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Objective This paper includes a mixed methods content analysis of a parenting Facebook group focused on COVID‐19. We analyze participants' posts to identify the types of support parents sought and gave. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in increased parental stress and challenges related to children's development. Many families turned to social media as a source of information and social support. Method We analyzed 1,180 posts from a large, closed Facebook group focused on parenting during COVID‐19. We coded posts using a modified version of social support theory and supplemented this analysis with codes related to giving and receiving support, post format, and topic. Results Participants frequently offered informational support, typically reposting content from other sources. There were fewer instances of soliciting support, but these posts had significantly more comments. The most common topics discussed were parenting and child development, remote schooling support, literacy, and adult mental health. Conclusion Findings illustrate the benefits and challenges of online support communities for parents, especially those on social media platforms. Implications These results suggest areas where parents may need or want support during and after COVID‐19 and ways in which social media can serve as a form of parenting social support.

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The purpose of this chapter is to provide information teachers need to assess young children's science compositions for explanation genre features and content knowledge. The authors begin with an overview of the language specific to the genres of science in general and to explanation specifically. They provide an overview of reasoning and genre features used in explanation and describe how trade books on science topics written for children can be used to scaffold children's explanatory science thinking and writing. Examples of children's texts are then considered for how assessment of each provides insight into the disciplinary thinking of the authors, how the composition includes linguistic features of the explanation genre, and how teachers might scaffold the children's emerging explanation compositions of scientific phenomena while supporting disciplinary thinking and knowledge building.

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