The importance and inclusion of informational texts in primary-grade classrooms has been discussed at length in recent years. Few opportunities for primary-aged children to engage in activities or instruction concerning informational texts are provided. This lack of early exposure to informational texts may explain why many young children have difficulty reading and understanding this text type in subsequent years. The goal of this study was to implement informational read alouds with and without explicit instruction in informational genre features and evaluate their impact on children's comprehension and recall. The study used a quasi-experimental, split-plot design with one between-groups factor, condition (exposure plus instruction, exposure, and comparison) and one within-groups factor, time of measurement (pretest and posttest) to examine the children's comprehension. Linguistic analyses were also employed to examine the children's recall of the informational texts. Participants were teachers and second grade children drawn from one area public school. Quantitative data analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in mean comprehension scores between the groups. However, the linguistic analyses showed evidence of learning gains for specific genre features associated with informational texts. The findings offer valuable insight into young children's genre development as it relates to explicit instruction and exposure to informational texts. The children's increasing knowledge of specific informational genre features indicates that the inclusion of such texts at the primary level may be recommended. (Full text of this dissertation may be available via the University of Florida Libraries web site. Please check http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/etd.html ) [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]