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text sets
engaging and informative reading material can be 
presented through the text set format for fostering the 
development of powerful readers. in this context, a text 
set is a set of books with a common theme. The books 
range in difficulty level from approximately two years 
below the designated grade level of the target class 
and two years above that level within an overarching 
range from grade two to grade eight. . The text set has 
information about a common theme that contains both 
fictionalized as well as basically factual information. 
Often fiction is interwoven with fact in that the events 
depicted are couched in terms where characters 
experience the events within a historical context. 
The model text set presented herein, The Westward 
movement, provides the readers with interesting and 
informative reading material. in addition, the study 
complements a text set previously studied titled The 

abstract
Students can become more 
powerful readers by engaging 
in lively and interesting print 
experiences. deep study of a 
topic such as The Westward 
movement in a text set format 
can provide information 
and also enhance reading 
competencies. The authors 
propose that enjoyment 
of reading and related 
experiences is of paramount 
importance for developing 
competent and life-long 
readers. 

introduction
emphasis on achieving 
higher test scores from 
well-meaning but generally 
uninformed political forces 
plays an ever increasing role 
in curriculum development 
and teaching strategies related to literacy instruction. 
This has led to increased focus on providing instruction 
that purportedly enhances students’ ability to more 
competently provide the “right” answers to test 
questions. in this light, Shanahan (2014) determined 
that analysis of test items designed to drive literacy 
instruction is a misguided approach to literacy 
instruction. on the other hand, focus on strategies 
“that can make students sophisticated and powerful 
readers” (p. 187) is a much more effective approach 
for encouraging overall reading achievement with 
the added benefit of enhancing performance on 
standardized tests. We, the authors, agree with 
Shanahan and place emphasis on providing extensive 
amounts of engaging texts in a variety of formats 
without regard for the specific types of questions that 
might appear on standardized tests. 

by renee rice moran, 
LaShay JenninGS,  
Stacey J. FiSher anD 
eDwarD J. Dwyer

Engaging Strategies for Developing
Reading Competencies



GeorGia Journal of readinG 25 Volume 41, number 2   2018

Trail of Tears that chronicles the forced movement 
of native americans from the southeastern united 
States to the western territories. The movement of 
people from the eastern parts of the united States 
to the western territories primarily in the 1800s was 
encouraged by the federal government to secure lands. 
The introduction of the Conestoga wagon promised 
settlers comfortable traveling. The monroe doctrine 
and the concept of manifest destiny appealed to the 
patriotism of easterners what appeared to be limitless 
opportunities. enthusiasm was powerfully enhanced by 
Horace Greeley’s admonition to, “Go west young man.” 

a text set is a vehicle for building background 
knowledge through reading a variety of quality texts 
and eventually mastering reading of a “target text” 
(lupo, Strong, lewis, Walpole, & mcKenna, 2018). The 
target text(s) is selected for students to demonstrate 
a comprehensive understanding of the major theme 
of the text set. Practice with texts at instructional level 
and independent level and in-depth comprehension 
study can lead to success in reading and reporting on 
information presented in the target text(s). The target 
text(s) is not necessarily a more difficult text relative 
to readability but a text(s) that comprehensively and 
engagingly addresses the major theme of the overall 
text set. in addition, Cummins and Stallmeyer-Gerard 
(2011) determined that study of a variety of texts 
with a culminating study of a target text encourages 
students to synthesize information leading to a broad 
understanding of the topic under study.

The target texts in The Westward movement set are 
Dandelions (bunting, 1995) and Train to somewhere 
(bunting, 1996). These elegantly written and beautifully 
illustrated texts provide a heartfelt experience for THe 
reader. based on earlier study in the text set, students 
are likely to have a high level of understanding and 
appreciation of the bunting target texts.

information can be enhanced through internet 
searches but, initially, the text set study is based on 
books. However, much background information for 
the teacher is available at    www.history.com/topics/
westwardexpansion and for possible use by students 

to further enhance study of The Westward movement.     

