An Examination of the Text Characteristics of an Early Reading Book Series: Implications for Providing Intensive Practice with Connected Text

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to present key characteristics of early reading text by describing a new series of researcher-developed early reading books that were specifically designed to address multiple criteria, including word structure or decodability, familiarity, repetition, high-frequency, syntax, and text cohesion. We describe the theoretical and empirical rationale that guided the design of the books, how we developed them, and their key features. This is followed by a technical analysis that describes the (1) characteristics of the target words used to guide the writing of the books and (2) characteristics of the text, such as the percentage of words on common high-frequency word lists, word counts, type-token ratio, sentence counts, unique sight words, unique decodable words, and content (i.e., picture-supported) words. The analysis demonstrates that the target words and the text in the books are consistent with our intended goal of simultaneously addressing multiple variables.

Citation

Allor, J., Kearns, D., Ortiz, M. and Conner, C. (2022), "An Examination of the Text Characteristics of an Early Reading Book Series: Implications for Providing Intensive Practice with Connected Text", Tankersley, M., Cook, B.G. and Landrum, T.J. (Ed.) Delivering Intensive, Individualized Interventions to Children and Youth with Learning and Behavioral Disabilities (Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities, Vol. 32), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0735-004X20220000032008