As we teach students to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction we need to understand that non-fiction is a broad area (just look at the Dewey Decimal System). So I have begun to refer to content material as Informational Text. The day I introduced informational text writing. I brought in about 30 different informational books that I like and let the kids explore. As they explored I asked, "What do you notice?" I began to generate a list.
- title
- author
- table of contents
- pictures
- bold words
- index glossary
- color
- vivid description
These are just a few things my students came up with. Then we discussed the purposes of the text features.
The next day I had the following poster up (basically their list) and we reviewed the text features and the purpose. The task at hand this day was to locate at least 4 features of the list in one of the informational books in the tub. They made a t-chart as they browsed their book finding these items listed and identifying how it helps the reader. At the end I have students sticky note their favorite text feature in the book and share it in a sharing circle.
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