We like to stay with books to avoid over complicating 
study of the topic. We study maps on a large screen 
using an elmo™ projector. We encourage use of 
songs, and poems. for example, we sing and read 
the words to Home on the range in connection with 
The Westward movement text set. a basic model of 
a text set, the Westward movement, is presented in 
appendix a with accompanying photographs 2 and 
3. We have a sub-set of texts by mclaughlin (2001, 
1994, 1993, and 1985) that we use on occasion when 
there are students who demonstrate that they would 
like to read and share reading experiences when 
using these texts. 

The text set provides opportunities for developing in-
depth knowledge of subject matter. all too often, as 
the national Council for the Social Studies (2008) 
suggested, students experience superficial encounters 
with subject matter. in addition to providing in-depth 
study, we propose that text sets with accompanying 
target texts provide opportunities for encouraging 
reading fluency and comprehension. For example, 
in the Westward movement text set there are stories 
and informational texts that can be made into readers’ 
theater productions.

fostering reading fluency
We propose that fluency can be enhanced through 

Target texts by Eve Bunting

Books by Patricia MacLachlan



GeorGia Journal of readinG 26 Volume 41, number 2   2018

repeated readings of passages directly taken from 
text set material or in a summarized format. Students 
practice using such strategies as echo reading, choral 
reading, paired reading, repeated readings, and 
shared reading to foster fluency (Rasinski, 2010). In 
the shared reading strategy, in this context, students 
sit side by side and take turns reading, discussing 
content, and providing support for each other.

The readers’ theater productions culminate in 
performance reading after high levels of fluency 
have been achieved. Readers’ theater performances 
can be recorded and a Cd produced. in addition, 
we produce Cds of individual students reading a 
selection from one of the texts. The Cd demonstrates 
to the student that he or she can be a fluent reader. 
We make professional looking labels using materials 
such as those produced by memorex™ and avery™. 
We can Google™ the topic and under Images find an 
appropriate picture to add to the label. a step further 
is to make a video recording of the reading using a 
smartphone. Students are delighted with their Cd 
recordings and video recordings. The video recordings 
can be emailed to the student’s home while the CD can 
become a family treasure. in this light, braker, (2013) 
determined that learning to read proficiently must be 
authentically interesting and enjoyable and not a quest 
for competence that demonstrates a “robotic” (p. 201) 
rendition of the text.

We prefer a Cd because it is a physical product rather 
than just a digital file. Students like getting their hands 
on their very own Cd. for example, a parent emailed 
to tell us that her son came racing out of school waving 
his Cd and immediately wanted to play it in the van.
 
Students can become familiar with the evening news 
and the personalities who deliver the information. 
We invite students to watch the local evening news 
or other news formats and study how the reporters 
present the information. Students develop news 
reports based on information from the text set. for 
example, a news reporter might interview a traveler 
and ask about crossing a river with a covered 
wagon. Sometimes the news broadcast can get quite 
elaborate with eventual broadcast on the school 
closed-circuit TV system. Some teachers prefer 
to tape news segments to present to their students 
that comfortably fit their instructional goals. There is 
generally good community support. for example, a 
teacher in a nearby school invited the anchor of the 
local six-o’clock news program to her classroom and 
he graciously accepted. The news anchor noted how 
important it is to read the news ahead of time and use 
appropriate phrasing, intonation, and energy.

Developing Comprehension
Comprehension is encouraged through repeated 

readings described above and through questioning 
strategies. duke and Carlile (2011) proposed that 
fluency is essential for readers to synthesize ideas 
from different sources to enhance what they proposed 
are “growth constructs” (p. 200). Growth constructs, 
according to the researchers, can never be fully 
mastered but can be enhanced through fluency 
development and application of comprehension 
strategies. in this light, we like a simple but 
comprehensive set of questions based on a model 
presented by Trosky (1972) (see appendix b).

conclusions
Students learn to synthesize information and develop 
their knowledge based on a variety of printed texts. 
Students enhance their knowledge by presenting 
their knowledge of the topic through activities such 
as reporting events in a TV news format. Practice 
for news reporting encourages fluency development 
which enhances comprehension. Students often 
say, “I want to sound good!” Production of a CD 
and/or a video production adds to the competencies 
developed. We agree with martin and duke (2011) that 
application of “multiple strategy instruction” (p. 351) 
provides support and engaging activities for students, 
especially for lower achieving readers. in addition, we 
have found that the strategies presented herein can 
be modified by creative teachers for a wide variety of 
learning environments and grade levels.

