Effective Approaches to Reading Comprehension: The Power of Text Sets

An important pillar of reading comprehension is background knowledge. Some of our multilingual learners of English (MLEs) will come with the required background knowledge needed to meet their learning objectives, and others will need to learn new content and further develop their background knowledge.

Connecting Texts to Build Background Knowledge

Imagine this scenario:

A teacher wants to build students’ background knowledge and cover as much content as possible, so one day, the texts are about butterflies; the next, students read a story about Día de los Muertos; and the third day they learn about Harriet Tubman. Each day, students have to familiarize themselves with completely new content.

This example shows an ineffective way to create background knowledge — by having MLEs read about new topics every time they have class. When they read about so many different, unrelated topics, reading one text does not build on the other. This is not effective, nor is it efficient.

Instead, we encourage you to create a text set composed of sources that share a common topic or theme. The sources can include articles, novels, interviews, videos, experiences, infographics, and artifacts, to name a few.

Utilizing Text Sets

Now imagine this scenario:

A teacher puts together a connected series of texts: an article about cuneiform, a video about the ziggurat, and a fictional story that takes place in Babylon. Each day of the Mesopotamia unit is a new aspect of the ancient civilization, but it is still anchored on Mesopotamia.

In this scenario, the collection of sources builds the background knowledge of MLEs about Mesopotamia one source at a time. MLEs are more likely to build connections and transfer understanding between sources because the topic is the same over an extended period. Their schemata is built progressively through each source in the text set.

A text set is also an essential tool for academic literacy development. As MLEs go through the text set, they’ll have opportunities to

• • use the same vocabulary words more frequently and in authentic contexts;
  • produce complex sentences by combining details from different sources to show cause-effect, opposites, and similarities; and
  • organize ideas more logically.

However, just throwing together sources around a central topic is not effective. To optimize the text sets, teachers can intentionally organize a text set in the following ways:

• • Beginning: sources that introduce students to the problem, people, or event
  • Middle: sources that add additional information about the topic.
  • End: sources that show connections and consequences between concepts and events.

An Example Text Set for Young Learners: Insects and Butterflies

Here’s an example of using text sets with young MLEs studying insects and butterflies. In this particular unit, notice how the text set includes more than books. You can bundle a variety of resources to support linguistic and academic development.

• • Beginning: To set the foundation, read aloud the popular book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. After you share this book as a read-aloud, it becomes a shared reading and later an independent reading book. Show and discuss videos, such as “Butterfly: A Life” by National Geographic, to bring the experience to life and enhance comprehension. You can also introduce students to a chant or poem about butterflies and have students engage in acting out the life cycle of the butterfly. In addition, have students view and discuss images of the stages in a butterfly's life.
  • Middle: To add more knowledge to the topic, share books such as From Caterpillar to Butterfly, by Deborah Heiligman, and Home Is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly, by Katherine Pryor. Literature like these examples provides learners with a stronger vocabulary on the topic and more scientific information about the metamorphosis and different stages of life. In combination, have students play games with butterfly manipulatives and help them create math word problems to share. Give your students images of the stages of a butterfly’s life and ask them to put them in order. Students also continue to sing or chant the poem about butterflies.
  • End: To help connect butterflies with students’ lives and to demonstrate how students can play a part in making a positive impact in the world, share the book Butterflies Belong Here, by Deborah Hopkinson. Show brief related videos to broaden their understanding of butterflies. As a class, plant a butterfly garden; this can take the learning experience to deeper levels and help students connect with butterflies and the world. When planting a butterfly garden or raising classroom butterflies is not an option, take a virtual field trip to the Butterfly Conservatory. Now, students are positioned to draw, label, and write about butterflies and their impact on the world.

Conclusion

We hope we have inspired you to be brave and venture outside of the anthologies that have been purchased by your district or to analyze the texts given to you in a prescribed curriculum. If you do not have the freedom to create your own text set, then create a text set around the anthologies and prescribed curriculum by adding additional sources. This will develop the background necessary for MLEs to authentically use academic language to learn content and to communicate critically about concepts.