What are Text Features?

Ms. Tulbure's class is learning about informational text. 

Informational text, or nonfiction writing, is based on facts, real events, and real people. There are many helpful text features found in nonfiction writing. Some common text features are:  headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, timelines, maps, charts, table of contents, index, and the glossary.

In class, we used published informational texts as mentor texts.


Here are some headings, photos, and captions.

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

Look closely. Here is a diagram and a heading! 

photo by Ms. Tulbure

Here is a map with a key. I wonder what the arrows means? Check the key and it will unlock the meaning.

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

It's easy to stay organized. Just look at the Table of Contents for clues on chapters or in the glossary for meanings of words. The index will also help you find specific topics or guide you to answers to your questions. 

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

 

 

Wow! Text features are everywhere and you can sure learn a lot if you pay attention to them.

Photo by Ms. Tulbure

What are your favorite text features and why?

(Headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, timelines, maps, charts, table of contents, index, and the glossary.)

What are TWO facts that you learned from a mentor text explored in class? Be sure to tell us the text feature you used to learn the factual information!

Mystery Skype Call With Kansas!

Mystery Skype Call With Kansas!

Mrs. Lofdahl invited Ms. Tulbure's class to be part of a 

Mystery Skype/Google Hangout call with her first grade class!

Two groups come together via Google Hangouts, but neither know the other's location. Closed questions, or questions that can only be answered with a YES or a NO answer, were permitted. 

Every third grader contributed and tried to solve the Mystery. Before the call, the class created some useful jobs and gathered resources that would help them be good geography detectives.

Mrs. Lofdahl's students invited us to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would go first. They won, so they asked the first question.

All photos by Photographers Marley and Samantha

We decided that four students should be our Questioners. They asked the yes or no questions. We also had two Question Helpers, who would also think of inquiries to make to the other team.

 Two Data Enterers  sat next to the Questioners and typed the questions and answers on a Google Doc that all could see. 

It was helpful to review the yes and no answers quickly. 

Others were Researchers. They used Google Maps and traditional atlases to zero in on the clues.

 A few students were Task Masters and Question Focusers. If students had problems, they would try and solve them. In addition, they would run facts and updated maps to the Questioners.

We also had Greeters, Closers, and awesome student Signers that made helpful signs. 

 It was a great game filled with fantastic questions. Mrs. Lofdal's students guess our location first. Well done! Our class continued to ask questions until they narrowed their location down to....KANSAS!

Below is  a slideshow and video of our first ever Mystery Skype 

What did you like about the game?
 

What job would you like to be next time? Why?

What are Text Features?

Ms. Tulbure's class is learning about informational text. 

Informational text, or nonfiction writing, is based on facts, real events, and real people. There are many helpful text features found in nonfiction writing. Some common text features are:  headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, time lines, maps, charts, and the glossary.

Below is a humdinger of a video made by Sheriff Yollis and Sheriff Salsich. They hope their video helps you greenhorns learn about about these important reading features!

Yee-haw!

Here it is on Vimeo if YouTube is blocked.

The Nonfiction Trail from Jonah Salsich on Vimeo.

 What are your favorite text features?

(Headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, time lines, maps, charts, and the glossary.)

In class, we are writing informational text. What two text features are you using in your informational text and WHY?

What text feature is not necessary in your information text?