Genre development and elementary students' informational writing: A review of the literature

This critical review of the literature addresses the following question: How can genre theory and research related to children's informational writing development inform future research on and instruction of informational writing at the elementary level? The review considers research on elementary (grades K-6) children's production of information text. Taking a methodological perspective, it describes some trends in this body of work. Employing the notion of continua, it categorizes the literature in terms of four dimensions: Perspective (achievement-developmental). Context (consideration of purpose, audience, scaffolding, and exposure), Timepoint Sampling (single-multiple), and Research Design (qualitative-quantitative). It is argued that there are some salient differences between work conducted at the primary level (K-3) and the intermediate level (4-6). Specifically, it is argued that the research at the primary level adopts a predominantly developmental perspective, while the research at the intermediate level tends to adopt an achievement perspective. It is concluded that the field would benefit from a wide variety of research methodologies and designs in the study of children's informational writing development and achievement. Implications for future research and for instruction are discussed.