From Considerate to Challenging Texts: A Four-Tiered Text Approach to Thematic Reading

College students are expected to comprehend, analyze, and respond to texts that are often challenging, complex, and specialized. While the importance and value of reading in higher education is hardly disputed, postsecondary literacy frequently revolves around the reinforcement of rudimentary skills. Furthermore, the demands of writing instruction often push reading instruction to the side, leaving students to navigate texts on their own. Challenging texts necessitate a degree of background knowledge, without which active and robust engagement cannot be expected. By scaffolding texts in a way that progressively builds background knowledge, instructors can prepare students for complex texts and subsequently, academic discourse. The authors propose a four-tiered approach to reading instruction for adult learners that consists of four text types: foundational, expansion, opposing point-of-view, and expert’s point-of-view. While designed for integrated reading and writing courses, the proposed model has implications for faculty across the disciplines.