Expository text offers particular challenges to the reader because of the abstract and unfamiliar concepts that it presents. In order to solve these problems in reading classes, students should be taught the hierarchical structure of the expository text and the interrelationships among ideas. This is what experts in this field refer to as text…

The purpose of this "teaching tips" article is to describe practical classroom instruction that helps elementary students write expository responses to narrative texts. It focuses on the importance of scaffolded, interactive discussions comprised of a combination of teacher think alouds and similar student responses before, during, and…

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…

School success in the 21st century requires proficiency with expository discourse--the use and understanding of informative language in spoken and written modalities. This occurs, for example, when high school students read their textbooks and listen to their teachers' lectures, and later are asked to demonstrate their knowledge of this complex…

Many students enter high school unskilled in the art of reading to learn from science textbooks. Even students who can read full-length novels often find science books difficult to read because students have relatively little practice with the various types of expository text structures used by such textbooks (Armbruster, 1991). Expository text…

The question of whether French-as-a-second-language reading can be facilitated by teaching some organizational patterns of discourse was investigated. It was concluded that strategic training is highly complex and difficult and that cumulative evidence is required to assess its usefulness in improving reading recall. (Contains 41 references.) (LB)

This article suggests ways that teachers can use videotape recordings to improve listening skills and enhance text structure instruction in the intermediate grades. Students develop story maps for narrative videos and texts and create organizational pattern guides for expository videos and texts. Lists of suggested videos and children's books are…

Reflecting the concerns of researchers and practitioners about children's text comprehension, this book defines and provides examples of narrative and expository text and describes research-based strategies for helping children comprehend these two types of text. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Research on Stories: Implications…

The paper discusses (1) sources of difficulty in comprehending technical writing, (2) distinctions between content structure and text structure, (3) building blocks for expository writing and techniques of text design, (4) contrasts between American and Japanese science and social studies texts, and (5) suggestions for promoting comprehension.…