C. Research

My research agenda focuses on elementary teachers' designing and enactment of learning opportunities during their integration of literacy instruction and students' science and social studies learning. Informational texts, which are extended discourses intended to convince, convey information, and teach, are featured in K-5 curricula, state learning standards, and national assessments (e.g., National Governors Association for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010; Moss, 2008; National Assessment Governing Board, 2008). Yet, many U.S. students encounter minimal opportunties for learning from informational text and apprenticing into disciplines such as chemistry, history, and physics during academic careers and struggle to understand and learn from periodicals, textbooks, trade books, websites, and other types of informational text (e.g., Martin & Duke, 2010; Park, 2008). It is my hope that my scholarly contributions will yield additional insights that can inform ongoing efforts to understand and support teachers' integrated instruction and students' learning opportunities in the elementary grades.

References

Moss, B. (2008). The information text gap: The mismatch between non-narrative text types in basal readers and 2009 NAEP recommended guidelines. Journal of Literacy Research, 40, 201-219. 10.1080/10862960802411927

Martin, N. M., & Duke, N. K. (2010). Interventions to enhance informational text comprehension. In R. Allington & A. McGill-Franzen (Eds.), Handbook of reading disabilities research (pp. 345-361). Routledge.

National Assessment Governing Board. (2008). Reading framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. http://www.nagb.org/publications/frameworks/reading09.pdf

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technology subjects. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/assets/ CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf

Park, Y. (2008). Patterns in and predictors of elementary students' reading performance: Evidence from the data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.