Today, I wanted to come to you today to discuss teaching nonfiction text features. It is one of my favorite standards to teach simply because I LOVE nonfiction text and all the colorful/helpful text features!
Not only will students recognize these text features, but they can use them in their reading to further improve their understanding.
Start by Teaching Vocabulary and Text Features with Anchor Charts
Before diving into texts and passages, spend a few lessons and activities simply teaching the text features themselves. Of course, while teaching these nonfiction text features, it will be necessary to pull in texts and passages as examples. But focus for a bit on learning each of the text features and becoming familiar with the terminology.
Start with simple anchor charts where you discuss what nonfiction text features students have seen. I like to categorize text features into four types: Text changes, visual elements, charts and graphs, and helpful additions. So, in your whole-group lesson, have students share which text features they already know. Or, you can use a similar chart to sort the types of text features (in printed examples) into the correct category.
Next, you want to have hands-on practice. Have students find examples of text features and use those to create an anchor chart guide. Keeping a stash of old magazines and newspapers is a great idea for this! Always providing the students with a real example is a great practice to help solidify their knowledge of terminology. This can be an activity you do with students or it can be a point of reference throughout your nonfiction text features unit.
Mini-Lessons
Teaching with mini lessons is a very important step in the Text Features unit. Not only are you teaching how text features affect reading comprehension, but you also have to teach each specific text feature and its purposes.
A great introduction to any skill unit is a BrainPop or BrainPop, Jr. video. This video talks about glossaries, table of contents, photographs, bold print, captions, and more! It’s a basic ‘teaching nonfiction’ video but covers a lot of important text features as well. Check out this video that puts nonfiction reading into easy steps for the students.
(Source: BrainPopJr.)
Focus on Explicit Teaching of Text Features
Explicit teaching of text features is incredibly important. Diving into texts will be your next step, but first, you really must give students an opportunity to learn, understand, and memorize each text feature. If you allow them to easily recognize the text features outside of texts, it’ll be easy for them to find them within texts. Above, you see pictures of my hands-on lessons and graphic organizers. These provide students with explicit instruction of text features on their own.
Bring many mentor texts into your lessons
Stock up on Text Feature mentor texts! Each of these suggested texts are affiliate links from Amazon. Specifically, for teaching text features, I grabbed six books that I have used in my classroom library before. I know each has a few different text features.
- National Geographic Readers: Planets by Elizabeth Carney
- Wildlife Photographer by William David Thomas
- I Wonder Why the Sea is Salty by Anita Ganeri
- How Things Work: In the Yard by Lisa Campbell Ernst
- National Geographic Readers: Pandas by Anne Schreiber
- Little Kids for Big Book of Why by Amy Shields
Have a scavenger hunt with real texts
When teaching text features, it’s crucial to include real examples of text features from magazines, passages, and texts. Check out these activities that allow students to hunt on their own!
(Source: Scholastic)
This amazing blog post from Scholastic shows a classroom full of eager kiddos diving into kid’s magazines to find text features. They also make a (free!) two-page folder or presentation of what they’ve found. It asks the students to find specific text features within the Scholastic News!
(Source: The Teaching Oasis)
This is a wonderful free file folder activity that The Teaching Oasis has her students complete. They use a real text from their classroom library and illustrate or write about the text features they find in that text. This is a great way to hunt and search for text features within informational texts.
Allow them to practice in many ways
It is very important to give your students many different hands-on ways to practice their new skills. Here are a few ideas that can help your students during your ELA block. Students learn in all different manners, so giving many different options to learn is great.
(Source: Scholastic)
This image is from the same blog post that I discussed earlier. Here, the students are making classroom posters for each of the different text features. This is a great way to tie in speaking and listening skills as well as technology skills.
On the left, you see text features passages, and comprehension activities. Each of my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade sets comes with Lexile-leveled passages and graphic organizers to use with any nonfiction text, whether it’s a text or passage.
In the picture on the right, you see task cards and interactive notebook pieces. These task cards are included in any of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade sets, too! Task cards and notebook pieces can be used independently or with a partner/group. They can be used with any text.
Don’t Forget About Online Text Features, Too
Don’t forget text online and web text features in grades 3+. 3rd & 4th grade standards are a little different from 1st and 2nd grade because they bring electronic menus and Internet lingo into their learning. If you teach 3rd or higher, make sure to give many opportunities to learn about webpages and their specific text features, too!
Stock up on ready-to-go activities for Teaching Text Features:
Each unit below includes lesson plans, reading passages, graphic organizers for any text, an assessment, and more!
1st Grade Text Features Unit
2nd Grade Text Features Unit
3rd Grade Text Features Unit
Or… Join the All-Year-ELA Membership!!
With this membership, you will get all of my ELA standards-based units. This includes my standards-based materials for nonfiction and fiction reading, writing, language and grammar, vocabulary, phonics, and speaking & listening!
Check out these blogs for more nonfiction tips:
- How to Compare and Contrast Nonfiction Texts
- Using Nonfiction Text Pictures and Images
- Author’s Point and Reasons in Nonfiction Text
Want a free digital activity to add to your text features unit?
FREE TEXT FEATURE ACTIVITY
Get this fun activity sent directly to your inbox. This free digital activity comes with links to Seesaw and Google Slides for your students.
