Presenting an overview of the theoretical perspective underlying work on text analysis in progress at the Center for the Study of Reading

Recant work on text analysis ..:t the Center for the Study of Reading and elsewhere has produced surprising results regarding the texts that children read in school. These results support the hypothesis that part of the difficulty children encounter in making the transition from beginning to skilled reading lies in an abrupt shift in text characteristics between lower and upper elementary school. Moreover, a comparison between school texts and popular trade books shows that the school texts may provide inadequate preparation for the texts that skilled readers need to master. Thus, characteristics of the texts that children are expected to read may hinder rather than help in the attainment of educational goals.