Students learn what text features are, along with examples, then practice identifying and using them to enhance their understanding of nonfiction texts as they learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Week 2 of this independent study packet for fourth graders features five more days of targeted practice with reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.
Track important events in the life of an important woman with this Sojourner Truth timeline, a great way to get used to reading and writing nonfiction.
In this seventh-grade ELA worksheet, students read a fascinating informational text about the history of kites and answer comprehension questions covering a variety of reading skills.
Week 5 of this independent study packet for third graders offers a stack of at-home learning opportunities in the subject areas of reading, writing, and math.
Children learn how the internet travels across the ocean through cables to create a giant, global information network in this engaging, hands-on worksheet.
Use this fun and interesting worksheets about maps to help your students use sentence level context clues, examples, and logic to decode text and become more fluent in reading informational text.
Week 2 of our Second Grade Fall Review Packet features five days of engaging learning activities designed to help learners prepare for their second grade debut.
Textbooks are essential tools of education, which is why it is critical for students to understand how to utilize them. The non-fiction text resources teach kids how to identify important components within a written text such as diagrams, maps infographics and vocabulary words. Other non-fiction text resources offer insight on specific topics such as extreme weather science and history lessons on Paul Revere’s Ride and the History of Television.
One of the most important skills to teach students is how to do research. While the student may look at this as simply a means to an end, that end being writing a research paper, this is actually teaching them to think critically and analytically. The ability to read and understand nonfiction will allow them to begin to form their own thoughts based on a myriad of sources.
Being able to understand nonfiction texts can be difficult. Much like fiction writing has different story elements, nonfiction writings have text features. Text features are strategies that writers make use of to enhance reader comprehension. Some examples are:
Photos or Illustrations - images can help readers visualize and understand more difficult concepts
Captions - text descriptions of photos or images
Graphics - visual representations of data sets
Special Print - using italicized or bold font can bring attention to and emphasize certain passages and keywords.
Nonfiction texts also typically follow one of several text structures. Some of the more common structures include:
Compare and Contrast - shows how two things are alike and different
Descriptive - provides information about a particular concept, item, or person
Problem and Solution - presents a problem and describes a solution to the problem
For early students, nonfiction also presents an opportunity to teach the difference between fact and opinion. Reviewing some of the nonfiction texts provided above by Education.com can offer opportunities for students to practice this skill. Learning to read nonfiction text critically will enable our students to formulate their own educated opinions later in life.