ABSTRACT
The original title of the project from which the work described in this book grew was ‘Extending Literacy in the Junior School’. It rapidly became clear, however, that the processes involved when children were researching and interacting with text are not age-specific. Levels of experience and expertise naturally vary across the age phases, as does the level of support children need, but the processed involved in interacting with information texts are essentially the same for an infant as for an adult. More support will be needed by the infant but, just as one improves as a reader by reading, one becomes more expert at ‘researching’ by undertaking research. Children encounter non-fiction texts (books, lists, notices, signs, etc.) from their earliest years, both in school and at home, yet most of the work on children’s use of this kind of text has concentrated upon older children. For example, the only major British research so far into the use of reading as a medium for learning (Lunzer and Gardner, 1979; 1984) was undertaken with secondary and upper junior children.
