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VELS Level 3 – Reading Complex Texts

This section provides an in depth discussion of how readers comprehend complex texts and describes the various theories relating to reading complex texts.

Successful readers respond to texts in a sophisticated way and can read complex and diverse texts. They are able to:

  • automatise and use effective strategies for processing texts
  • access more complex texts for a variety of purposes

Degrees of meaning have increased from literal to the interpretive and inferential comprehension so that successful readers can make sense of:

  • messages that are complex in their intent
  • a broad range of print and multimedia texts
  • texts that are generally longer.

The theoretical context of literacy teaching and learning is multidisciplinary and complex. To ensure the best literacy learning outcomes for all students, schools need to take views of literacy teaching and learning from multiple perspectives and informing theoretical frameworks. (Literacy Teaching and Learning in Victorian Schools Research eLert Paper NO. 9 Part A (PDF - 335Kb))

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The theorists

There are a number of national and international researchers who work from the proposition that a single theoretical perspective cannot address all the issues faced by teachers and students in complex and diverse classrooms.

Multiple theoretical positions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of literacy and generate discussion on the teaching of literacy amongst educators to help learners to learn. (p 4- 5 Literacy Teaching and Learning in Victorian Schools ResearcheLert Paper NO. 9  Part A).

The following is an overview of the theoretical frameworks used to support teachers in developing balanced reading programs at Level 3.

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Stages of reading development – Chall

Chall’s stages of reading development provide a comprehensive view of the reading process. The proposed six stages of reading development each emphasise a particular aspect of reading.

Stage 1 – Early Reading or Emergent Stage

The learner develops a foundation that will allow for later instruction to proceed in a meaningful manner. For example, students develop insights into the reading process that include:

  • Concepts about print
  • Phoneme awareness and
  • Book-handling knowledge
  • Print represents language and carries a message.

Stage 2 – Conventional Literacy or The Beginning Stage of Formal Instruction

The instructional emphasis at this stage is on developing learners’ recognition of basic sound-symbol correspondences, while providing them with sufficient opportunity to establish their decoding ability.

Stage 3 – Confirmation and Fluency - Ungluing From Print

At this stage readers confirm what is already known to develop their fluency, developing their automaticity with print. Readers develop the ability to represent what is read in ways that imitate natural or conversational tones. They are able to make use of features such as appropriate phrasing, stress and intonation in their reading. Fluency is a prerequisite for constructing meaning from text.

Lack of fluency and automaticity (that is, quick and accurate recognition of words and phrases) is cited as one possible reason for the reading research phenomenon referred to as ‘the fourth-grade slump’, which identifies the decline in reading behaviours of students who have previously read proficiently up until that year level. (Hirsch, E.D. Jr Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge of Words and the World - Scientific Insights into the Fourth-Grade Slump and the nations’ Stagnant Comprehension Scores American Educator Spring 2003)

Stage 4 – Reading for Learning the New

During this stage there is typically a shift in the volume of expository texts with which students are presented. Students are more likely to be expected to gain proficiency with increasingly complex texts.

Stage 5 – Multiple Viewpoints

This stage incorporates what Chall (1996) calls ‘multiple viewpoints’. Readers are likely to experience a variety of viewpoints on a given topic and be required to critically evaluate these.

Stage 6 – Construction and Recognition

It is during this stage that readers synthesise multiple viewpoints presented in texts to determine a personal perspective on given topics, a skill that is essential if a learner is to develop into a critical reader. (Chall 1996 cited in Kuhn & Stahl, 2003, Fluency: A Review of Developmental and Remedial Practice Journal of Educational Psychology  2003, Vol. 95, no. 1, 3-21)

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Multiple Levels of Text Processing (MLOTP) – Munro 1995

The MLOTP (Munro 1995) identifies areas of text processing that can be integrated into a model of reading. Whenever we read, we simultaneously use and integrate information from the following information sources:

  • word level knowledge
  • sentence level knowledge
  • conceptual level knowledge
  • topic or theme level knowledge
  • dispositional knowledge and reading comprehension
  • self-management and control strategies
  • oral language knowledge
  • experiential knowledge.

