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Entire Librarylesson-planThird GradeReading & WritingText Features: Reading that Makes Sense

Lesson Plan

Text Features: Reading that Makes Sense

Improve your students' comprehension of non-fictional reading through this lesson that teaches them about text features. Students will find their own text features and explain why they aid in the reading process.
Need extra help for EL students? Try the Using Text Features for Comprehension pre-lesson.
Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Subject
Reading & Writing
English Learner
English Learner Content
View aligned standards
RF.4.4.a
RI.3.7
RI.4.5
RI.4.7
SL.4.1.c
W.4.2.c
W.4.2.d
W.4.8
Need extra help for EL students? Try the Using Text Features for Comprehension pre-lesson.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to understand the purpose of text features and how they support readers' comprehension of a text.

The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
EL adjustments

Introduction

(5 minutes)
Presidio of San FranciscoJamestownText Features Book Pages
  • Explain to students that text features are the elements of books, newspapers, and magazines that enhance a reader's experience by pointing out important information and making the text simpler to understand.
  • Explain the following nonfiction text features with the class: table of contents, index, glossary, titles, headings/subheadings, text (bold, color, italics), bullets, asterisks, pictures, illustrations, captions, side bars, diagrams, maps, tables, and time lines.
  • Display an example of each type of text feature and a definition of each. This can be on a digital presention or in an example book.
  • Emphasize the importance of each text feature and prompt students to discuss any prior experience they have with these text features.

Beginning

  • Ask students to define text features with a partner. Allow them to use their home language (L1) if they choose.
  • Provide a student-friendly definition of text features. Give learners a partially completed glossary on which to record examples of text features.
  • Provide a word bank for students to use when completing the sentence stems.

Intermediate

  • Instruct learners to define text features in their own words and explain why they are important.
  • Have students use a word bank of important terms to explain how they used text features to better understand text.
  • Display sentence frames for discussion, such as "I have used the ________________ text feature, and it helped _________________."