Children with a specific learning disability often struggle with written communication compared to their typically-developing peers (Graham & Harris, 2002; Graham et al., 2017; Troia, 2006). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a researcher-created instructional strategy (i.e., "Audience and Structure…

Students in the United States are struggling to show proficient comprehension in reading, with only 35% of the nation's fourth graders scoring proficient or higher on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2019. Since the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices &…

The purpose of the study was to investigate differences in writers' abilities to perceive global text organisation in self-, peer- and teacher/researcher-authored essays. Eight student participants were identified as proficient, middle or developing, based on the levels of paragraph subordination, the average number of T-Units and the number of…

This study conducted with French-speaking students living near Montréal, Canada, assess if teaching the shared knowledge between reading and writing of informative texts improves reading comprehension in fourth grade (9-10 years old) to a greater extent than teaching that separates reading and writing. Teachers participating in the experiment…

Reading critically involves examining the language choices authors make to "get the job done" -- in other words, to communicate effectively in specific ways with particular audiences. Not all students in middle and high school intuit this type of reading and may experience challenges when they go to write for academic purposes. Their…

The authors describe a process for building teachers' capacity to identify, develop, and engage in discipline-specific literacy instruction that supports both content and literacy aims. This process uses three questions to frame inquiry and guide discussions. Addressing these three questions can empower content-area teachers to incorporate…

Using Mariolina Salvatori's "difficulty paper" assignment to explore student experiences when reading, this paper examines basic writing students' difficulties with reading in the composition classroom. The authors argue that examining difficulty can provide an entry point for understanding how students experience the (dis)connections…

This systematic descriptive historical review was conducted to examine the status and trends in expository text structure instruction efficacy research for first through twelfth grade students. The analysis included sixty studies, which spanned the years 1978 to 2014. Descriptive dimensions of the research included study type, research design,…

Unlike the vocabulary used in language arts and social studies, knowledge of expository text (text written to inform) and the language of science are required for reading and writing in science (Carrier 2005). This vocabulary, along with expository text structures, often is not taught in middle and high school classrooms, thus hindering students,…

Defines good expository text and reviews studies on two text features--structure and interestingness--that affect readers' comprehension. Discusses implications for further inquiry. (JAD)

Examines children's awareness of influence of stories by discussing part of data from a two-year study that investigated the question: How is the reading and writing of children aged 6-12 years affected by previous textual experiences? Reports responses of grade 6 students who were asked whether they think of stories they have read when writing…

Highlights contemporary reading research as well as some implied instructional practices in four areas, including direct teacher explanation, reading-writing connection, top-level text structure, and main idea identification. (ARH)

Writers construct meaning when they compose texts, and readers construct meaning when they understand and interpret texts. Building meaning through reading entails organizing, selecting, and connecting. Readers use previously acquired knowledge to operate on textual clues, organizing mental representations that include material they select from…

Community college remedial reading students composed an informational report from sources. Productivity, use of source text, reproductions, accuracy, and inclusion of key ideas were analyzed as a function of text density and domain (health, business), and prior knowledge and general literacy skill. Text density interacted with literacy skill for…

Suggests that each type of literature presented to young readers serves two important functions: to develop a schema for that literary genre; and to encourage the application of thinking skills in a variety of literary engagements. Presents four related resources from the ERIC database. (MG)