Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only…

The purpose of this mixed-methods experimental study was to investigate the effects and social validity of a text structure intervention for reading and writing in upper elementary grades. Fourth- and fifth-grade teachers (N = 11) in three elementary schools were randomly assigned to implement the text structure intervention or a comprehension…

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…

Writing skills are essential for success in the 21st-century school and workplace, but most classrooms devote far more time to reading instruction, with writing often addressed in isolation or excluded. In this insightful professional development resource and text, leading researchers discuss why and how to integrate writing and reading…

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…

This paper presents the results of a predicative analysis led on comparison and problem-solution texts produced by pupils of the second and third grades of primary school following a set of reading and writing instructional activities. The production of those texts is of a special challenge to the young writers because of the cognitive and…

The theme for the 62nd annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers was Educating for a Just Society. Connie Briggs, previous Program Chair, reminded us that, "Education has always been the foundation of a democratic nation. It is important that our students understand the principles upon which our nation was…

This paper analyzes the influence of three different learning paradigms for learning literacy--formalist, cognitive-processing, and literacy practices--on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It argues that the Common Core State Standards are based largely on a formalist paradigm as evident in the emphasis on teaching text…

Reports on a study of genre and register that reaches the following conclusions concerning the teaching of language and literature: (1) teaching should concentrate on the move structure of genres and the concomitant move registers rather than the general register of a genre as a whole; and (2) the teaching of reading and writing should be…

A current trend in composition consider writing a social act where texts are produced because of and in response to social contexts. Classroom practices are just beginning to change and acknowledge the power that discourse communities assert on writers. Composition teachers must also acknowledge the importance of community-governed reading…

Describes the Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing (CSIW) program by discussing: (1) knowledge bases that are useful for expository writing and reading; (2) features of instruction inherent in CSIW that help build knowledge for successful writing and reading; and (3) the effect of CSIW on students' expository writing and reading. (MG)

Describes how narrative texts can be represented as networks of causally related statements or events and presents empirical evidence that the networks predict performance on reading comprehension. Compares network theory to other theories of discourse comprehension. Suggests implications of causal representations for reading and composition…

Elaborating on Emile Durkheim's claim that major debates about pedagogy are always an indicator of underlying social change, this book charts the enormous impact computers are having on how people read and write, how reading and writing are taught, and how literacy is defined. The larger concern of the book is how technology generally affects not…

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…

Noting that little in language can be understood without taking into consideration the wider picture of communicative purpose, content, context, and audience, this book address practical uses of various approaches to discourse analysis. Several assumptions run through the chapters: knowledge is socially constructed; the manner in which language…