Multilevel Texts for Reading

Palomar College 

"An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts. To do this, the reader must be able to think clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts in order to understand, analyse, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts." 

-The Ontario Curriculum, Reading (p.10) 

My Own Experience
From my own experience I have seen how it can be a struggle to encourage and engage students to read. As a kid, I lacked motivation for reading and I remember struggling with it in the first couple of grades. However, as I got older I started finding out what types of books or texts I was interested in and that lead me to getting an English degree at Mcmaster University. 

For students that struggle with reading on their own it affects their perception of themselves, and completely disengages them from wanting to read. For intermediate students, some of them still struggle with reading at the appropriate level and that plays a larger social role in the classroom, which affects their desire to read. There is also the struggle is finding texts that they are interested in, and that are appropriate for school.

Overall Expectations for Reading From Ontario Curriculum

1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
   
2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
   
3. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently; reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading. 

Reading Resources 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mboezi/galleries/72157650765353571/ 

One resource that I found for the reading strand is an article about multilevel texts, and can be found on "Edugains". The article explains that multilevel texts are distinct from levelled texts in that they are written at higher levels of complexity and are suitable for two or more levels of reading, whereas levelled texts control the vocabulary based on reading level. 

Multilevel texts are different from levelled texts because of their various points of view, and use a variety of formatting to emphasize a voice. A couple examples of multilevel texts are texts that use multiple genres of texts and formats to communicate information, such as text boxes and cartoons. Another example is a novel that incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, or poetry and informational texts. 

These multilevel texts act as hybrids that combine various forms of literature, and can communicate information in a variety of forms. One of the most important benefits of multilevel texts is the evidence that the these texts encourage an inclusive classroom, because students of different abilities are able to engage in the same text. Multilevel texts can be a great resource for the classroom because it engages students who are at different reading levels, and depending on the form of the text, it can expand reading skills in a variety of media types. 

Multilevel texts can incorporate multiple genres of literacy, which could appeal to more students, and enhance student engagement.  In the Ontario curriculum, multilevel texts incorporate these expectations:  “Recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning” and “Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning”. By reading multilevel texts students have a chance to analyze the text and communicate their knowledge in their writing. 

Here is a link to some multilevel texts 

Reading in Placement 

In my grade 6 class, there are a range of reading levels between 28 students, which can make it difficult to choose one book for the whole class to read. I think this is where multilevel texts would be a great idea to incorporate in the class.  Another idea to use in the classroom would be a "Daily 5", which is a rotation of reading and writing stations of students. 

Students could be group in their reading levels, and could be done every day for 30-40 minutes. This would let students read their choice of text for a station, and another station could be with the teacher where students discuss a previously read article. The last idea that I saw was an "Article board wall", which had daily articles for students to work on during class time or take home for homework. It encourages reading for a short period of time, and critical thinking through answering some questions or writing a paragraph about the article. 

From my previous post about media, it may also be beneficial to use technology to incorporate reading in the classroom. Whether it's having students read various blogs or ebooks. One website I found really interesting was 2titles, it's a website that has you do a brief personality quiz and then it produces a wide range of books you may be interested in. Students could do this at the beginning of the year and this could help teachers get a better idea of what their students are interested in reading.