Measuring Text Structure Awareness in Upper Elementary Grades

Abstract Awareness of informational text structures is related to reading comprehension and varies according to characteristics of readers and texts. The purpose of this study was to develop and refine a measure of text structure awareness, the Text Structure Identification Test (TSIT), by investigating its internal consistency reliability and construct validity. All students in grades 4 (n = 84) and 5 (n = 72) in one elementary school were administered the TSIT. Students read 20 paragraph-length informational texts and identified which text structure was used. Reliability was assessed using the KR20 formula to compute Cronbach’s alpha (α). Validity was evaluated using an exploratory factor analysis to examine the test’s internal structure and a Rasch analysis to assess measurement invariance. Independent and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze differences in text structure awareness by grade and type of structure. Results revealed that 11 items showed salient loadings on a single factor, explaining 22.2% of the variance, producing an 11-item test with acceptable reliability (α = .72). Results on the revised test revealed that fifth-grade students in demonstrated higher text structure awareness (p = .01). Awareness of problem/solution and sequence items were higher than compare/contrast and cause/effect items (p < .05). This study provides initial evidence of the reliability and validity of the TSIT, which may be used to evaluate the effects of text structure interventions in research and to identify students who might benefit from text structure instruction in classrooms.