Closing Thoughts Informational texts—defined by literacy researcher Nell Duke (2014) as texts that convey information about the natural or social world and feature particular linguistic components to accomplish that purpose—may well be the key to academic success. Children who become familiar with informational texts at an early age are more likely to demonstrate stronger academic success in fourth grade and beyond when they begin to encounter textbooks and other informational texts. More than ever, since our lives are informed, shaped, and even driven by informational texts, it seems wise to introduce children to informational texts from the very beginning of their schooling career. The following is adapted from Duke and Bennett-Armistead, 2003: • Informational Texts Are Ubiquitous in American Society Indeed, 96% of the text on the Web is informational, and adults tend to focus on expository text. Given our increasingly information-oriented economy, the emphasis on informational texts is only likely to increase. As we work to prepare our students for the world beyond school, we need to consider how best to help them read and write informational texts right from the beginning. • Informational Texts Differ in Profound Ways from Fictional Narrative— Structurally, Linguistically, and Graphically In fact, the ways in which we navigate informational texts, which are often non- continuous (think of schedules and maps), requires experience and skill (Beers and Probst, 2016; Duke 2014; Fountas and Pinnell, 2012). You can help children learn their way around informational texts by using the same instructional structures that you use for the interactive read-aloud, book clubs, and everyday literacy. • Informational Text Builds Vocabulary and Other Kinds of Literary Knowledge The vocabulary found in informational texts differs significantly from that typically found in narrative, and—because it may be technical since it is related to the content of informational texts—it may be unfamiliar to children (Duke and Kays, 1998; Hiebert, 2006). Because vocabulary and reading comprehension are strongly related (Bauman, 2009), children benefit from the exposure to the language of informational text. For this reason, “Informational texts may be particularly well-suited to building children’s word knowledge.” • Informational Texts Build Wide-Ranging Knowledge of the World Children also benefit from the wide-ranging world knowledge that informational texts provide. Comprehension is strongly influenced by what one knows (Duke and Pearson, 2002), thus proficient readers tend to have more expansive world knowledge. Again, we see the benefits of introducing even young children to content-rich informational texts (Duke and Carlisle, 2011).
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CHAPTER 4: TEXT
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