Flexibility in reading literary texts: Differences between weak and strong adolescent readers

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Flexibility in reading literary texts
Differences between weak and strongadolescent
readers

• Tanja Janssen, Martine Braaksma,
• Gert Rijlaarsdam Huub van den Bergh
• University of Amsterdam
• EARLI Nicosia, August 23-26, 2005

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e.g., explaining, predicting, analyzing,
evaluating, emotional responding

• flexibility
• the ability of readers to change their reading
  activities
• in adaptive response to parts of a literary text
• and/or in response to different literary texts.

flexible
within a single text between texts
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• The Three Friends
• by
• Jeanette Winterson

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• Once upon a time there were two friends who found
  a third. Liking no one better in the whole world,
  they vowed to live in one palace, sail in one
  ship, and fight one fight with equal arms.

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• After three months they decided to go on a quest.
• What shall we seek? they asked each other.
• The first said, Gold.
• The second said, Wives.
• The third said, That which cannot be found.
• They all agreed that this last was best and so
  they set off in fine array.

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• They heard a noise behind them like a scythe
  cutting the water and when they looked they saw a
  ship thin as a blade gaining towards them. The
  figure rowed it standing up, with one oar that
  was not an oar. They saw the curve of the metal
  flashing, first this side and then that. They saw
  the rower throw back his hood. They saw him
  beckon to them and the world tilted. The sea
  poured away.
• Who are they with fish and starfish in
  their hair?

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Marks think aloud comments

• Story fragment
• 1 I think something strange is going to happen.
• 2 I dont think it will be fun, because what is
  written here is just nonsense.
• 3 Perhaps its going to be thrilling. Lets
  see what happens in the next fragment.
• 4 Its just nonsense. There is nothing
  special to it.
• 5 It remains the same.
• 6 It is really not exciting.
• 7 It's a bit funny, but not exciting.
  I thought it would be thrilling.
• 8 This part is boring. Its just
  nonsense.
• 9 I thought that it would be a little
  bit more romantic, not just nonsense.
• 10 Its just nonsense. I think it has nothing
  to do with novels.

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Julias think aloud comments

• Story fragment
• 1 The three friends. Laughs. The three little
  pigs. Like those comic figures Huey, Dewey,
  and Louie.
• 2 Laughs. Its really not a nice beginning
  two friends who found a third. They must be
  rich a palace. .
• 3 So, they were men If it cannot be found,
  why should you go and
• look for it? Women. Women would be more fun.
  No, drugs! They
• should go look for that. Yes.

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Research questions

• Do adolescents change their reading activities
  over the course of their reading process and in
  response to different stories?
• Are there differences between weak and strong
  readers (within a story / between stories)?

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Participants

• 19 students from 3 schools
• 10th grade
• 16 years old
• boys girls
• different levels
• of achievement

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Think aloud task

• 5 short stories (500-1000 words)
• Stories may invite multiple interpretations

• Presented fragment by fragment
• From computer screen (self-paced)

• Online thinking aloud (no hints)
• About 20 minutes per story

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First watching a model
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Thinking aloud
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Data

• 92 think aloud protocols
• About 4000 student statements (as individual
  cases)
• One coder, 10 coded by two coders Cohens kappa
  .81

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Coding scheme

• Retelling
• Inferencing
• Detecting problems
• Associating
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Responding emotionally
• Responding metacognitively
• Other activity

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Coding example
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Analysis

• Multilevel models
• Occurrence of each activity as a function of time
• Hierarchy of data

• reader
• story 1 story 2 story 3 story 4 story 5

fragment 1 fragment 2 fragment n
activity 1 activity 2 activity n
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Results

• Two examples
• problem detecting (e.g., self-questioning)
• responding emotionally (e.g., laughing, sighing)

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Individual readers (n 19)
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Mean patterns for weak and strong readers
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Individual readers stories (n92)
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Individual readers (n 19)
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Mean patterns for weak strong readers
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Individual readers stories (n92)
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Conclusions

• Adolescents change the configuration of their
  reading activities over the course of the reading
  process
• Strong readers change the configuration of their
  reading activities more often than weak readers
• over the course of the reading process
• in response to different stories

Strong readers appear to be more flexible in
their literary reading and response than
weak readers.
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Implication for literature teaching

• Weak student-readers should learn to
  differentiate
• their literary responses and strategies,
  depending on
• the phase in the reading process
• the particular literary text they are reading

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• Thank you for your attention
• E-mail T.M.Janssen_at_uva.nl