Abstract of

The Information Book Genre: Its Role in Integrated Science Literacy Research and Practice

Christine C. Pappas, University of Illinois at Chicago

There has been a call for approaches that connect science learning with literacy, yet the use of, and research on, children's literature information books in science instruction has been quite limited. Because the discipline of science involves distinctive generic linguistic registers, what information books should be integrated in science curriculum is a significant concern. Thus, in order to explore the role of the information book genre for use in science instruction in the primary grades, this article reports on a social-semiotic analysis of a corpus of picture information books written by children's literature authors to explicate the characteristic aspects of this genre, namely, the recurring linguistic patterns of typical texts of the genre. However, as social acts, genre is also very generative and dynamic, giving rise to atypical instances of the genre. Many texts in the corpus that were analyzed represent these atypical or hybrid forms, which include some of the elements or features found in typical texts, but also realize linguistic resources from other genres. Thus, this article gives an account of the range of both typical and atypical texts and discusses future research issues regarding the use of information books in integrated science literacy instruction.

Abstract from Pappas, C.C. (2006, April/May/June). The Information Book Genre: Its Role in Integrated Science Literacy Research and Practice. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(2), 226–250. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.41.2.4