The Effects of Genre on Student Learning From Informational Text
Donald Reece Wilson

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of text genre on student learning from science text, using science-related traditional informational and poetic informational texts, with fifth-graders. Four texts were used: a traditional informational text about caves, a poetic informational text about caves, a traditional informational text about mountains, and a poetic informational text about mountains. One group of students worked with the traditional informational cave text and the poetic information mountain text, while a second group worked with the traditional informational mountains text and the poetic informational caves text. After reading each text, students completed comprehension questions and a sorting task involving the main concepts of each text. Results indicated that genre was not a factor in student comprehension of science text. Study results might be interpreted as an indication that in a classroom, some students might learn better from poetic texts, and that a variety of text types may be useful.

Full Text: PDF