Abstract of

Cultural Artifacts as Scaffolds for Genre Development

George Kamberelis

Thomas D. Bovino

This study was designed to examine the intersection of genre studies and studies of scaffolded learning. The purpose of the study was to explore children's developing understanding and use of narrative and informational genres, as well as how cultural exemplars functioned to scaffold children's genre development. Using a 3 (grade) by 2 (genre) by 2 (gender) by 2 (task condition) cross-sectional design, these research foci were investigated by examining stories and biology reports that children wrote in two different task conditions. In the first condition, which we refer to as the nonscaffolded condition, children thought up and wrote a fictional story and a factual biology report about animals. In the second condition, which we refer to as the scaffolded condition, children recalled a well-known fictional story and a factual biology report about animals and wrote them down from memory. Eighty-eight children from 3 kindergarten classrooms, 3 first-grade classrooms, and 3 second-grade classrooms were the participants for this study.

Abstract from Kamberelis, G., & Bovino, T.D. (1999). Cultural Artifacts as Scaffolds for Genre Development. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(2), 138–170. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.34.2.2