Study Notes on Scaffolding Expository Reading with Picture Books

Scaffolding Expository Reading with Picture Books

Introduction

  • Focus on how teachers can prepare young learners for the language demands of content area texts.
  • Article discusses linguistically informed strategies to support young learners navigating informational texts.
  • Educational context: Since 2010, following the Common Core State Standards, there has been a significant focus on expository text in education.
    • National Assessment Governing Board (2022) recommendation: At least half of the texts read by fourth graders should be expository, increasing each year up to 12th grade.
  • Shift from narrative texts that dominate early education to more complex informational texts presents challenges for students lacking necessary reading skills.
  • This shift exacerbates the opportunity gap for low-income students.

Language-Based Challenges in Expository Reading

  • Qualitative Dimensions of Text Complexity: Includes main idea, purpose, structure, language demands, and knowledge demands (Cummins, 2015).
  • Challenges include understanding the author’s purpose and main idea (Fang et al., 2019).
  • Informational texts pose unique linguistic challenges, including:
    • Technical vocabulary
    • Dense syntax
    • Expository text structures
  • Strategies discussed include:
    • Highlighting authorial intent and main ideas.
    • Emphasizing the importance of background knowledge in understanding complex concepts (Cummins, 2015).
    • Teaching expository structures through textbooks (Duke et al., 2011).

Four Linguistic Challenges

  1. Technicality

    • Definition: Technicality refers to specialist terminology unique to a field (e.g., “photosynthesis” in science) and ordinary words with specific meanings in disciplines (e.g., “volume” in geometry).
    • Example: The phrase "Kinetic energy is the energy in moving objects or mass" illustrates technical terminology.
    • Supporting Strategy: Morphological Analysis
      • Build on morphological instruction by focusing on affixes and root/base words in picture books (Manyak et al., 2018).
      • Example: Introduce the prefix "thermo-" in weather-related picture books (thermometer, thermostat).
    • Supporting Strategy: Spotlighting Discipline-Specific Vocabulary
      • Utilize narrative structures in picture books to teach terms that hold nonvernacular meanings across disciplines.
      • Discussion should delineate between vernacular and discipline-specific terms (Table 2).

  2. Abstraction

    • Definition: Abstraction involves the use of nonconcrete nouns (nominalizations) derived from verbs or adjectives to synthesize complex information (Fang et al., 2006).
    • Example: "This innovation" summarizes the invention of the Tesla coil for continued discussion.
    • Supporting Strategy: Unpacking Nominalizations
      • Identify nominalizations and discuss the actions they condense.
    • Supporting Strategy: Identifying Actions and Their Agents
      • Help students connect nominalizations to their originating actions (Fang, 2021).
    • Supporting Strategy: Sentence Completion
      • Create exercises requiring students to fill in sentences, strengthening their understanding of nominalizations (see Table 5).

  3. Density

    • Definition: Density refers to the amount of information condensed into sentences, characterized by extended noun phrases.
    • Example: Comparing sentences with high lexical density to those with lower density (Fang, 2008).
    • Supporting Strategy: Deconstructing Noun Phrases
      • Help students understand complex noun phrases by breaking them down to enhance comprehension.
    • Calculation of Text Density: Calculate the average number of content-carrying words per sentence to determine text density (Fang, 2008).

  4. Authoritativeness

    • Definition: The degree of expertise and personal involvement in presenting information. Higher authority often translates to a detached writing style (Fang, 2008).
    • Example: The difference in diction between narrative and informational texts, containing personal pronouns and abstract grammar structures.
    • Supporting Strategy: Paraphrasing Complex Sentences
      • Use paraphrasing to practice translating complex sentences into simpler language (Table 7).
  • Example sentences can be drawn from various texts to illustrate these strategies effectively.

Conclusion

  • Academic pressure demands a focus on informational texts presents ongoing challenges for educators.
  • There exists a significant gap between recognizing linguistic difficulties and implementing strategies tailored for them.
  • The proposed strategies encourage engagement with language features common in informational contexts and better prepare students for advanced reading demands as they progress in their education.

Funding and Ethics

  • Research was not funded.
  • No conflicts of interest declared by authors.
  • Strategies described not subject to ethics board approval.

Literature Cited

  • Included are various foundational studies and pedagogical guidelines related to language demands and reading comprehension strategies.