do not support) readers in constructing a coherent mental representation of a text How to analyze a text (and its language) for its resource and challenges (Later: How to use text analysis to set learning goals for a discussion about the text)

3. What makes a text difficult? Cornett: Interest level (personal); Accessibility (emotional & cognitive); Readability (text difficulty); Reading level (the reader) –Independent (95-99% accuracy; 90% comp) –Instructional (90-95% accuracy; 80% comp) –Frustrational (<90% accuracy; < 70% comp) –Listening (comprehend 80% key concepts) 3

4. Leveled Books in Schools 4 What have you noticed about how levels of text difficulty are communicated in schools/classrooms? Any problems with this “leveling” system?

5. Our class list Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 5

6. Fry Readability Formula Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 6

7. 7 Five Factors That Influence Comprehension Reader Task/Ac tivity Sociocultural Context Text Teacher/Te aching Comprehension

8. Fry Readability Formula = # of sentences and # of syllables 8 Which of the FIVE factors of comprehension? ONE: TEXT

9. Lexile Levels: Key Insights? Questions? 9 See handout on the wiki: What does the Lexile Measure Mean?

10. Lexile Level = sentence length and word frequency 10 TWO: TEXT & READER Which of the FIVE factors of comprehension?

11. 11 Standard #10: Text Complexity Common Core Standards Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently

12. Text Complexity Factors 12 HUMAN RATED Levels of meaning Structure Language conventionality Clarity Knowledge demands COMPUTER SCORED Word length Word frequency Sentence length Text Cohesion Co-Metrix and Lexiles READER Motivation Knowledge Experiences TASK Purpose/Context Complexity Questions Posed Common Core Standards 4-5! Teacher, text, reader, & task/context Which of the FIVE factors Of comprehension?

13. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 13 Text Analysis What features of text cause difficulty or challenge readers? What features of text support readers in comprehending text ideas? STOP & JOT

14. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 14 Key Text Features that Influence Comprehension Genre Text organization (e.g., chronology, cause/effect, compare/contrast) Graphics and typographic features Transitions (e.g., between paragraphs) Connectives Referents Cohesion

15. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 15 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

16. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 16 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. )

17. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 17 Let’s Look at these Text Features More Closely Why/How do these text features support and/or complicate comprehension?

18. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 18 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. (Helps set purpose; monitor)

19. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 19 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

20. 20 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.” Author’s Craft? Pictures of Hollis Woods Does organization support or complicate comprehension?

21. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 21 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.

22. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 22 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

23. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 23 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

24. Let’s Look at Some Other Text Features that Influence Text Difficulty Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 24

25. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 25 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.

26. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 26 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.

27. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 27 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.

28. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 28

29. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 29 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.”

30. 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) –I wasn’t born yesterday; grinder; coke; fixin’ to make groceries Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 30

31. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 31 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

32. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 32 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

33. Quickwrite What are at least five text features that influence text difficulty? One feature that’s potentially helpful? One feature that’s potentially challenging? Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 33

34. Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 34 Applying These Ideas… (Resources? Challenges?) Genre Text organization (e.g., chronology, cause/effect, compare/contrast) Graphics and typographic features Transitions (e.g., between paragraphs) Connectives Referents Cohesion

35. Applying these ideas… Helpful? Not helpful – challenges? Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 35

36. How do you use this information about text difficulty to plan your instruction? Main Idea: Big Idea: Introduce: What would you do BEFORE reading? Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 36

37. Lion King 37

38. Text (and Language) Features That Influence Difficulty Lion King Puff the Magic Dragon Eleven What’s the main idea (your key insights) about the role of language for influencing comprehension? Talk in your group to generate two key ideas 38

39. Language Features Decontextualized Language – written language is harder to read when we only have words –No help from pictures, mood, color, gestures, sounds of voice, music, etc. –When we add contextualization, is it helpful? Could it ever make comprehension more challenging? Metaphoric Language – language that uses the literary device of metaphor to transfer meaning of one word to another word Adapted from Kucan & Palincsar IES 2009-2010 39

40. Determining Main Ideas and Big Ideas Consider: Is it easier to determine main ideas from narrative text or informational text? Why? Is it easier to determine big ideas from narrative text or informational text? Why? 40

41. Reviewing MTH Book Activity 2 Activities go all together to help students learn about the topic (Big Idea or several main ideas) Hybrid text: Combine what two genres? Main idea (plot events); Big Idea (any content?) Unit Map: –Where get ideas? (from “facts” in Part 1) –Learning outcomes not always clear… state as questions or goals to help focus your instruction “Compare differences between common English then & now” “Create postcard from a soldier’s perspective in civil war” “What animals do Indian cultures worship? ” It’s vs. Its (no apostrophe unless two words 41

42. Homework 42

43. Comprehension is dependent upon the interaction of reader factors and text factors Reader Factors –Background knowledge –Vocabulary –Fluency –Comprehension Strategies –Comprehension Skills –Motivation Text Factors –Genres –Text Structures –Text Features 43