The current study examines the teaching of report writing from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade through the lens of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory. Teachers were part of a university and public school collaboration that included professional development on teaching genres, text organization, and language features. Grounded in this knowledge, teachers explicitly taught students to write reports. Results indicate that students understood the purpose of reports. Although report writing was challenging, students at all levels, supported by their teachers, presented the topic in an organized way, showed awareness of audience and voice, and used language that resulted in coherent writing.
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