Instructional strategies for non-traditional text.

Abstract

To answer the question of whether an adolescent student may comprehend a non-traditional form of expository text just as well as a traditional form of expository text by using the appropriate reading comprehension strategy, this researcher conducted an empirical study. The Literature Review addressed three aspects of the research question: adolescent comprehension struggles, adolescent comprehension strategies, and non-traditional modes of expository text. The quantitative experimental methodology of this study made use of a visual reading comprehension strategy and compared test results when students were asked to read and apply that strategy to both a traditional expository text (the US Constitution) and its non-traditional graphic novel counterpart. Findings indicate that a comprehension strategy shown to be beneficial on a traditional text can be applied to a non-traditional text and also produce positive results. Findings further indicate that some adolescent students increase their comprehension when applying a strategy to a non-traditional mode of text, while others actually decrease their comprehension of the expository content when using the strategy on a non-traditional text.