Strategy: Accessible Texts

According to Tovani , accessible texts are “interesting, well written, and appropriately matched to the level of my students” (P39). Later on in the chapter, Tovani explains that that despite what certain people might think, using accessible texts doesn’t lower standards of rigor; accessible texts are simply giving students “something that they actually have the potential to understand”  (P40)

I am a huge fan of accessible texts, and like Tovani, I also believe that accessible texts can engage disengaged readers, especially if the students have a choice over what to read. In this blog, I would like to explore the possibilities and limitations of using such texts in our classrooms based on my own experiences.

When I was teaching “Romeo and Juliet”, I used a variety of modified texts that made the actual “Romeo and Juliet” much more accessible to my kids. My students struggled with the language, as well as with the rich description which was really confusing them. I did some research and found a great graphic novel version of the play (“Romeo and Juliet Graphic Novel: Plain Text”), and I photocopied the more challenging scenes to read with my students, instead of reading from the actual play. Seeing the images while reading not only helped my students to better understand the play, but they also got a lot more into the story.  Something else that I found particularly useful during this unit is the “No Fear Shakespeare” version of the play. For those of you not familiar with this version, the “No Fear” collection is written by SparkNotes and it is a modern day translation of the play. For the lengthier scenes of the play, I photocopied the No Fear version which allowed us to cover a particular scene a lot quicker, without any of my students getting lost.

In this example, I used accessible texts to better meet all of my reader’s learning needs, instead of just the disengaged or reluctant readers because I felt that the whole class would benefit from these texts. However, accessible texts can also be used with particular students who need extra support in your class. The only downside of using accessible texts is that such texts are often expensive (graphic novels can be pretty pricey), and so you will rarely be able to purchase a big enough quantity. 

 Works Cited

Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004. Print.