School Improvement in Maryland

Lesson Seeds: The lesson seeds are ideas for the indicator/objective that can be used to build a lesson. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction.

Standard 2.0 Comprehension of Informational Text

Indicator 2. Identify and use text features to facilitate understanding of informational texts

Objective d. Use organizational aids such as titles, chapter titles, headings, subheadings, tables of contents, numbered steps, glossaries, indices, transition words, other organizational aids encountered in organizational texts

Activities
  • The teacher will place students in small groups or teams. Provide teams with a packet of passages from various informational texts. Around the room display a series of subheadings that might precede the informational passages in the packets. Student teams must read the passages, locate the correct subheadings for them, and place those passages beneath the subheadings. After the procedure is complete, students must defend their choice of subheadings based upon text. Teacher Note: Packets distributed to students may have some of the same passages while others may be different.
     
  • The teacher will prepare two presentations of the same informational text so that one text has a variety of organizational aids such as headings, subheadings, glossaries, etc. while the other text will have no organizational aids. Divide the class in half. Half of the class will receive the text with organizational aids while the other half of the class will receive the text from which organizational aids have been removed. Give the entire class a series of questions that can be answered from the text. Students should read the text and then answer the questions. The teacher will time students and determine an average completion time for each half of the class. The teacher and students should review answers for accuracy. Based upon the degree of accuracy and amount of time taken to answer questions, students will determine the benefits of organizational aids. Teacher Note: This same procedure might be used with any organizational aid or text feature.
     
  • Students will preview an informational text. The teacher will present the students with a series of topics to be explored from the text or a series of questions to be answered from the text. Among the organizational aids embedded in the text, such as titles, subtitles, transition words, etc. have students determine the best ones for locating specific information. In class discussion students will explain the reasons for their choices.
     
  • The teacher will provide the students with a series of informational texts on the same topic and some specific purposes for their reading of those texts. Students will preview the texts based upon their focus on tables of contents in the texts. Next, relying upon tables of contents and preview of texts, students will order the texts from least to most beneficial for their reading purposes. In class discussion students should explain how the tables of contents helped them create their order. Teacher Note: This procedure might be used with small groups of students depending upon the availability of materials.
     
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