RSTAQ: Tips

Remedial and Support Teachers' Association
of Queensland

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Matching texts with readers

The selection of texts is a critical element in helping students achieve success and ultimately independence as readers. Texts are selected in response to the immediate educational needs. Texts are selected to broaden students’ repertoire of literacy practices and experience of the world. Texts that are too difficult can create barriers to learning to read and reading to learn; texts that are too easy do not provide students with the opportunity to extend their repertoire of strategies or gain experience with new forms of texts. Students need texts that they can manage independently as well as texts that are more challenging. The task in selecting texts is not to respond to students by oversimplifying the reading. Rather, students need to be helped to understand the thinking associated with the task through the teacher’s scaffolding. Making the talk simple and explicit while retaining the richness and complexity of the task gives students the chance to broaden their literacy knowledge.

Selecting instructional texts

In selecting texts to match the individual needs of a student, a teacher should consider the following factors.

Reader
Is the text of interest to the student?
Does the student have the background knowledge to bring to the text, i.e., are the concepts in the text either familiar to the student or able to be linked with familiar concepts?
Is the text socially and culturally appropriate?
Does the reader have sufficient knowledge of the text form, the grammatical structure, or the vocabulary to read the text at an instructional level?
Does the student have control over a sufficient repertoire of appropriate strategies to meet the demands of the text?
Is the text length appropriate for the student at this developmental stage?

Text
Does the text have a predictable structure use?
Does the text provide opportunities for students to use their reading strategies?
Does the text offer a few opportunities for problem solving?
Are the grammatical structures used able to be interpreted by a student at this developmental stage?
Is the density of ideas too difficult for a student at this level of development?
Are the links between ideas in the text clear?
Do other aspects of the text support potentially difficult vocabulary in ways the reader can access them?
Do the visual images and the words work together to contribute to or extend the construction of meaning?
Is the layout clear?
Do textual features, such as line-breaks, assist readers achieve fluency?
Is the print clear? Is there sufficient white space to facilitate the discrimination of print? (e.g., compressed fonts also compress the spaces between words and make texts difficult to read.)
Is the print and visual elements placed in a way that complement the text?
Is the page/screen too cluttered or distracting?
Are the navigation paths and tools obvious and easily used?

Teachers also need to consider the sequence of texts with which students are presented. This does not, however, mean restricting the students to stereotypical sequences. To support their development, students need experiences with a range of texts used for a range of purposes. Because learning to read is as much about developing confidence as it is about the process itself, the sequence of teaching and learning experiences and the selection of texts need to be carefully planned.

Selecting texts for independent reading

The texts students read at an independent level need to be quality texts. Ideally, students should select their own texts for independent reading. They are more likely to engage with texts that interest them and are at a level that is comfortable for them. When readers are highly interested in a topic, however, they can be frequently motivated to engage with more difficult texts. This should not be discouraged but rather students’ efforts should be monitored to ensure students do not become frustrated in their efforts.

To extend their reading experience, students need to be encouraged to select a range of text forms in both print and electronic media. They also need to be encouraged to select the range of subject matter about which they read. Encouraging students to discuss and reflect upon the choices they make will not only give a teacher insights into a student’s reading and reading habits; it will also provide the opportunity to help students make links with other texts that might interest them.

Texts and instructional match

Texts must be able to meet the instructional requirements of the teacher. In selecting texts, it is important to consider not only the content but also the literacy demands. In doing so, teachers need to consider:

how the text contributes to the teaching of reading;
what features of the text may present students with difficulty; and
what scaffolding needs to occur to deal with these problems.

Lee Willett