Annotated Bibliography

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Akhondi, M., Malayeri, F., & Samad, A. (2011). How to teach expository text structure to facilitate reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 64(5), 368-372.
This article gives a synopsis of the types of expository text structures, the essentials for teaching the structures, and procedures for introducing the structures to students.

Benson, V., & Cummins, C. (2000). The power of retelling: Developmental steps for building comprehension. Chicago: Wright Group.
To move retelling form more than an assessment to an effective instructional strategy for teaching comprehension, Benson and Cummins developed the Developmental Retelling model, which includes pretelling, guided retelling, story map retelling, and written retelling. The guide contains sample lesson plans and assessment rubrics. 

Block, C. C., & Parris, S. R. (2008). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
This professional resource provides research from leading scholars.  It offers best practice instructional guidelines, policy recommendations, key research questions that need to be answered, as well as questions for study or discussion.  Topics include differentiated instruction, technology and reading comprehension, teaching English language learners, and current neuroscientific findings and their implications.

Bluestein, N. A. (2010). Unlocking text features for determining importance in expository text: A strategy for struggling readers. The Reading Teacher, 63(7), 597-600.
Bluestein describes in detail the text features of biography, journals and textbooks and explains how struggling students can use those features to determine importance in nonfiction text.

Cohen, L., Krustedt, R., & May, M. (2009). Fluency, text structure, and retelling: a complex relationship. Reading Horizons, 49(2), 101-125.
This research study examined the effects of fluency rates and knowledge of text structure on student retell of stories.

Cummins, S., & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. (2011). Teaching for synthesis of informational texts with read-alouds. The Reading Teacher, 64(6), 394-405.
Examining the effects of interactive read alouds using informational text on students’ ability to synthesize the text, the authors outline in detail ways to plan, implement and assess think aloud minilessons. 

Dickson, S., Simmons, D. & Kameenui, E. (1998). Text organization: Research bases. In D. Simmons & E. Kameenui (Eds.), What reading research tells us about children with diverse learning needs bases and basics (pp. 239-277). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
With special emphasis on the comprehension of diverse learners, Dickson, Simmons, and Kameenui focus on the effects and implications of the physical presentation and text structure of text organization and on reading comprehension. 

Dimino, J. A., Gersten, R., Carnine, D., & Blake, G. (1990). Story grammar: An approach for promoting at risk secondary students' comprehension of literature. Elementary School Journal, 91(1), 19-32.
The authors describe their research with low-performing ninth-grade students as they conducted a study of two methods of teaching students to comprehend short stories. One group received interactive strategy instruction based on schema theory and story grammar.  The other group received traditional basal instruction. The findings indicated that students who experienced story grammar instruction performed significantly better than students who experienced traditional instruction.

Dymock, S., & Nicholson, T. (2007). Teaching text structures: A key to nonfiction reading success. New York: Scholastic.
Dymock and Nicholson discuss each type of nonfiction text structure in detail and outline how to teach students text structures effectively.

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Lapp, D. (2008). Shared readings: Modeling comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features for older readers. The Reading Teacher, 61(7), 548-556.
This study focuses on teachers using direct modeling during shared reading in order to teach comprehension skills, vocabulary, text features and text structures effectively.

Guthrie, J., & Ozgungor, S. (2004). Interactions among elaborative interrogation, knowledge, and interest in the process of constructing knowledge from text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(3), 437-443.
In their study the authors explored the impact of elaborative interrogation on knowledge construction during expository reading. Focusing on the interactions among elaborative interrogation, knowledge, and interest, the authors used three measures of learning:  recall, inference, and coherence.

Hansen, J. (2004). Tell me a story: Developmentally appropriate retelling strategies. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. 
Tell Me a Story is a manual that outlines the steps that can be used to guide primary-grade students through retellings.

Mandler, J., & Johnson, N. (1977). Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111-151.
Recognizing that the underlying structure of stories is used to form schemata for guiding encoding and retrieval, the authors explored the connection between story structure and recall.  They suggested that schemata used to guide encoding and recall although related are not identical and that retrieval depends on the schemata that is operative at the time of recall. 

Meyer, B., & Freedle, R. (1984). Effects of discourse type on recall. American Educational Research Journal, 21(1), 121-143. 
Results from their study of the effects of discourse type on recall support the prediction that discourse types like comparison, problem/solution, and causation yield superior recall of information than a collection of descriptions about a topic.

Pressley, M. (2002). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Intended to share what works to develop readers in elementary school, this book covers topics that include the various components of both whole language and skills instruction; the application of the balanced approach in real classrooms, and motivational issues.

Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2005). The essentials of teaching children to read: What every teacher needs to know. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.
The seven pillars of effective reading instruction outlined by Reutzel and Cooter include:  Teacher Knowledge; Classroom Assessment Evidence-Based Teaching Practices; Response to Intervention; Family and Community Connections; Motivation and Engagement; and Technology and New Literacies. These pillars are designed to support teachers in developing and performing their roles in helping all children become successful readers and writers.

Snow, C., Burns, M., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 
This book explores how to foster literacy from birth through the primary grades. It includes an evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials frequently used in the teaching of reading.

Stein, N., & Glenn, C. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In R. Freedle (Ed.), New directions in discourse processing (pp. 53-120). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
To investigate story recall in elementary school children, Stein and Glenn conducted a study of 48 first and fifth graders.  They examined the effect of age and time on the production of stories and the usefulness of making distinctions between the different types of story information.

Stetter, M., & Hughes, M. (2010). Using story grammar to assist students with learning disabilities and reading difficulties improve their comprehension. Education and Treatment of Children, 33(1), 115-151.
This study examines the effects of the explicit teaching of story grammar on the comprehension of students with disabilities. 

Tompkins, G. E., & Collom, S. (2004). Sharing the pen: Interactive writing with young children. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Tompkins outlines the shared writing stages and describes a wide variety of lessons that build on each stage of the shared writing process. 

Williams, J., Brown, L., Silverstein, A., & deCari, J. (1994). An instructional program in comprehension of narrative themes for adolescents with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 17, 205-221.
Results from a study of fifth through eighth grade students, including students with disabilities, who participated in an instructional program about the concept of themes in stories, indicate that the program improved comprehension of theme.

Williams, J., Hall, K., & Lauer, K. (2004). Teaching expository text structure to young at-risk learners: building the basics of comprehension instruction. Exceptionality, 12(3), 129-144.
Sharing the results from their study of teaching expository text structure to young children, the authors suggest that young children would benefit from instruction on text structure as early as 2nd grade.  They also describe an instructional program that focuses on the text structure of compare and contrast.