Research Summary Dr. Linda McElroy
Informational Texts: Challenges and Ideas Teachers are responsible for helping students develop strategies that will enable them to become effective readers of all types of texts. Upper elementary students are learning about strategies for informational texts, in preparation for the types of advanced reading they will be expected to do in upper grades. Previous research has demonstrated that students’ reading comprehension benefits from instruction that helps them become aware of informational text structures, such as compare/contrast, problem/solution, sequence, and description. Despite the efficacy of text structure instruction, it is frequently a missing element in classroom instruction, both in reading and in writing instruction. The focus research study for this column gives helpful ideas for strengthening the use of text structure for informational text in literacy instruction. The 2020 article by J. Z. Strong in Reading Research Quarterly was titled “Investigating a Text Structure Intervention for Reading and Writing in Grades 4 and 5.” The study was done with fourth and fifth grade students, and the ideas could be adapted for other grades as well. The author of the study described important ideas from previous research that were used as a basis for this research study. •
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Teaching students about the ways texts are organized and using this knowledge to organize and recall ideas in written summaries can strengthen both reading comprehension and writing quality. Teaching students about the use of signal words that cue readers about the ways that texts are organized can be done in varied ways. Examples of signal words include: because, therefore, consequently, first, next, last, in comparison, and others. Some interventions teach students to underline or highlight signal words to identify text structure during reading, then use them to signal organization in their own writing. Other interventions teach students to make initial judgements about a text’s structure based on the organization of ideas, then use signal words to confirm their judgements. Teaching students to use graphic organizers can help them with reading different types of texts (including compare/contrast matrices, sequence frames, cause/effect organizers, problem/solution frames), then with taking written notes and using them to write informational passages. Teaching students about summary writing can be supported by instructing them to use text structures to organize ideas.
Both of the instructional patterns in the research study incorporated the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (Pearson and Dole, 1987). This approach begins with the teacher explicitly teaching and modeling a skill or strategy, then including shared applications of the skill or
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