Lesson plan
How Many Features?
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to use and identify nonfiction text features.
The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
Introduction
(5 minutes)
- Hold up a high-interest nonfiction text and a familiar fiction text for the students to see.
- Ask students to think about how nonfiction and fiction texts differ and why. Students might say that nonfiction texts are about real-world things, they help us to learn things, find information, and explain things. Fictional texts are about imaginative things and are made up.
Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling
(5 minutes)- Open the nonfiction text and slowly take a picture walk through the book.
- Explain that when we read nonfiction, we use something special called text features to help us learn.
- Point out the different kinds of text features in the book paying special attention to the glossary, index, captions, illustrations, text boxes, etc.
- Identify the purpose for each text feature. A glossary helps us to learn the meaning of words, and index helps us to find the page for certain information, captions tell us what a section is about, etc.
- Write a list on the board of the names of each text feature for reference.
Guided Practice
(10 minutes)- Read aloud a few pages of a nonfiction text and as you read, pause and ask students to identify a text feature from the list on the board.
- Invite students to come up and point out the text feature out to the rest of the class.
- Review the different text features as needed.
Independent working time
(15 minutes)Pass out the Exploring Text Features worksheets and have students complete the worksheet using a nonfiction book of their choosing.
Differentiation
Support: Pair two students up to read a nonfiction book together and complete the Exploring Text Features worksheet.
Enrichment: For students who finish early, have them complete the Table of Contents Mystery #1 and Table of Contents Mystery #2 worksheets.
Assessment
(5 minutes)Collect the worksheets to assess whether students are able to identify and utilize the text features of their nonfiction texts.
Review and closing
(5 minutes)Answer questions as needed and review the purpose of text features with the class.
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