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:
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recognizing the organizational structure of the text
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predicting what they will learn from the text
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making connections accessing prior knowledge
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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)