This study provides qualitative findings about informational text writing in a prekindergarten classroom. First, I examined childrens understandings of informational text features. Second, I analyzed how science journals, as informational texts, were created in social interaction. Lastly, I examined the nature of the childrens journals entries. The participants for this study were 17 low-income children in a public prekindergarten in the mid-South. Data collection included classroom observations by the researcher, videotape of classroom instruction and journal entries. Children were given an Informational Text Interview (ITI) to assess understandings of informational text genre features. An analysis of the ITI showed that children had different levels of interaction with the informational text: by naming key features in the photographs, by responding to how the genre features were functioning and by taking a meta-stance towards the text that considered authorial intention. An analysis of journal writing sessions showed that journals were produced through providing demonstrations, making authentic invitations and accepting childrens approximations. Analyses of focal journal entries showed that children used structures and visual and textual elements of informational texts including diagrams, captions and labels. Children at all stages of writing development were able to produce semantically accurate labels and captions for images.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07192012-153511 |
| Date | 25 July 2012 |
| Creators | Flushman, Tanya |
| Contributors | Deborah Wells Rowe, David Dickinson, Robert Jimenez, Leona Schauble, Nell Duke |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07192012-153511/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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