We greatly enjoy using text sets within the contexts 
presented above using a variety of strategies. Study 
of the strategies presented suggests that the activities 
effectively complement a variety of standards. We 
especially like that the activities are enjoyable and 
provide an opportunity for lively and interesting 
study. in this light, an extensive review of research 
led Guthrie and Wigfield (2018) to conclude that 
literacy instruction must take place in a classroom 
environment that “generates productive and joyful 
literacy engagement continually” (p. 75).

We appreciate the emphasis Harvey and Ward (2017) 
placed on developing literacy competencies within an 
enjoyable setting. in this light Harvey and Ward retired 
the word “struggling” and replaced it with the word 
“striving”. We hope that strategies presented herein 
can be a means for encouraging “struggling readers” 
to become “striving readers” and eventually, as Harvey 
and Ward proposed, “thriving readers” (2017).

references
braker, J. (2013). Power of books. View from the 

chalkboard. Reading Teacher, 67, (3), p. 201.

Cummins, S., & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. (2011). 
Teaching for synthesis of informational text with 



GeorGia Journal of readinG 27 Volume 41, number 2   2018

the competency levels of the students relative to the 
complexity of the information presented. not all of the 
books in the text set would likely be used with any 
particular group of students. The text set is dynamic in 
the sense that it is subject to change with the addition 
and possible elimination of texts. School and public 
librarians are invaluable support personnel. on the 
other hand, the target texts are fundamental to study 
in this text set context.

Westward Movement Model text set
american Girl Collection (1999). Welcome to Kirsten’s 

world-1854: Growing up in pioneer America. 
middleton, Wi: Pleasant Company. (Susan Sinnott 
mentioned as the author on the copyright page.)

bunting, eve. (1996). Train to somewhere. ill. ronald 
Himler. new York: Clarion.

read-alouds. The Reading Teacher. 64(6), 394-405.

duke, n. & Carlile, J. (2011). The development of 
comprehension. in m.l. Kamil, P.d. Pearson; moje, 
E.B., & Afflerbach, P.P. (Eds.), Handbook of reading 
research: Volume iV. (pp. 199-228) new York: 
routledge.

Guthrie, J. & Wigfield, A. (2018). Literacy engagement 
and motivation: rationale, research, teaching, and 
assessment. in d. lapp & d. fisher (eds.), Handbook 
on research on teaching the English language arts.
(4th ed. pp.57 – 84). new York: routledge.

Harvey, S. & Ward, a. (2017). From striving to thriving. 
new York: Scholastic.

lupo, S.m., Strong, J.Z., lewis, W., Walpole, S., 
& mcKenna, m.C. (2018). building background 
knowledge through text sets: rethinking text sets. 
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 61, (4),  
433 – 444.

martin, n.m. & duke, n. K. (2011) interventions to 
enhance informational text comprehension. in a. 
mcGill-franzen & r. allington (eds.), Handbook 
of reading disability research. (pp. 345-361). new 
York: routledge.

national Council for the Social Studies (2008). A 
vision of powerful teaching and learning in the social 
studies: Building social understanding. a position 
statement of the national Council for the Social 
Studies. http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/
powerful

rasinski, T. (2010) The fluent reader (2nd ed.). new 
York: Scholastic.

Shanahan, T. (2014). How and how not to prepare 
students for the new tests. The Reading Teacher, 
68, (3), 184-188.

Trosky, o. (1972). Questioning behavior in the 
development of reading comprehension. in H.a. 
Klein (ed.) The quest for competency in teaching 
reading. newark, de: international literacy 
association.

Appendix A: Westward Movement Text Set
introduction
The Westward movement is the story of people from 
the eastern part of the united States moving west to 
find new homes and opportunities for more enriching 
and meaningful lives. The students read about the 
journey west and what the trip was like. The level of 
information presented at the outset will depend on 

Moving West text set

Moving West text set continued



GeorGia Journal of readinG 28 Volume 41, number 2   2018

bunting, eve. (1995). Dandelions. ill. Greg Shed. new 
York, nY: Harcourt Voyager books.

