In addition to responding to teacher-posed questions, children learn to generate their own
questions as they or the teacher reads. In doing so, they actively engage with the text and
comprehension is enhanced (NIHCD 2000, Shanahan, and others 2010). Teachers model asking
themselves questions as they read aloud with children; they prompt children’s questions by asking
them at points in a selection what they want to know or what the just-read event or information
makes them wonder; and they assist students in formulating questions. They discuss and provide
examples of who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. The gradual release of responsibility
model discussed in chapter 2 of this ELA/ELD Framework may be employed. Some children need more
modeling and scaffolding than others.
Developing a Sense of Text Structure. As noted
above, the panel examining research on improving reading
comprehension in the primary grades concludes that
children’s ability to identify and use a text’s organizational
structure contributes to comprehension (Shanahan, and
others 2010). Furthermore, they note that children can
develop a sense of text structure as early as kindergarten.
A narrative structure is generally used for stories, including
fiction and nonfiction (such as Wendy Tokuda’s Humphrey
the Lost Whale: A True Story). It typically includes an
introduction to characters, a setting, a goal or problem,
a plot focused on achievement of the goal or overcoming
the problem, and a resolution. Nonnarrative texts use
other structures, such as description, sequence, problem and solution, cause and effect, and compare
and contrast. Certain words often signal the type of structure. For example, compare and contrast
structures typically employ words such as both, different, alike, unlike, but, and however.
Beginning in the early years, children should have ample exposure to and sufficient instruction
in the range of text structures so that they can use their knowledge of text structures to understand
increasingly challenging texts in the grade span and the years ahead. Thus, making available and
engaging children as listeners, readers, and writers of a range of literary and informational texts is
crucial, as is talking explicitly about different text structures while sharing books and modeling writing
that employs the structures. (See figure 2.2 in chapter 2 for the range of text types.)
When teachers make transparent the different ways text types are organized and highlight the
language used in different texts and tasks, all children, and ELs in particular, are in a better position to
comprehend the texts they listen to and read, discuss the content, and write their own texts. Children
experiencing difficulty with meaning making may benefit from more instruction directed at and
opportunities to engage with and practice identifying a range of text structures.
Language Development
Language plays a major role in learning. Indeed, its ongoing
development is imperative if students are to achieve the goals set
forth in the introduction to this ELA/ELD Framework and displayed
in the outer ring of figure 3.1. Language development should be a
central focus of schooling, in all areas of the curricula, beginning in
the first years.
Both the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and CA ELD Standards for
kindergarten and grade one reflect the importance of language
development. Each strand of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy includes
attention to language. For example, children learn to determine the
meaning of words and phrases in texts in the Reading strand (RL/
When teachers make transparent
the different ways text types are
organized and highlight the
language used in different texts
and tasks, all children, and ELs in
particular, are in a better position
to comprehend the texts they
listen to and read, discuss the
content, and write their own texts.Transitional Kindergarten to Grade 1 Chapter 3 | 141