Why Teaching Text Features Is Important - Redlandsteacherblog

We have enjoyed the opportunity to co-teach Text Features in classrooms, k-5 throughout the district over the last couple of weeks.  Understanding text features and text structures was brought to our attention as necessary for students to delve deeper into complex text with understanding.  So we did some research and discovered that there is in fact a connection to what we know about close reading and where we want to go with writing.  Our hope this year is to touch upon all three: text features, text structures, and writing.

So let’s start with why teaching Text Features is important…

Understanding text features is important if we want students to understand and comprehend what they are reading.  They are 5 types of text features:

• those that show a separation in the text such as titles and heading-where information is provided in smaller chunks
• some are an organizational tool such as the table of contents, index, and glossary,
• others are graphics like: photographs, illustrations, maps, charts and tables , which provide a visual that provides more information and supports the text,
• font and format like bold words and italicized words also signal the reader to important information
• and page lay-out: use of insets, bullets, and numbering.

Text features are simply readers’ aides used to gather information and improve comprehension.  Text features should be explicitly taught.  Once students can identify specific features they then need to understand how they help them to understand what they are reading, especially informational text.  A text feature walk is a good way to start (see: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/guiding-students-through-expository-text-text-feature-walks ), then move in to collaborative conversations where students discuss the use of features in a particular text and how it helps them to understand what they are reading.  Later, text features can be connected to text structures as students will soon discover that certain features will support one structure over another.

Here are some sites that we visited:

https://www.lernerbooks.com/Pages/teaching-text-features.aspx

http://prel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TF_EIS_vFINAL.pdf

http://msjordanreads.com/2012/04/19/non-fiction-text-structures/

http://kathygriffinteach.blogspot.com/2012/03/nonfiction-text-features-common-core.html

See your site Instructional Coach for more information on Text Features.

Share this:

• X
• Facebook

Like Loading...

Related