- Familiarity with Unique Features of Informational Text
Research shows that children need and benefit from explicit instruction in the special features of content area readers that are so different from the features of fictional works (Yopp and Yopp, 2000). Systematic practice in using content area readers provides children with opportunities to grow knowledgeable and comfortable with these support features, which include the table of contents, captions, glossary, and index. Given that subject area textbooks become the predominant mode of instruction in the typical school program, the importance of this experience cannot be overstated.
- Learning National Standards-Based Content
Content area readers can provide children the opportunity for systematic learning of national standards-based content that covers the core concepts and vocabulary in such essential areas as science, social studies, health, and math. Studies of the way in which the brain processes information (Jensen, 1998; Wolfe, 1998) indicate that the acquisition of core concepts and vocabulary will serve as a foundation
- Avoiding the Fourth-Grade Slump
Educational literature has often noted the socalled fourth-grade slump: Students who appear to have progressed well in the primary grades experience difficulties in learning when they reach intermediate grades. The slump may well reflect the shift in instructional focus from fiction to nonfiction-from storybooks to textbooks (Chall, 1983; Chall et al., 1990). The fourth-grade slump may result from one or more of the following deficiencies:
- Lack of basic reading skills
- Lack of familiarity and comfort with structures, text-support features, and writing styles of textbooks
- Lack of background knowledge upon which to build
- Lack of self-confidence as a reader.
Use of content area readers in the primary grades should do much to help alleviate this problem.
II. What Research Tells Us About How Children Learn
Before a content area reading program is implemented in the primary grades, critical choices need to be made that will determine how well potential benefits will be realized. These choices involve both materials and instructional strategies. Findings from scientifically based studies in brain research and reading instruction need to be in the forefront of this decision-making process.
