Extending the Simple View of Reading to Account for Variation Within Readers and Across Texts: The Complete View of Reading (CVRi)

Abstract

This study leverages advances in multivariate cross-classified random effects models to extend the Simple View of Reading to account for variation within readers and across texts, allowing for both the personalization of the reading function and the integration of the component skills and text and discourse frameworks for reading research. We illustrate the Complete View of Reading (CVRi) using data from an intensive longitudinal design study with a large sample of typical (N = 648) and struggling readers (N = 865) in middle school and using oral reading fluency as a proxy for comprehension. To illustrate the utility of the CVRi, we present a model with cross-classified random intercepts for students and passages and random slopes for growth, Lexile difficulty, and expository text type at the student level. We highlight differences between typical and struggling readers and differences across students in different grades. The model illustrates that readers develop differently and approach the reading task differently, showing differential impact of text features on their fluency. To be complete, a model of reading must be able to reflect this heterogeneity at the person and passage level, and the CVRi is a step in that direction. Implications for reading interventions and 21st century reading research in the era of “Big Data” and interest in phenotypic characterization are discussed.

Reading and Deafness: State of the Evidence and Implications for Research and Practice

“…While potential limitations to the SVR have been noted, and adjustments to the framework have been offered to clarify and expand its components, findings of research investigations have consistently illustrated that the core principles of the model (i.e., decoding, language comprehension) represent a robust hypothesis for understanding the development of reading comprehension abilities. In fact, we would suggest that the components of the SVR are echoed in both existing (e.g., Chall [15]) and emerging (e.g., CVRi [19]) models of reading development, as well as the findings of large-scale research analyses (e.g., NELP [27], NRP [34],), thereby lending further support for the importance of both skills in the reading process.…”

“…Several recently conducted large-scale, empirical studies provide further evidence for the efficacy of the SVR. Specifically, these investigations have explored the predictive ability of prekindergarten skills to third grade reading comprehension [17], the individual and joint contributions of decoding and language comprehension to reading comprehension among third through fifth grade students, the developmental shift in relative importance of the two components across the grade levels [18], and the impact of text variation and the role of fluency among typically developing and struggling middle school readers [19]. Findings of these studies have also offered scholars the opportunity to reflect on the SVR more than 30 years after its inception and comment on the educational implications of the model [13], the impact of type of assessments used to measure comprehension [20], and the contributions of the model to advances in the field [21].…”

“…A recent critique of the SVR is that it focuses primarily on reader-based variables and does not take into account variability associated with text ( [19] see also [20,21]). Furthermore, it has been suggested that the SVR is more a conceptual model of reading rather than a developmental or statistical one.…”

“…To address these limitations, a Complete View of Reading (CVRi) has been proposed, whereby oral reading fluency serves as a proxy for reading comprehension. It has been suggested that the CVRi expands on the foundation of the SVR and offers a more comprehensive model of reading by considering the impact of text features (e.g., complexity, genre) on comprehension abilities [19]. It is interesting to note that the CVRi more closely aligns with Chall's [15] schema, as well as the findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP) [34], which recognize the key role reading fluency plays in serving as a bridge between decoding and reading comprehension abilities.…”

Reading and Oral Vocabulary Development in Early Adolescence

“…Inferencing is also a strong concurrent predictor of reading comprehension in adolescence (Ahmed et al, 2016) and vocabulary and grammar may be discrete constructs in adolescence (Tomblin & Zhang, 2006), and therefore show different longitudinal relationships with reading comprehension. Beyond oral language, there are other factors that may be important for adolescent reading comprehension including reader-level variables like attention, motivation for reading and amount of reading practice (Arrington, Kulesz, Francis, Fletcher, & Barnes, 2014;McGeown, Duncan, Griffiths, & Stothard, 2015;Mol & Bus, 2011), and text-level factors like text type (Francis, Kulesz, & Benoit, 2018).…”