No abstract

No abstract

Many primary grade students are not afforded nonfiction-rich opportunities, with fiction comprising the majority of books read aloud in classrooms. With the Common Core Standards recommending that half of the texts made available to students be nonfiction, educators are increasing their use of informational text. The present study explored the impact of explicitly teaching reading comprehension and vocabulary strategies with nonfiction text compared to fiction text in primary-grade classrooms. Two first-grade (n = 39; 25 male, 14 female) and one second-grade class (n = 20; 13 male, 7 female) participated in the quantitative study that followed a repeated measures design in which the students alternated every 2 weeks between fiction-based instruction and nonfictionbased instruction for a total of 8 weeks. Vocabulary and use of comprehension strategies were assessed at the end of each 2-week period. Overall findings indicated that students were better able to apply the comprehension strategies and define vocabulary following nonfiction-based instruction; they also were more motivated to read informational text. The authors recommend that teachers use more nonfiction texts in the primary grades to support students' reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

No abstract

Early childhood curricula should be authentic and child-centered, however, many teachers still rely on direct instruction lessons. To better define how an integrated curriculum meets the needs of students, this study examined teacher talk and actions during instructional activities with first and second graders under two conditions: (1) subject-integrated social studies lessons of an integrated curriculum unit (experimental condition); and (2) single subject-focused mathematics lessons of a traditional separate subject curriculum (control condition). The mixed-methods study sought to define and compare characteristics of both curriculum approaches. Fourteen hours of observations were collected in each setting. In the integrated curriculum setting, the teacher was a facilitator of teamwork, offering choices, and giving praise; students made choices, decisions, and worked collaboratively. In the traditional setting, the teacher delivered direct instruction and controlled behavior; students followed directions, recalled knowledge, and worked individually. Less teacher energy was expended for behavior management in the integrated curriculum setting, indicating intrinsic motivation of students. Implementation of integrated curricula is recommended because of the student-centered focus that results in greater motivation, ownership, and teamwork, along with deeper knowledge connections. Because many factors hinder implementation, teachers need support when first teaching with this approach.Effective early childhood education addresses the needs of the whole child in an authentic way. Four components of such ''authentic learning'' (Rule 2006) are real-world problems that engage learners in the work of professionals, inquiry activities that employ higher order thinking skills, discussions and collaborations among a community of learners, and student empowerment and ownership through choice. These elements come together well in an integrated curriculum. For example, Molenda and Bhavnagri (2009) showed that integrating children's literature with movement resulted in cooperation among a community of learners in the following ways: through social interaction when students discussed the stories, emotional involvement as they transformed the stories to physical movements, and effective communication as they gave verbal directions and cues to each other in preparation for a performance. The Reggio Emilia approach (Stegelin 2003; Lim 2004), a wellknown child-centered approach, emphasizes the organization of learning around discovery questions formulated by learners that reach into different subject areas, resulting in integrated curriculum projects. The positive aspects of such intriguing projects with multiple connections between concept areas seem obvious, but many teachers still employ