#textfeatures

Nonfiction text feature bingo! The callings cards have the text feature, example, and definition. Fun way to quickly review text features. bit.ly/2oQ6JzM #textfeatures #nonfictiontextfeatures #esol #eslteacher #learninggames #tpt #teachersofinstagram #teacherspayteachers

Results from a study by Hiebert in which she compared three different tiered text sets from three different publishers to determine if the necessary text features to support developing readers (particularly vocabulary and volume, i.e. sentence length) are present. Crucial finding: "For struggling readers, two features of text matter a great deal—the vocabulary and the volume of reading. The perspective underlying the texts for struggling readers in these programs of leveled texts goes in the opposite direction of what struggling readers need. Rather than getting texts with more accessible vocabulary, they get texts where the ideas have been sacrificed or simplified to comply with the aim of achieving a target text complexity." My take-away: eschew ready-made, multi-leveled text sets from publishers. Teachers need to be empowered to locate, evaluate, and curate their own text collections to suit the particular needs and interests of their own learners.

How and why to teach text features. It was important before the Core Standards mandate. Ray Reutzel explains why.