Unraveling Expository Texts:

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Unraveling Expository Texts

• Effective Practices for Students with Learning
  Disabilities

Radhika Misquitta
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Expository Text Instruction

• Introduction
• Narrative and Expository Texts
• Strategies to improve expository text
  comprehension
• Strategy instruction
• Instructional Modifications
• Suggestions

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Expository Text Instruction

• Reading comprehension is one of the most
  important skills taught in school
• Students with learning disabilities have
  difficulty in reading comprehension (Palincsar
  Brown, 1984)
• Difficulty in comprehension vary based on the
  type of text- more difficulty in expository
  compared to narrative

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Expository Text Instruction

• Two types of text

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Expository Text Instruction

• Narrative Text
• Familiar text structure- follows a story line
• Texts for lower and higher grades follow similar
  structure

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Expository Text Instruction
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Expository Text Instruction

• Narrative Text
• Common (daily) language and vocabulary use
• No specific prior information required
• Connected information (Each paragraph and chapter
  build on previous)

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Expository Text Instruction

• Expository Texts
• Text structure changes based on content- e.g. In
  History, it may be sequential, indicate cause and
  effect, comparison
• Unfamiliar and content-specific language and
  vocabulary use
• Specific background knowledge required
• Unconnected text and high text density

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Expository Text Instruction

• Expository text comprehension strategies seek to
  make texts more accessible to students with
  learning disabilities
• Either change structure or provide students with
  tools to unravel text themselves
• Many different strategies associated with high
  effect sizes (Gajria et al., 2007)

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Expository Text Instruction

• Instructional Materials
• Modifying text to make it more accessible
• Graphic Organizers most commonly used
• Video clips and/ or supplemental readings

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Expository Text Instruction

• Graphic Organizers

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Expository Text Instruction

• Graphic Organizers
• Compare and
• Contrast

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Expository Text Instruction

• Graphic Organizers
• Sequence

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Expository Text Instruction

• Strategy Instruction
• Provides students with tools to unravel text
  themselves
• Main idea generation
• Self monitoring
• Reciprocal teaching
• Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)

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Expository Text Instruction

• Main Idea Generation
• Selecting the main idea
• Generating the main idea

Jitendra, A.K., Hoppes, M.K., Xin, Y.P. (2000).
Enhancing main idea comprehension for students
with learning problems The role of
summarization strategy and self-monitoring
instruction. The Journal of Special Education,
34(3), pp.127-139
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Expository Text Instruction

• Self-monitoring
• Encourages students to take control of their own
  learning
• Can be monitored for any strategy in the form of
  a check-list

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Expository Text Instruction

• Reciprocal Teaching
• Comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitori
  ng strategies
• summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and
  predicting
• Teach at students level of competence
• Scaffold instruction model, guided practice,
  independent practice

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Expository Text Instruction

• Collaborative Strategic Reading
• Combines Reciprocal Teaching and Cooperative
  Learning
• Four strategies- Preview, Click and Clunk, Get
  the Gist, Wrap Up
• Students work in groups each student assumes a
  role

Klingner, J. Vaughn, S. (1998). Using
collaborative strategic reading. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 30(6), 32-39.
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Expository Text Instruction
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Expository Text Instruction

• Suggestions
• When to use
• Some students may respond to one, some to the
  other
• May start with instructional modifications, and
  then move to strategy instruction (Deshler et
  al., 2001)
• Use depending on content
• Can use simultaneously