How Many Features?

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• 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

• 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

Pass out the Exploring Text Features worksheets and have students complete the worksheet using a nonfiction book of their choosing.