Purpose: Both fictional oral narrative and expository oral discourse skills are critical language competencies that support children's academic success. Few studies, however, have examined African American children's microstructure performance across these genres. To address this gap in the literature, the study compared African American…

The limited research available on writing in Grade 1 led to the development and implementation of an intervention for students who were performing below expectations. Ten students participated in a writing intervention for 11-13 weeks. A multiple baseline design across three units of instruction was focused on (a) paragraph structure, (b) sentence…

The limited research available on writing in Grade 1 led to the development and implementation of an intervention for students who were performing below expectations. Ten students participated in a writing intervention for 11-13 weeks. A multiple baseline design across three units of instruction was focused on (a) paragraph structure, (b) sentence…

Teachers can use expository texts to teach academic vocabulary, content knowledge, text structure, and text features. National associations' recommended book lists are often used to identify books for classrooms. Previously we identified expository texts on these lists from 2001-2002 and 2011-2012. The current study explored instructional…

This investigation focused on elementary-aged (first and fourth grade) children's individual preferences for narrative and expository text and perceptions of what their same-aged peers would like to read. Preferences and perceptions of text were examined through the lenses of social constructivist and engaged reading theories. The overall purpose…

This mixed methods study extends findings from a prior study exploring use of increasingly-complex, expository text situated within a five-week interdisciplinary intervention in which first-grade children attending a Sheltered-English (SEI) immersion classroom advanced their conceptual knowledge and academic language approximating levels near or…

In Section 1 of this article, the author discusses the succession of models of adult writing that he and his colleagues have proposed from 1980 to the present. He notes the most important changes that differentiate earlier and later models and discusses reasons for the changes. In Section 2, he describes his recent efforts to model young…

The researchers investigated the effects of listening to expository text on the listening comprehension and book choice of 77 first-grade students. Two intact classes of experimental children heard expository read-alouds over four weeks while two intact classes of 40 controls received no intervention and followed their teacher's normal read-aloud…

This article provides a deeper understanding of how young bilinguals constructed meaning with expository texts in an inquiry-based setting over an academic year. An examination of classroom transcripts and analysis revealed how "Viewing" became the most frequently used literacy practice and a cultural tool in the construction of meaning…

Purpose: A mixed-methods approach, evaluating triple word-form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Method: Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in Grades 1-9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological)…

The WWC practice guide "Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade" presents a set of evidence-based practices that teachers and other educators can use to successfully teach reading comprehension to young readers. The guide, developed by a panel of experts, presents a set of evidence-based practices that teachers…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of listening to expository text on first graders' listening comprehension and book choice. The participants for this study included 77 first grade students from four heterogeneous classes at a suburban elementary school in the New York City metropolitan area. During the pretest and…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of questioning "during" a read-aloud and questioning "after" a read-aloud, using science-related informational tradebooks with first-and second-graders. Three thematically-related tradebooks were used, each portraying a scientist involved in authentic investigation. Students in two first/second…

In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physical and educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools. However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of…

Process approaches to writing instruction in primary-grade classrooms have become widespread due to the influence of Graves (1983), Calkins (1986), Avery (1993), and others. Their work emphasizes expressive writing, particularly personal narrative, more than expository or informational writing. As a consequence, expressive writing is what children…