To fully consider the potential of informational texts to serve as mentor texts in the elementary classroom, the authors propose an inquiry about the intersections among the author's intentions, instructional contexts, a teacher's approaches, and students' responses to informational texts when contemplating the roles these texts might serve. In…

Even though theme is cited in two of the 10 Common Core Standards for Reading Literature, little is written on how to teach it. Determining theme while reading a story is a critical element of reading literature, yet some children simply struggle. The instructional strategies presented here are designed to hone students' theme awareness and…

This article presents research that investigated how a school year-long letter-writing project between kindergarten students and extended family members could facilitate literacy development in students, as well as provide a way to build inter-generational bonds through correspondence focused on family history and stories. Analysis centered on the…

The study examines the effects of a short period of explicit instruction on the narrative comprehension of French-speaking kindergarteners, as measured by story retell and comprehension questions. A group of kindergarteners that received explicit instruction (n = 15) was compared to a control group that was exposed to the same storybooks and…

This replication study examined the effects of a planning and self-regulation strategy on the story writing abilities of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Three second graders with ASD were taught a strategy for planning and writing a story using the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach. After learning the…

This article describes a strategy to support students' development of creative writing and construction of text in a sequential manner. The goal of the Suggest-Choose-Plan-Compose (SCPC) strategy is to improve students' ability to create a story by helping them clarify their thoughts as they generate and organize ideas and basic story elements.…

The aim of this research is to critique the repercussions of over-generalization of a social issue as depicted in Norma Khouri's "Forbidden Love." The novel/memoir has been written against the 9/11 backdrop and as such serves as means of sensationalizing and exploiting a cultural event which unfortunately echoes in the East. The…

Content is related to other aspects of writing, but exactly how they are related has remained unclear or has not received sufficient critical attention. Consequently, in most writing assessments, content has been treated as just one among several relatively distinct but equal elements. However, in this study, the authors have quantified these…

A study was conducted to examine the differences in narrative essays produced by skilled and unskilled EFL student writers. Twenty-six Japanese university students participated in the study. They were told to write a narrative story based on six-frame pictures. The students were classified into two groups, skilled and unskilled, according to the…

This Teaching Tip article explores the importance of phrasing while reading. It also presents an instructional intervention strategy for helping students develop greater proficiency in reading with phrases that reflect the meaning of the text.

This paper seeks to throw light on the concordance between man's mental structure and the structure of narrative with regard to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. In so doing, the author first provides the backdrop of the literature on the topic by first explaining Vygotsky's approach to the genesis of mind, and then gives a synoptic account of the…

In recent years use of narratives for teaching science at secondary school level has gained impetus. This paper deals with the problem of designing narratives for teaching scientific concept. The central issue of the problem of designing narratives for carrying scientific information is that science belongs to the domain of objective observation…

The aim of written expression studies is to have students explain their knowledge, feelings, ideas and imaginations in a correct and effective manner. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of story map on story writing skills of first grade teacher candidates who study at the Department of Elementary Education. The…

McDougall found learning about Stephen and Matilda fascinating, was sure that her pupils would also and designed an enquiry to engage them in "the anarchy" of 1139-1153 AD. Pupils enjoyed exploring "the anarchy" and learning about it enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the medieval period considerably. However,…

The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways that cross-disciplinary (non-ESL) faculty can help developmental immigrant students succeed in undergraduate programs. We present five key issues that faculty should consider when teaching these students and when reading their writing. Finally, we offer experience-based, practical suggestions on how to…