¶ Literacy Knowledge & Text Features
Hello teachers , we are diving into the fifth episode of our Science of Reading series , and today it is all about literacy knowledge . So , whether you are just joining us or you've been following along , this episode is packed with ideas to help your students improve their literacy knowledge , specifically in the area of text features .
And if you haven't had a chance yet to listen to the other four episodes all about navigating the science of reading definitely check those out after this one . So in this episode , we're going to break down what literacy knowledge is , why it matters and how you can make text features come alive in your classroom .
The other thing that's cool about this episode is we are going to share an easy , low-prep text features scavenger hunt activity that your students and their other teachers actually are going to love . So get ready to see your students' reading skills soar . Let's go ahead and dive into this week's episode . Hi there ELA teachers .
Caitlin here , ceo and co-founder of EB Academics , I'm so excited you're choosing to tune into the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast .
Our mission here is simple to help middle school ELA teachers take back their time outside of the classroom by providing them with engaging lessons , planning frameworks and genuine support so that they can become the best version of themselves , both inside and outside of the classroom , and we do this every single day inside the EB Teachers ELA portal .
This is a special place we've developed uniquely for ELA teachers to access every single piece of our engaging , fun and rigorous curriculum , so that they have everything they need to batch plan their lessons using our EB Teacher Digital Planner that's built right into the app .
Over the years , we've watched as thousands of teachers from around the world have found success in and out of the classroom after using EB academics programs , and we're determined to help thousands more .
If you're interested in learning more , simply click the link in the podcast description and in the meantime , we look forward to serving you right here on the podcast every single week .
Hello everyone and welcome back to our Science of Reading series , where we're helping middle school ELA teachers navigate the strands of the reading rope .
We're sharing tips , we're sharing activities to help your students strengthen their reading skills , and I'm Jessica and I'm here with Megan to kick off the fifth episode already in our series , and today we're talking about literacy knowledge .
So this episode will make total sense on its own , but if you want to start from the beginning and learn a little bit more about the science of reading or what the reading rope is , then you might want to go back to episode 300 .
That's the first in our series and today's topic will be valuable for you , regardless of whether you've listened to those other episodes or our series , right ? So if this is like your first one , that's fine . Stick with us . And if your school follows the science of reading , awesome , this is for you .
If your school doesn't follow the science of reading , we're still sharing really great activities and knowledge that I think is going to be so beneficial for you and your students .
Absolutely yeah . So literacy knowledge just basically covers a range of topics , and what they have in common is truly organization . So it's really about understanding that various text formats have distinct structures for different purposes , so sort of like how a blog post is going to be written and organized differently than , say , a chapter in a textbook .
This starts with print knowledge , like when we teach young students that we read books right in English , from top to bottom and left to right .
This also includes learning about genres like nonfiction , verse , fiction , how essays are organized in paragraphs and poems , how they're organized into stanzas , et cetera , and so text structures are another form of organization , and so when you teach your students about , say , problem solution and cause and effect , compare and contrast and more , you're actually showing
students how writing can be organized to serve a purpose , and that's simply literacy knowledge as well .
Yes , and an important part of a text organization is the conventions that it uses . So another concept inside of this literacy knowledge strand is actually text features , and text features are elements that help readers navigate and understand a text more effectively . So you're going to recognize these once I say them .
But these are things like headings and subheadings , right , they guide the readers through different sections . There are captions that explain images or diagrams , the table of contents and indexes that help locate information quickly , and then visual aids like graphs , charts , et cetera , that present information in a clear and accessible way .
And it's really important that understanding and using these text features that's critical for grasping the full meaning and structure of a text . And I think , like we all know , that students typically brush over a lot of these .
Like I don't know if you've ever seen that , megan , with your students Like they might read the heading but they are not reading the captions aloud . If we're reading as a group , they're not necessarily looking at what the chart is sharing .
It's kind of just like , oh yeah , there's a chart there and it's like , no , there's so much information there that'll help explain it better . So it's really important that we not only address these with our students but teach them how to use these features .
