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Teaching for Writing Expository Responses to Narrative Texts
Author(s) -
Cummins Sunday,
Quiroa Ruth E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1002/trtr.01057
Subject(s) - formative assessment , narrative , mathematics education , psychology , think aloud protocol , rhetorical modes , comprehension , active listening , reading comprehension , literacy , teaching method , test (biology) , pedagogy , reading (process) , linguistics , computer science , communication , philosophy , usability , human–computer interaction , biology , paleontology
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 after writing. Embedded within such instruction is the use of inquiry listening as a form of formative assessment. The article opens by highlighting a problem posed by a local literacy assessment and standardized test preparation measure for the focal children, namely, inconsistencies between the text structure analyzed (narrative) and the required product (expository textual analysis). Next, it outlines specific instruction involving interactive discussions that lead to comprehension of text structure(s) and clear conceptualizations of expected formats for written products. These include a) frontloading with photographs, and b) thinking aloud about writing samples.