Informational+Texts+as+Read-Alouds+at+School+and+Home

 Yopp, R. H., & Yopp, H. K. (2006). Informational texts as read-alouds at school and home. //Journal of Literacy Research, 38//(1), 37-51. Retrieved July 3, 2009, from Informaworld.


 * Quotes || Reaction ||
 * 1. "Despite the many benefits of reading informational texts, research indicates that young children have very little exposure to informational text at school." (p. 38)

2. "What is not know is whether and to what extent parents share informational books with their young children." (p. 39)

3. "We undertook two studies. The first expands the knowledge base regarding read-alouds in the classroom by including preschool teachers in a large survey of early childhood classroom teachers. The second study explores the types of books read aloud by parents or other family members to children in one kindergarten class in order to determine the extent to which informational books are read aloud at home" (p. 39)

4. "These data reveal that narrative texts were by far the literature of choice for preschool through third-grade teachers who read aloud to their students, representing 77% (1,123) of identifiable books. Eight percent (120 books) of the read-alouds were informational texts, 1% (20) were mixed texts, and 14% (213) were other and consisted primarily of poetry." (p. 41)

5. At all grade levels, proportionately more narrative texts were read aloud to students than any other genre, ranging from 68% to 89% of total read-alouds. Very few informational or mixed texts were read aloud at each grade level, ranging from 5% to 9% for informational and 0% to 2% for mixed." (p. 41)

6. "As part of her regular reading program, a kindergarten teacher who works closely with the university asked the families of her 20 students to submit monthly logs (November through May) of books read aloud to their children at home." (p. 43)

7. "77% (1,132) of the identifiable texts were narrative, 7% (110) were informational, 3% (50) were mixed, and 12% (181) were other." (p. 43)

8. "Results from t tests revealed that boys were read proportionately more informational and mixed texts combined than were girls." (p. 45)

9. "The studies described here yielded five major findings: (a) Informational texts make up a very small proportion of read-alouds in early childhood classrooms, (b) the scarcity of informational text read-alouds appears as early as preschool and continues through at least the third grade, (c) informational books maintain their low status as read-alouds even when teachers read more than one book, (d) young children have very limited exposure to informational texts as read-alouds at home, and (e) there is some evidence that boys may hear more informational texts read aloud at home than girls." (p. 45)

10. "Study 1 also raises questions about the consistency of findings across grade levels. As students progress through the grade levels and are expected to read more informational texts themselves, do teachers read aloud more (or even fewer) informational books, or is the distributions of genres stable throughout all the years of schooling? Are informational texts incorporated in other ways in the classrooms of older students? Do teachers of older students include more informational texts in classroom libraries, for example?" (p. 49) || 2. and 3. This study adds a home reading component, which I have not found in any other study. It is interesting to compare home and school reading.

4. and 5. These findings are consistent with my observations as a classroom teacher.

6. This methodology is simple but also yielded the data the researchers needed.

8. This finding does not surprise me. This was true for my own son and daughter and our reading at home.

10. I would love to read the further research on these questions. ||  Tags: read-aloud, elementary school, research, choosing material