Knowledge and Skills Statement
Following instruction on informational text features, send students on a features scavenger hunt with a text they have read. Have students use a checklist to identify the features they find and note how each feature helps them understand the text.
Further Explanation
This SE requires the student to identify various text features that are common to informational texts. The student uses the student’s knowledge of how these features help the reader better understand what the author is saying.
Research
1. Davidson, M., & Berninger, V. (2016). Informative, compare and contrast, and persuasive essay composing of fifth and seventh graders: Not all essay writing is the same. Journal of Psychoeducation, 34(4), 311–321. doi:10.1177/0734282915604977
Summary: In this study, middle school students write three genres using background knowledge, graphic illustrations to enhance mental images, and oral reading (listening comprehension). The results of the study suggest that students exhibited considerable difference between the genre, writing quality, organizational skills, and length. The study provides teachers with an overview of approaches that may support students to write in multiple genres. Importance is placed on assessing genres.
2. White. A. (2016). Using digital think-alouds to build comprehension of online informational texts. The Reading Teacher, 69(4), 421–425. doi:10.1002/trtr.1438
Summary: This article targets the ongoing consumption and creation of information online and in other digital spaces. White suggests that the ever-changing contexts presents significant complexities for students. Students are required to develop skills, strategies, and attitudes that promote and support ways to critically navigate and discuss information accessed online.