Hi everyone! I have a third grade demo lesson on Tuesday and I have to do a literacy lesson about non fiction text features. I was able to observe this class (it is a collaborative class and I would be given the position of special education teacher) on Friday where the general ed teacher was going over text features. Can anyone give any suggestions so my demo lesson isn't repetitive? Is there any other way to teach or do activities with text features?
Ah sorry! I can't believe I forgot to write that. The teacher read a big book about bugs and asked the students to point out the text features they noticed as she read. After that, the teacher had the students go back to their desks and read a Times for Kids magazine, pick an article, and write down all the text features they noticed using full sentences.
What I might do is help them create an anchor chart with examples of the text feature (for example, come in with maybe 5-7 examples of different text features, and have students help you get them matched up), and find a way to get them thinking about how the text feature helps them. For example, find a way to get them thinking... what should I do when I see a bolded word? Oh, I should check the glossary.
You could even use the same article that their classroom teacher used, and take the same questions... "Find a heading" and kick them up a couple notches on Bloom's Taxonomy... "How does this heading help you as a reader?" "Is this an appropriate place for a heading, why or why not?" Principals always like seeing stuff that makes the kids think critically, and you'll get bonus points if you've already thought of necessary scaffolding to help the SPED/ELL kids get there, also.
pwhatley that sounds like a great idea! thank you! i feel much more confident about this lesson thanks to you and gr3teacher
I ended up focusing on the importance/purpose of text features and how they help us as readers. Thank you all for your help!
