Text Features Anchor Chart & Activity

You may have read my post here where I discussed some text structure activities I completed with my students.  After we spent a few weeks on text structure, we reviewed some text features this week.  Although text features are not a 5th grade standard, I thought it would be a good idea to review these.  We looked at them briefly this week and will be moving on to review some fiction elements next week.  We have state testing in less than two weeks... YIKES!

Here are some activities we did together.

First, we started off with an anchor chart that contained several examples.  Each student had a Text Feature Mini Book that went right along with the anchor chart.  It is very similar to the Text Structure Mini Book that I used in my post linked above.  Both of these are from Jen Jones' Reading Comprehension Sheets for Informational Reading.  I love this resource!  All of the pictures on my anchor chart are also from this resource.

This is what it looked like before we added our information.  I forgot to take a picture of all the content we added.

I also created a short and to the point Powerpoint that goes along with this anchor chart.  I have it on my computer at work, so I will have to link it up later.

After we talked about each text feature, the students were placed in groups of 2-3 students.  They were given a Scholastic News magazine and small post-it notes.  The students worked with their partners to examine and identify the text features on each magazine page.

They worked so hard and throughly enjoyed this activity.  I was quite impressed with the conversations that were happening between the group members.

I gave students a recording sheet to reflect on each feature and analyze the information presented in each text feature.

This recording sheet is nothing fancy, but you can click the picture above to download the file.  Tomorrow, I will have some of the students present their findings to the class.  We will spend a few minutes at the end looking at our EQ once again and making sure the students can answer the question.

Lastly, we reviewed a little of comparing two text structures.  Here's the organizer my students helped me fill out today while we were going over our homework.  The hardest thing for my students is comparing the text structures and not the content of the passages.  That's been our most challenging task thus far.  Hence the reason we reviewed this today!

Like I said before, I think nonfiction is probably my favorite to teach.  I love helping the students develop critical thinking skills when reading and analyzing nonfiction texts.

What are your favorite reading skills to teach?