Investigating the Impact of Text Difficulty on Children's Reading Progress

• In Event: 75.021 - Text Difficulty, Genre, and Medium Effects on Reading

Abstract

The constructs of frustration, instructional, and independent reading levels have become so well-accepted by researchers and educators that many instructional approaches and informal reading assessments rely on ascertaining reading levels to match texts to students and measure student progress. Disagreement exists, however, as to whether reading books at one’s instructional level, and avoiding texts at a hard level, really does promotes optimal progress. Our goal in this study was to understand better whether it is more advantageous to one’s reading development to read texts at an instructional level accuracy.

Authors

• Emily M. Rodgers, The Ohio State University

• Jerome V. D'Agostino, The Ohio State University

• Robert H Kelly, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Sinead J Harmey, Queens College

• Katherine Brownfield, The Ohio State University - Columbus