Yeah , they're missing a lot of useful stuff there , which is the key here . So one area where we do get a lot of teacher questions is help with teaching those text features that Jessica was just talking about .
So it's easy to forget just how important those are for reading comprehension for our students and sometimes we just kind of assume that students , oh , they get them and they know they're there , and they know they're helpful , when they really just need to be more aware of them .
For sure , and I think often teachers forget to address them because it's not necessarily in a standard you need to cover and I know we're all about addressing the skills and standards , but this is one that , like , our students actually need to know .
And if you're like , oh , the third grade teacher taught it , I don't need to cover it , well , no , you absolutely need to , right , because I think even high school teachers sometimes find that they have to go back and they have to review those text features to help students navigate their reading .
And that's why , actually , our curriculum team at EB , we actually created a fun text features infographic activity , which we encourage . If you're an EB teacher listening to this , go try that out with your students .
But today we're going to share another simple , interactive activity that you can use to help your students be more conscious of text features and how they work . So Megan is actually going to walk us through this text features .
Scavenger hunt Sounds fun , right , and it's super low prep and it will really open up your students' eyes to how these concepts work in their reading . Yep .
And this is actually going to be a cross-disciplinary lesson , so guaranteed that other content area teachers are going to love you for this .
Right .
So your students are very simply going to supply the main component of this lesson , which is a textbook . Easy enough If your students can access their textbook on their devices or Chromebooks or whatever they use . That's super simple because they'll already have one on hand .
If you're using physical textbooks , I just ask students to bring that textbook to class the day of your lesson and give a few days prep for this right . They need those reminders , so just be thinking ahead on that .
We do suggest that you also borrow a few extra textbooks to have on hand for the students who may forget , and pairing students up that can also help too .
But before you compile the questions for your scavenger hunt , think about whether your students will be using the same textbook title or different ones , and you may just need to check if your students even have the same textbook in the same subject , because you know some schools have different students on different levels working with different textbooks , that kind of
thing . So if all your students will have the same textbook , your questions can be more specific . If students are using different textbooks , the questions are going to be a little bit more general . So before the day of the scavenger hunt , just review the text features that you want students to learn or to review , and this is truly up to you .
But Jessica is going to share some very basic ones that can kind of help get us started .
Yes , and I think there are so many text features out there . So if you just focus on these basic ones , it's going to make the lesson go a lot smoother and it's just going to give it more focus .
So you can add or delete the ones you want from this list , but here are the ones I like Heading and subheading , table of contents , glossary , index , photographs and illustrations , diagram , map , caption and then types of prints you want to address . You know bold italics and highlighting with your students .
And again , if you're an EB teacher , you can save yourself a bunch of time . You can use our student video on text features and just show it to your students . It's going to go over all of those different examples with visuals and then you can also use that text features infographic that I shared about earlier .
But again , if you're not an EB teacher , you can take those text features that I just shared and then find the definitions online , go on ChatGPT , whatever you need to just create like a very basic handout or presentation for your students .
Yep . So then , once you've decided which type of textbook or textbooks students will be bringing , you can even create your own questions .
So if everyone has the same textbook , again , be super specific here , that's fine , and here are a few examples of the kinds of questions that you can ask using a science textbook to demonstrate , and you can just choose a chapter and create your own . So the first question might be locate the table of contents .
On what page does the chapter on plate tectonics begin ? Another question might be go to this chapter on plate tectonics , find the heading that introduces the concept of continental drift . What is the heading and on which page is it located ? Next , you could have students list two subheadings under the main heading of plate tectonics .
Next , have them look at the diagram of the Earth's layers . What does this caption say about the lithosphere ? The next thing would be locate a diagram that illustrates how tectonic plates move , describe what the arrows in the diagram represent .
They could then identify two bolded terms related to plate tectonics and have them write down the terms of their definitions and their definitions , excuse me . And then they could look up the term subduction in the glossary and write down the definition that's there .
And finally , they could use the index and find pages that discuss mid-ocean ridges , and they could list at least two page numbers where the topic is mentioned . It's a good science review for us today .