Collins, Terry. (2014). Into the west: Causes and 
effects of U.S. westward expansion. north mankato, 
mn: Capstone Press.

dean, arlen. (2003). The Santa Fe Trail. new York, 
NY: Power Kids Press/Rosen.

floca, brian. (2013). Locomotive. new York, nY: 
athenaeum books for Young readers.

fox, mem V. (1991). The story of women who shaped 
the west: Cornerstones of freedom. Chicago, il: 
Children’s Press.

friedman, mel. (2010). The Oregon Trail. new York, 
nY: Scholastic.

Greenwood, barbara. (1994). A pioneer sampler: The 
daily life of a pioneer family in 1840. ill. Heather 
Collins. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Gunderson, Jessica & daugherty, rachel. (2012). 
Your Life as a pioneer on the Oregon Trail. north 
mankato, mn: Picture Window books

Hallowell, George & Holub, Joan. (2011). Wagons ho! 
ill. lynne avril. Park ridge, il: albert Whitman & 
Company.

Harvey, brett. (1988). Cassie’s journey: Going west 
in the 1860s. ill. deborah K. ray. new York. nY: 
Holiday House.

Hermes, Patricia. (2002). A perfect place: Joshua’s 
Oregon Trail diary. (my america Series.) new York, 
nY: Scholastic.

Hester, Sallie. (2014). Diary of Sallie Hester: A covered 
wagon girl. (fact finders: first Person Histories 
series.) north mankato, mn: Capstone Press.

maclachlan, Patricia (1985). Sarah, plain and tall, 
new York, nY: Harper Collins.

maclachlan, Patricia. (1993). Baby. new York, nY: 
delacorte.

maclachlan, Patricia. (1994). Skylark. new York, nY: 
Harper Collins.

maclachlan, Patricia. (2001). Caleb’s story. new 
York, nY: Harper Collins.

mcmullan, K. (2003). A fine start: Meg’s prairie diary. 

(my america Series.) new York, nY: Scholastic.

Patent, dorothy H. (1995). West by covered wagon: 
Retracing the pioneer trails. Photographs by William 
munoz. new York, nY: Walker and Company.

rajczak, Kristen (2015). Life of a pioneer: What you 
didn’t know about history. new York, nY: Gareth 
Stevens.

Wright, Courtni C. (1995). Wagon train: A family goes 
west in 1865. Ill. Gershorn Griffith. New York, NY: 
Holiday House. (african american family.)

Appendix B: Questioning Strategies
1. literal questions wherein the answer is directly 
found in the text. ex. “Where did the Santé fe Trail 
begin?”  Literal questions are usually easy for students 
to answer but are helpful for building confidence. 
However, we have to be cautious about asking too 
many literally based questions at the expense of more 
thought provoking questions. 

2. inference questions involve drawing conclusions 
not directly stated but based on information presented. 
Ex. “Why did Sacagawea help Lewis and Clark?”  The 
text does not say precisely why something happened 
but the reader is asked to determine from context why 
something occurred in the selection read. 

3. imagination questions are presented to study 
possible outcomes of events. ex. “What would have 
happened to Meg’s family if their wagon got destroyed 
while they were crossing a river?” The text does not 
address this possibility but the reader can determine 
what might have happened based on the context of 
the overall selection.

4. Evaluation questions are designed to study if a 
character/historical figure acted appropriately. Ex. 
“Was it fair that people who got to the prairie first took 
the best land for building homes and farms?” The 
reader is invited to provide a value judgement based 
on the events and the characters responses to those 
events in the selection read. 

5. translation questions are asked to determine 
understanding of vocabulary and concepts. ex. 
“What is another way of saying ‘Oregon Fever’?” The 
reader is invited to translate terminology from one 
form of expression to another. This type of question 
encourages vocabulary building and measures 
understanding of terminology that is essential to 
comprehending the overarching theme of the text 
set. Students can be encouraged to keep vocabulary 
cards with terms on one side and definitions on the 
other side. 




