Won't Challenging Texts Discourage Young Readers?

Tim Shanahan

Teacher Question: I know you say students learn more when taught with grade-level texts than texts at their reading levels. That may be true, but won’t frustrating kids like that make them hate reading?

Shanahan responds:

I don’t want to undermine anybody’s motivation or love of reading.

Though reading experts have long labeled some texts as “frustration level,” I hope you won’t take that moniker too literally.

To be fair, your concern does seem justified according to some studies. For instance, middle school students say that when texts are difficult, their interest declines (Wade, 2001). Correlations among reading comprehension and affective variables like motivation tend to be significant and positive. Some studies report more off task behavior with frustration level texts, though usually with no detriment to learning (Durik & Matarazzo, 2009).

When reading such studies, it’s hard to remember that the instructional level idea is about guided or directed reading, not independent work. Someone trying to read a challenging text on their own might give up – what other choice do they have? But the situation is quite different when reading a text under a teacher’s tutelage.

It’s also important to know that while some studies have suggested a link between text level and motivation, there is also contrary evidence. A study conducted by Linda Gambrell and her colleagues, for example, found, through observations, that students placed in frustration-level texts were more likely to be off-task and to exhibit behavior problems in classrooms (Gambrell, Wilson, & Gantt, 1981). That part of the study is often cited by leveled reading proponents.

However, these researchers did something very interesting, something that is usually ignored. They shifted these students into instructional-level texts to generate the desired behavioral improvements. To their surprise, the new text placements had no impact on behavior. Lower-performing students were most likely to be placed in challenging texts and to exhibit discipline problems, but those correlates were evidently NOT causally related.

Another study concluded that teachers often failed to distinguish behavioral problems from low reading ability (Learned, 2016). In other words, low readers were presumed to pose disciplinary challenges for teachers, whether there was misbehavior or not. This researcher concluded that the students’ overly easy text and task placements were causing students’ low enthusiasm and misbehavior rather than reducing it. Boy, talk about seeing a problem in a different light (oh, by the way, the students agreed with the researcher that the texts were boringly easy).

I think what teachers may miss is that engagement is more than a text-level phenomenon. 

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