TEXT FEATURES: GATEWAYS TO TEXTBOOK COMPREHENSION

Willow Park School’s grade 4 and 5 teachers Heather and Larry came to me with an issue common to Div. II teachers—when asked to use a social textbook, students lacked the necessary skills to navigate their textbooks and seek out information. Heather observed that too many of her students “sit and wait to be shown where the answer is.”  

We turned to research to seek out a strategy to teach students those life-long textbook reading skills.  In our search we were intrigued by what researchers like Kelly & Clausen-Grace state, “When students learn how to use text features, they are able to make better predictions, anticipate their learning, and comprehend the content being studied” (2010).  We adapted Hanson & Padua's text feature analysis from their book Effective Instructional Strategies. 

"...because I know what text features are...I can find them and they help me find an answer." 

Grade 5 student

After using this strategy, Heather and Larry were impressed with the output from their students.  Larry mentioned that the text feature strategy has really made an impact on student learning. Heather added, "We're so much farther ahead (in Social Studies) already this year."  

Students revealed the power of this strategy in their survey responses: 

Student Comments

• Understanding material:

“Text Features helped me learn important stuff in the text book that I don’t have to take an hour to find it.”

“For people who don’t like reading or trouble reading, they can look at the text features, so it is esier (sic) for them to work. It makes me esier for me too.”

• Efficiency:

“…because I know what the text features are … I can find them and they help me find an answer."

• Work Habits:

“Text features can help me find lotsa stuff! They help me find stuff faster and to do my work acuratley (sic).” 

To bring forth the power of text features, here is a set of steps that you can use and modify to fit your teaching situation. 

Step 1: Prepping—It begins with sourcing an article students would find interesting (we chose an article from Science News for Kids  ‘Mummies Share their Secrets’)   and reformat it to show key text features, (title, subtitle, heading, picture & caption, map, sidebar, fast facts, key terms, etc.)

Create two versions of this reformatted article.  For Version #1, (see figure 1) render the text of the article illegible, changing words to symbols, leaving only the text features legible. 

For Version #2, (see figure 2) return the text to the original, legible font. 

Figure 1: Version 1 Body rendered
illegible with symbols font.  
Key text features remain legible.  

Figure 2:  Version 2 highlights key
text features  in the article.

Step 2: Activating—Ask students about the topic of Mummies.  Share the title of the article and ask students what kind of secrets they think mummies might have.  This time to share ideas activates their own background knowledge, and readies them for the next step.  

Step 3: Deducing—Under much hoopla, students are given the Version 1 article, believing it will reveal the secrets of the mummies. Students, of course, realize the article is in a 'different language' but immediately will focus on those text features that remain, gleaning facts and ideas, making suggestions, and predicting what is only partially revealed to them.  A record of these ideas is vauable in analyzing predictions later.   

Step 4: Comparing—After students have had ample time to learn what they can from the text features alone, share Version 2, and read through the article.  Ask students what new information they learned, and compare it with the brainstormed list.  Make note of how much students uncovered from only the content of text features and compare it to the information learned from reading.  

Step 5: Naming—Have students help you name and explain all of the features in the Version #1 article that they used to help them learn.  For each item, name and record the text feature being highlighted.  For example—“You said the words under the picture helped you.  That is called a caption. Let’s all record that and draw a diagram to remember it.”  (It is good to do these notes on large paper so that it can be posted on the wall in your room.)

Step 6: Practicing—Prep other articles, textbook pages, etc. for students to practice using text features to learn facts.  See Figure 3 for a sample of one student’s annotation of a practice article and facts they gleaned from text features and the full article.

Once students have mastered the art of text features, they can use their new skill to examine their textbooks with a more critical eye.