Science Trade Books and Buddies: Involving 3rd-Graders in Informational Texts

Abstract

Teachers are often faced with the challenges of infusing informational texts in the curriculum and helping students comprehend them. These texts require adequately developed background knowledge and understanding of content-specific vocabulary. The authors of this article present their 3rd-grade reading project—the Book Buddy Program—developed to address some of the challenges by creating opportunities for student choice and collaboration. The findings of the study indicate a positive effect of informational texts on students' reading achievements, as they can potentially increase involvement in informational reading as well as students' college readiness. The findings also have implications for teaching reading in linguistic settings other than English.