W H AT M A K E S A T E X T A S L O W O R FA S T R E A D ?

SPEED BUMPS AND PASSING LANES

L A U R A S . T O R T O R E L L IM I C H I G A N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

L I T E R A C Y R E S E A R C H A S S O C I A T I O N C O N F E R E N C EC A R L S B A D , C A

D E C E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 5

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE

How are text characteristics related to fluent reading?

Common Core State Standards for the early grades• Greater text complexity• Greater genre variety

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

TEXT COMPLEXITY IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES

(MESMER, CUNNINGHAM, & HIEBERT, 2012)

Word complexit

y

Sentence complexit

y

Discourse structure

WORD COMPLEXITY (MESMER, CUNNINGHAM, & HIEBERT, 2012)

Words

Well-traveled ground

decodability

frequency

length

Less well-traveled ground

semantic features

SENTENCE COMPLEXITY (MESMER, CUNNINGHAM, & HIEBERT, 2012)

Sentences

Well-traveled ground length

Less well-traveled ground

syntax

“There are buildings where many people live and work.”

“Many people live and work in the buildings there.”

DISCOURSE STRUCTURE (MESMER, CUNNINGHAM, & HIEBERT, 2012)

Discourse

structure

New ground

genre

cohesion

READABILITY FORMULAS

   Word Complexity Sentence

Complexity

 

 Formula

Word Frequency Word Length Sentence Length

 Source

Dale-Chall X   X Dale & Chall, 1948Flesch-Kincaid   X X Flesch, 1948Gunning Fog Index  X    X Gunning, 1952Forcast   X   Sticht, 1973Fry   X X Fry, 1968Lexile X   X MetaMetrics, 2000Powers-Sumners-Kearl

   X  X  Powers, Sumners, & Kearl, 1958

Smog Index   X   McLaughlin, 1969Spache X   X Spache, 1953Note: Adapted from “Can Readability Formulas Be Used to Successfully Gauge Difficulty of Reading Materials?” by J. C. Begeny and D. J. Greene, 2014,

Psychology in the Schools, 51, p. 200. Copyright 2014 by Wiley.

Summary of Readability Formulae Components

COH-METRIX TEXT EASABILITY ASSESSOR

(MCNAMARA, LOUWERSE, CAI, & GRAESSER, 2005)

• Provides automated text analysis of hundreds of variables• Based in research on psychology, computer

science, linguistics, and education• Assigns z scores based on the Touchstone Applied

Science Associates (TASA) corpus of texts

COH-METRIX Z SCORES

• Word Concreteness – the extent to a word can be seen, felt, tasted, and/or smelled• Syntactical Simplicity – a measure of syntactical

organization within a sentence• Narrativity – the extent to which a passage

follows characters through a series of actions• Referential cohesion – the repetition of ideas and

words throughout the passage• Deep cohesion – the presence of logical and

temporal connectives in a passage

COH-METRIX MEASURES OF TEXT COMPLEXITY

WordsLess well-traveled ground

semantic features

word concreteness

SentencesLess well-traveled ground

syntax syntactical simplicity

Discourse structure New ground

genre narrativity

cohesion

referential cohesion

deep cohesion

Mesmer et al. model Coh-Metrix z scores

THE PRESENT STUDY

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What characteristics of texts are associated with lower reading rates (speed bumps) after controlling for reader factors?

2. What characteristics of texts are associated with higher reading rates (passing lanes) after controlling for reader factors?

DATA

Readers

• 22,349 2nd grade students from 387 public schools in Virginia

• No identified disabilities• 50.1% were male• 55.5% white, 26.6% black,

10.7% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 4.8% other or two or more races

• Average age = 97.97 months

• 7% receiving ESL services

Texts

• Expository passages on science topics• Primer-6th grade level• All passages read with

comprehension

METHODOLOGY

• Multilevel modeling in HLM-7• Nesting passage readings in children • Advantages • Control for sources of variance at the reader level• Explore sources of variance at the text level

Level-1 Model    WCPMti = π0i + π1i*(GRADELEVELti) + π2i*(NARRZti) + π3i*(REFCOHZti) + π4i*(DEEPCOHZti) + π5i*(WDCONZti) + eti 

