Examining Kindergarten Students' Use of and Interest in Informational Text

This article describes a dual-case study that was conducted to examine the effects of The Tools Approach on kindergarten students' use of and interest in informational text. Children in one teacher's kindergarten classroom during two subsequent years participated in a writing intervention which included learning about text features, conducting group research, and conducting individual research. During both cases, data were collected during child, parent, and teacher interviews. The results of this study showed that children participating in The Tools Approach strategy increased their abilities to identify and use text features to gather and disseminate information. Children also demonstrated increased interest in reading and writing informational text as a result of their participation in the study.