Examining the Effects of Text Genre and Structure on Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students’ High-Level Comprehension as Evidenced in Small-Group Discussions

Abstract

Although there is a rich literature on the role of text genre and structure on students’ literal comprehension, more research is needed regarding the role of these text features on students’ high-level comprehension as evidenced in their small-group discussions. As such, the present study examined the effects of text genre (i.e., narrative and informational) and structure (i.e., story, comparison, causation, problem/solution, and sequence) on fourth- and fifth-grade students’ small-group discussions, and the text-based discussions were coded for high-level comprehension discourse indicators (i.e., authentic questions, elaborated explanations, and exploratory talk). The results indicated that students evidenced more indices of high-level comprehension when discussing narrative texts than when discussing informational texts. Meanwhile, teachers tended to initiate more questions in discussions on informational texts. The deeper structure of the texts was also shown to influence the discussions. Specifically, students generated significantly more authentic questions during discussions on texts with comparison structures than for any of the other four text structures, while causation structure texts triggered more authentic questions from teachers. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of text factors on students’ high-level comprehension.