Introduction to Charts and Diagrams

Building academic language

Word

• Inform students that they will learn some new vocabulary related to these types of text features.
• Show the Vocabulary Cards on the document camera. Read aloud each vocabulary word and its definition, and describe the image that accompanies it.
• Distribute the Glossary worksheet to each student and place students into pairs. Have them take turns rereading the terms and definitions to each other. Allow students to add their home language definition for each term in the last column, if appropriate, or an example of the term.
• Invite students to share their additions (final column) to the Glossary using the document camera and projector to the whole class.

Sentence

• Explain that text features help readers see the information in a visual or graphic way. Text features such as charts, diagrams and graphs, make the text more interesting and also help us understand the information on a deeper level by providing numbers and pictures or shapes that help us make sense of the information.
• Distribute the Charts, Graphs and Diagrams in Nonfiction worksheet to students and project a teacher copy on the document camera.
• Explain that students will look at an example of these text features and work in pairs to complete a graphic organizer with a sentence frame to determine the name, description, and purpose of each feature.
• Assign students that work well together into pairs and have them work on the "Description" section of the table. Model the first row by saying aloud, "I see two circles that overlap with each circle having its own title." Invite a few students to share their descriptions of each text feature.
• Have the pairs work together to choose the correct name from the word bank for each text feature. Ask students to complete the sentence frame describing the purpose of the visual. Confirm or correct the sentences as a class.