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This Reading Mama

Nonfiction Text Features Chart

By thisreadingmama 3 Comments

Yesterday, I shared a Fiction Text Structure Chart and today, I’m sharing a FREE Nonfiction Text Features Chart. BOTH of these charts are a fantastic way to help readers, especially struggling readers with comprehension.

Nonfiction Text Features Chart {FREE} - This Reading Mama

*This post contains affiliate links.
**The free printable can be found at the END of this post. Just click on the teal download button.

Nonfiction Text Features Chart

What are text features? Text features are extra visuals and print that authors include in books and other texts to help the reader understand the information better. For example, an author might mention a tiny nation that you’ve never heard of before. A map would be a helpful text feature for you to know exactly where this nation is in the world.

 

Nonfiction Text Features Charts - helping readers understand text features

Teaching Learners about Nonfiction Text Features

1. To use this nonfiction text features chart, I’d recommend introducing only a few at a time. Some of them are very similar {like an index and a glossary}, so it would be a good idea to teach those on a different day.

2. As you teach each one, find and show examples from nonfiction texts and ask learners to try to find them, too. With each example, discuss WHY this text feature is helpful to comprehension.

Favorite Nonfiction Series Books from This Reading Mama

You can find some of our favorite nonfiction series books {K-5},
which are a great resource for teaching text features.

 

3. As you progress through your study, ask your readers to think critically about text features in nonfiction. When they are reading, can they find any examples where an extra text feature may have been helpful for comprehension? Ask them to explain their thinking.

*Just a Note: Readers of all ages, especially struggling readers, tend to skip over many of the text features within a text. To help readers understand their importance, take some time before reading to look through the photographs/illustrations, charts, graphs, or maps and talk about what you notice. Make some predictions about what they’ll learn or start a list of questions they have based solely from the text features.

 

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling by Emily Kissner

A book that has been so helpful in understanding text features and text structures has been Emily Kissner’s Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling. If you’re looking for more information, it may be helpful to you, too!

 

You Might Also Like

Understanding Nonfiction - Text Features and Text Structures - This Reading Mama

Understanding Nonfiction Text Features & Structures

 

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Enjoy!
~Becky

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Filed Under: Comprehension Tagged With: RC

« Fiction Text Structure Chart
Nonfiction Text Structures Chart »

Comments

  1. shaahy says

    April 5, 2019 at 9:48 pm

    Hi, I am a primary teacher and have found this blog very useful. I would like to use materials published in this blog to teach my students. Please help me a way to do it.
    Regards.

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      April 9, 2019 at 9:41 am

      You are welcome to download and use any of my printables with your students. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Kristen Jones says

    November 8, 2021 at 10:26 am

    Love your anchor charts!

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Becky, a homeschooling mama with 4 blessings who keep me on my toes {and knees}. Before homeschooling, I was a classroom teacher (M.Ed.) and reading tutor. Read more about me here.

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