Understanding text features helps students navigate text and aids in finding specific information. Teachers should demonstrate how students can use text features in order to preview a text. Previewing text features helps students with the following pre-reading activities:

• recognizing the organizational structure of the text

• predicting what they will learn from the text

• making connections  accessing prior knowledge

• determining author’s purpose   

​Web Resources:

Text Features: Guiding Students through Expository Text with Text Feature Walks

Text Features Poster: a colorful poster shared by Amy Waggoner. Thanks, Amy!

Text Feature Treasure Hunt: this activity provides students the opportunity to search for various text features. It is great when used with a newspaper, textbook, or student magazine.

 How to Read a Textbook: this is a great visual describing all the features of a textbook, especially useful for middle and high school.

Textbook Feature Analysis : a practical activity from Jim Burke to use with students' challenging textbooks. (www.englishcompanion.com)