Word level knowledge

When readers encounter unfamiliar words they use various actions to identify them. They:

  • match text word directly with stored letter cluster knowledge
  • segment words into functional units, convert letter clusters to sounds and blend
  • make analogy with words they know
  • use the meanings of words that occur with it and the context in which it is used.

Sentence level knowledge

Readers know:

  • various grammatical forms and use grammar to link words. They know written sentence structures.
  • sentence propositions: how word meanings are linked into sentence meanings
  • sentence conventions used in writing such as punctuation.
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Conceptual level knowledge

When readers encounter paragraphs they don’t comprehend immediately at the conceptual level, they may:

  • predict, anticipate, infer ideas, feeling
  • backtrack, read ahead, work across sentences to link concepts
  • form an image of a sequence of sentences
  • consolidate what a sequence of sentences says.

Topic or theme level knowledge

We know that ideas are linked into topics:

  • when we know the topic of a text and we can anticipate the ideas that might be mentioned in it
  • when we expect some ideas to occur with a particular topic
  • when, sometimes ideas we wouldn’t have expected appear within a topic.

Dispositional knowledge and reading comprehension

Readers know that:

  • different texts are written for different purposes to convey attitudes, values and feelings.
  • attitudes, values and feelings are conveyed in texts in different ways.

Self-management and control strategies

Readers will:

  • establish reasons or purposes for reading a text, plan how they will read
  • monitor their reading, decide when to re-read, self-correct
  • use existing knowledge to make meaning of texts
  • review and self-question to see whether reading goals have been achieved
  • review or consolidate what they have read
  • organise the information gained from reading to fit the purpose for reading.

Oral language knowledge

Students understand:

  • at word level, what words mean, how they are said, sounds in words
  • at sentence level, how ideas are linked into sentences, grammar
  • at conceptual level, how ideas are linked into themes
  • at topic or theme level, how a theme is communicated in a narrative, description
  • at the pragmatic or dispositional level, the attitudes and values of the writer towards the ideas presented in the text.

Experiential knowledge

When reading, students use:

  • experiences, visual imagery knowledge
  • action, motor knowledge
  • knowledge of symbols.

Reference: literacy intervention strategies CD ROM: John Munro , 2004, The University of Melbourne.

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Four Resources model – Luke and Freebody

The Four Resources model situates reading in social practices to ensure that literacy programs address diversity and social and technological change.

The Four Resources model can be viewed as a framework for understanding reading and a lens through which to examine learning and teaching programs.  Using this model, a balanced program may be planned, ensuring that all reading practices are taught.

  • Code breaker: these practices have to do with breaking the code of the semiotic systems used in texts.
  • Meaning maker: meaning maker practices are to do with making literate and inferential meanings of texts.
  • Text user: the focus of text-user practices is the use of texts in real-life reading situations .
  • Text analyst: these practices involve readers in the critical analysis of texts in order to understand how texts work.

Reference: Literate Futures: Reading State of Queensland (Department of Education) 2002

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Learning to read: reading to learn - a literacy pedagogy for the new generation Rose, 2005

This methodology draws on three theoretical traditions:

  • learning as a social process
  • language as text in social context
  • education as pedagogic discourse.

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Professional Learning

Theories of reading

  • After reading Chall and her description of the fourth-year slump, what strategies do you need to put in place for your students so that their reading development flourishes?

Implications for teaching reading

  • After reading Chall and her description of the fourth-year slump, what strategies do you need to put in place for your students so that their reading development flourishes?
  • What are the messages from Munro, Luke and Freebody and Rose that you can use to expand students’ access to different text types?
  • Think of a student in your class.  Refer to the theories provided and identify what focused teaching strategies are going to be most powerful to scaffold their learning.  Refer to the English Developmental Continuum to strengthen your ideas. 

The English Developmental Continuum P-10 provides evidence-based indicators of progress, which are linked to powerful teaching strategies, aligned to the progression points and the standards for the English Domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS).
These teaching strategies are designed to support purposeful teaching of individuals and small groups of students with similar learning needs. It is intended that teachers use the strategies in the context of their own classrooms, text or topic being taught.

Related materials

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