Sorting it out: Elementary students' responses to fact and fiction in informational storybooks as read-alouds for science and social studies

This paper describes a descriptive, developmental study of elementary stude nts' acquisition of vocabulary, comprehension of content area concepts in s cience and social studies, and ability to distinguish between fact and fict ion in informational books read aloud by pre-service teachers in the classr oom. Multiple analyses of variance indicate significant differences across grade levels for comprehension and ability to distinguish between fact and fiction but not for vocabulary acquisition, which shows significant increas es that are stable across grade levels. The findings suggest appropriate us es and cautions that should be considered when informational storybooks are used as read-alouds to facilitate elementary student learning across the c urriculum.