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While expository texts are an efficient and dominant genre used by science teachers in the United States, they generally lack justification for their claims and fail to reflect science as practice. In contrast, epistemically considerate texts detail specific scientific experiments, providing the reader insight into the methods and data of a biological discovery. This multi-case exploratory comparison analysed videos of students in introductory and advanced high school biology classes who individually read and then discussed the main ideas, sources of justification, and questions raised expository and alternate biology texts. Videos of eight class periods were analysed with a focus on the types of statements students made during the discussion, points of comprehension, questions posed, and whether and how students identified sources of justification for the texts’ claims. The epistemically considerate texts were perceived as more difficult to comprehend, but for both developmental levels, and particularly for students in the advanced class, these alternate texts elicited more sequences of productive talk and more elaborative, cognitively deep questions, particularly related to the practices of science. We discuss the potential implications for developing complementary sets of texts to optimise students’ science learning and link elements of genre to students’ reading and discussion experiences.

Efficiently evaluating industrial activities plays an essential role in determining the extent to which human–ecosystem interactions may lead to species loss, disrupted community dynamics, ...

Since the sixteenth century, essayists such as Michel De Montaigne have been writing life's minutiae; trying to find words to ‘portray passing … from day to day, from minute to minute’. Even in its earliest articulation the word essay expressed an intention to venture forth into unfamiliar territory. In recent years, blogs have become an avenue for previously silenced writers to publish their personal experiences and perspectives, and no more so than in the ever-growing sphere of ‘mummy bloggers’. Though the term has developed social currency, it has also begun to encompass any and all online writing by mothers and includes a spectrum of styles. This paper suggests a new reading of blogs by mothers, using essayist Vivian Gornick's framework of ‘situation’ and ‘story’. By identifying the online writing which understands ‘why one is speaking’ and ‘who is speaking’, we are able to distinguish blogs that successfully utilise creative non-fiction techniques to articulate and advocate the voice of the m...