Level-2 Model    π0i = β00 + β01*(FEMALEi) + β02*(NONWHITEi) + β03*(WRIi) + r0i    π1i = β10     π2i = β20     π3i = β30     π4i = β40     π5i = β50 

MEASURES

Readers

• Gender (binary, 0 = male)• Race (binary, 0 =

white)• PALS 1-3 WRI scores

Texts

• Passage grade level (based on readability formulae)

• Coh-Metrix z scores• Word concreteness• Narrativity• Referential cohesion• Deep cohesion

*Syntactical simplicity had to be dropped for reasons of collinearity

CHARACTERISTICS OF PASSAGES

 Passage

 Grade

Word Concreteness

 Narrativity

ReferentialCohesion

Deep Cohesion

A Bear Cub in Spring Primer 2.335 0.824 1.867 -0.883

Where Do Animals Live?

 1st

2.596 -0.687 1.349 -0.182

Nature’s Magicians 

2nd 0.635 0.284 1.13 0.669

The World of Birds 

3rd 2.106 -0.411 -0.605 0.603

Animals of the Night 

4th 1.155 -0.055 -0.294 -0.054

Fossils 5th 1.211 -0.571 0.051 -0.874

Sloth for a Day 6th 0.591 0.525 -0.296 1.572

RESULTS

RESULTS

Fixed Effect Coefficient SE

    Intercept 78.35* 0.86    Femalea 2.86* 0.26    Nonwhitea -4.40* 0.26

    Word recognition 5.51* 0.05

    Grade level -0.66* 0.15

Word concreteness 4.91* 0.28

    Narrativity 2.73* 0.32    Referential cohesion 13.85* 0.30    Deep cohesion 0.77* 0.15

a = binary variables. *p <.0001

Reader

vari

able

sTe

xt

vari

able

s

DISCUSSION

•Grade level (as expected)

SPEED BUMPS

GRADE LEVEL

Low Grade Level

• Shorter and more frequent words• Shorter, simpler

sentences

High Grade Level

• Multisyllabic, rarer words• Longer, more complex

sentences (e.g., more passive voice)

Their skeletal structure is made for hanging upside down instead of standing upright.

They live in the den all winter.

•Word concreteness•Narrativity• Referential cohesion•Deep cohesion

PASSING LANES

WORD CONCRETENESS

High Word Concreteness

• Many specific nouns• Compare/contrast

structures• Lists of conceptually

related items, etc.• Content vocabulary

Low Word Concreteness

• Idiomatic language• Hypotheticals• High frequency words

How are nests, caves, and houses alike?

Wouldn’t you like to be a sloth for a day?

NARRATIVITY

High Narrativity

• Organized around main “characters”• Follow a series of

actions • Animate subjects and

action verbs

Low Narrativity

• Organized around a concept• List of facts• “To be” and passive

verbs

Sloths hang in trees for days at a time. They munch away at the delicious leaves that surround them.

Fossils are preserved remains of things that once lived, often millions of years ago. The word fossil comes from a Latin word meaning “to dig up.”

REFERENTIAL COHESION

High Referential Cohesion

• Repeat key content words, subjects, verbs, and pronouns• Explicitly link one

sentence to the next

Low Referential Cohesion

• Sentences do not explicitly repeat key words or concepts.• Emphasize variety

Animals live in many kinds of homes. They can live inside with people. They can live outside, too. Some animals live in nests. They can make nests in trees.

Their calls may be peeps or screams or lovely songs. They may live in forests or in cities.

DEEP COHESION

High Deep Cohesion

• Includes not just what happens but how, when, and why

Low Deep Cohesion

• Neutral connectives• Leave gaps that must

be filled in with inference or prior knowledge

In time, the eggs will hatch. When the eggs hatch, you will not believe your eyes. A caterpillar, not a butterfly, will come out of the egg.

Spring has come and they need to find food.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND FUTURE RESEARCH

• Text complexity is complex and multi-dimensional• Readability at the word and sentence level is only part of

the picture• Semantic content, genre, and cohesion have the

potential to ease or complicate reading

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

• No measures of child vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, or prior knowledge of the passage content• Limited number of passages• Only expository texts

QUESTIONS?

Laura TortorelliAssistant Professor, Elementary Grades ReadingTeacher Education DepartmentCollege of EducationMichigan State UniversityE-mail: Ltort@msu.edu