Teaching Text Structure to Elementary Students: A Comparison of Two Methods Across Four Genres

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two instructional methods on the teaching of writing: (1) providing specific text structures, and (2) having students themselves develop a text structure that they think is most appropriate for the given situation. The two methods were compared among four genres: the personal narrative, the directive-expository, the descriptive-expository, and the persuasive genres. Two 4th/5th combined, gifted classes participated. Results revealed that a provided text structure helped children compose in those genres that consisted of logical arrangement. The structure facilitated children's planning processes in selecting, categorizing, and deducing/inducing contents. However, the provided structures were not helpful for genres that required sequential arrangements, where children relied on other factors of writing. In these genres, the structures actually interfered with children's writing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Sadoshima, Saori

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bonnie B. Armbruster

• Education, Language and Literature

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9912365

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80296