Right . Did you ever think you were going to ?
say the word . What was it ? Lithosphere today ? Lithosphere , it's very good
¶ Text Feature Scavenger Hunt Activity
. Of course , that's just a sampling of all the possible ideas you could use here . Now , if you have students that are using different textbooks , you're going to need to be more general with your questions , obviously .
So here are a few ideas that could work for any textbook , and , of course , chatgpt could be very handy for you when you're coming up with these . So one might be using the table of contents what is the title of the first chapter ? Next , using the table of contents , find a chapter that interests you . What is its title and what page does it start on ?
They could then go to that chapter and locate a heading that introduces a section . What is that heading ? They could then find a subheading in that same chapter . Ask them what does it focus on ? Next , they could find an image , like a photograph or an illustration , and ask them what does the caption say about it ? Next , find a diagram .
Describe what it illustrates . Then they could locate an illustration that shows a process or a sequence and ask them what steps or stages does it show ?
Next , they could find a bolded term and ask them why do you think this term is important in the text and then finally have them look up a term they're unfamiliar with in the glossary and what is its definition .
So questions like these can really just help students kind of explore their text to just simply discover where and why the different text features are used . And then , after students finish the scavenger hunt , you can review their responses as a class and talk about the purpose of each text feature they encountered .
I love it , megan , like that's fun for students , especially if you put a timer on or you say the first group to find them all and get it correct gets a little prize . Whatever form of competition you want to do , like I think students would really enjoy that . Oh , yeah , yeah , for sure .
And I'm thinking that if students don't have the same textbook and you're a teacher and you're like no , but I want everyone to work with the same text , then you know , just go borrow one from the social studies teacher down the hallway or whatever you need , and I'm sure you can use that for your students .
Or you know they'll might have a digital version or a PDF that you could just print from . And I think , gosh , like again , what a fun activity , very simple and also really helpful for students , especially if you're like intentional about the planning of this activity and you do meet with the history teacher and say , hey , what are you studying next ?
Can we like preview that chapter for you ? They're going to be like yes , please , right now , like the kids are coming in with some background knowledge , which we talked about in a previous episode , is so important for reading comprehension , so I just love that . This is like a really a win-win situation .
Yeah , I mean , there's so many different creative ways you could take this too .
I mean , I think one way you could really extend the learning is even have them make their own textbook page , so they might , you know , do this scavenger hunt and then have them think through , like what would a topic of a page be , and then how could they include different text features , and that would be one way to kind of extend it for them .
For sure that's like way higher level . So I like it . And we know like , okay , we're going to introduce this to your students and there's going to be some students there always are that are like wait , why are we doing this ? Like , this is ELA class , this isn't science , this isn't social studies . Why are you making me do it ?
And I think it's a great time to remind students that all our subjects really do overlap with each other . Because we break middle and high school your schedule up into subjects , it can give kids the false impression that every subject exists in its own little box . And this is 100% Jameson right now .
Right , it's his first year of sixth grade and he absolutely loves that . He switches classes and he has a new teacher for every subject . But he's like all right , math is done , don't have to think about that again , or ELA is done , and he really isolates his subjects .
And I wish he could start to see like wait , no , you still need those skills from ELA class in your science class this afternoon . So I think , a reminder that the real world doesn't work in this isolated way . It's never a bad thing . So I really see some great cross-discipline opportunities here .
So again , work with your social studies teacher , work with the science teacher at school , see what you can preview for them to really help your students out .
So I hope that you listeners have taken away some good ideas from this episode and maybe you're inspired a little bit to try out this really engaging and pretty simple scavenger hunt with your students to help build their literacy knowledge .
So that wraps up this episode , but please do join us next time where we're going to start digging into word recognition with a fun activity for developing students' phonological awareness and I know that doesn't sound very exciting , but it's actually really cool . A little preview .
It's a poetry episode and Megan's going to share a bunch of like really simple activities you can do with your students that are so fun and you're really hitting on this strand of the reading rope . So make sure you join us for that next episode and have a great week everyone . Bye , everybody .