ABSTRACT
In their review of the literature on reading comprehension, Pearson and Fielding (1991) concluded that “just about any approach to text structure instruction for expository text” (p. 832) facilitates reading comprehension. In a similar view, Englert and Thomas (1987) posited that “teachers who did not direct attention to” expository text structures may be “depriving LD students of important opportunities to develop self-sufficiency in communication skills essential to their independence as adults” (p. 103). However, any approach to instruction or attention directing is insufficient for benefiting diverse learners. Diverse learners typically lag behind their peers in reading comprehension and demonstrate difficulty recognizing patterns in text, discerning relevant information, and recalling information. As a result, they require instruction that enables them to independently access text for comprehension and narrow the gap between themselves and their normally achieving peers.
