The role of informational text in primary-grade classrooms has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and there is converging evidence that young school children have few opportunities to engage with this genre. The studies described here expand the research base to include preschool (Study 1) and home (Study 2) exposures to informational text as read-alouds. School data included 1,830 read-aloud titles from 1,144 teachers of preschool through third grade. Home data included 1,847 titles reported by the parents or other family members of 20 kindergartners over the course of a school year. The findings suggest that in both of these environments—school (including preschool) and home—children have far less exposure to informational text than narrative text. Further, a trend was revealed suggesting that boys may be read proportionately more informational texts in their homes than girls.
References
1.
CaswellL.DukeN. (1998). Non-narrative as catalyst for literacy development. Language Arts, 75, 108–117.
2.
DickinsonD. K.TaborsP. O. (2001). Young children learning at home and school: Beginning literacy with language.Baltimore: Brookes.
3.
DreherM. J. (1998-1999). Motivating children to read more nonfiction. The Reading Teacher, 52, 414–417.
4.
DreherM. J. (2002). Children searching and using information text: A critical part of comprehension. In BlockC. C.PressleyM. (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 289–304). New York: Guilford.
5.
DreherM. J. (2003). Motivating struggling readers by tapping the potential of information books. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 25–38.
6.
DukeN. K. (2000). 3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 202–224.
7.
DukeN. K. (2003a, November-December). Beyond once upon a time. Instructor, pp. 23–26.
8.
DukeN. K. (2003b). Reading to learn from the very beginning: Information books in early childhood. Young Children, 58(2), 14–20.
9.
DukeN. K.Bennett-ArmisteadV. S. (2003). Reading and writing informational text in the primary grades.New York: Scholastic.
10.
DukeN. K.Bennett-ArmisteadS.RobertsE. M. (2003). Filling the great void: Why we should bring nonfiction into the early-grade classroom. American Educator, 27(1), 30–35, 46.
11.
DukeN.KaysJ. (1998). “Can I say ‘Once upon a time’?”: Kindergarten children developing knowledge of information book language. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13, 295–318.
12.
FieldingL. G.PearsonP. D. (1994). Reading comprehension: What works. Educational Leadership, 51(5), 62–68.
13.
GoldmanS. R.RakestrawJ. A.Jr. (2000). Structural aspects of constructing meaning from text. In KamilM. L.MosenthalP. B.PearsonP. D.BarrR. (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 311–335). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
14.
HallS. L.MoatsL. C. (1999). Straight talk about reading.Chicago: Contemporary Books.
15.
HarveyS. (2002). Nonfiction inquiry: Using real reading and writing to explore the world. Language Arts, 80, 12–17.
16.
HicksD. (1995). The social origins of essayist writing. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Applique, 61, 61–82.
17.
HirschE. D.Jr. (2003). Reading comprehension requires knowledge—of words and the world. American Educator, 27(1), 10–13, 16–22, 28–29, 48.
18.
HoffmanJ.McCartheyS.AbbottJ.ChristianC.CormanL.CurryC. (1994). So what's new in the new basals? A focus on first grade. Journal of Reading Behavior, 26, 47–73.
19.
JacobsJ. S.MorrisonT. G.SwinyardW. R. (2000). Reading aloud to students: A national probability study of classroom reading practices of elementary school teachers. Reading Psychology, 21, 171–193.
20.
KamberelisG. (1998). Relations between children's literacy diets and genre development: You write what you read. Literacy Teaching and Learning, 3, 7–53.
21.
KletzienS. B.DreherM. J. (2004). Informational text in K—3 classrooms.Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
22.
KletzienS. B.SzaboR. (1998, December). Information text or narrative text? Children's references revisited. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Austin, TX.
23.
MasonJ.PetermanC. L.PowellB. M.KerrM. K. (1989). Reading and writing attempts by kindergartners after book reading by teachers. In MasonJ. (Ed.), Reading and writing connections (pp. 105–120). Old Tappan, NJ: Allyn & Bacon.
24.
MossB.NewtonE. (2002). An examination of the informational text genre in basal readers. Reading Psychology, 23, 1–13.
25.
OgleD.BlachowiczC. L. Z. (2002). Beyond literature circles: Helping students comprehend informational text. In BlockC. C.PressleyM. (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 259–274). New York: Guilford.
26.
PappasC. C. (1991a). Fostering full access to literacy by including information books. Language Arts, 68, 449–462.
27.
PappasC. C. (1991b). Young children's strategies in learning the “book language” of information books. Discourse Processes, 14, 203–225.
28.
PappasC. C. (1993). Is narrative “primary”? Some insights from kindergartners' pretend readings of stories and information books. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 97–129.
29.
PressleyM.RankinJ.YokoiL. (1996). A survey of instructional practices of primary teachers nominated as effective in promoting literacy. The Elementary School Journal, 96, 363–384.
30.
ShineS.RoserN. L. (1999). The role of genre in preschoolers' response to picture books. Research in the Teaching of English, 34, 197–254.
31.
SmolkinL. B.DonovanC. A. (2002). “Oh excellent, excellent question!” Developmental differences and comprehension acquisition. In BlockC. C.PressleyM. (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 140–157). New York: Guilford.
32.
SmolkinL. B.DonovanC. A. (2004). How not to get lost on The Magic School Bus: What makes high science content read-alouds? In SaulE. W. (Ed.), Crossing borders in science and literacy instruction (pp. 291–313). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
33.
SnowC.BurnsM. S.GriffinP. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children.Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
34.
StahlS. A.HeubachK. M. (2005). Fluency-oriented reading instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 37, 25–60.
35.
Survey examines parent/child reading. (1997, June-July). Reading Today, p. 19.
36.
WalshK. (2003). Basal readers: The lost opportunity to build the knowledge that propels comprehension. American Educator, 27(1), 24–25.
37.
YoppH. K.YoppR. H. (1999, December). Primary grade students' exposure to informational text. Paper presented at the California Reading Association's annual conference research institute, Long Beach, CA.
38.
YoppR. H.YoppH. K. (2000). Sharing informational text with young children. The Reading Teacher, 53, 410–423.
