TEXT FEATURE WALK
Instructions​
-
Select a text that contains the content students need to learn and a few text features.
-
Review the text prior to instruction to see what text features are included and how they aid in the comprehension of the text.
-
Before students read the text, discuss some of the features you see. This can be done in a variety of ways. You could point some out and model a think aloud, showing how this feature helps you as a reader. You could ask students to identify the text features they see and explain how those particular features might help their understanding.
-
After recognizing a few key text features, you could ask students to make predictions about the text or generate question. You could also move straight on to reading.
-
After students have read the main body of text, you could revisit the pre-reading conversation. Did the captions help us understand the main point? How did the footnotes help our reading? Was the title a fitting title for the text's main idea?
Consideration:
The goal of this strategy is to help students identify and use the text features authors use to convey their points because this will aid comprehension. The goal is NOT for students to memorize every possible text feature. Use this strategy regularly and specifically focus on a few different types features each time.
THE RESEARCH
-
The IES Guide (2022, What Works Clearinghouse) recommends strategies that support active reading and comprehension monitoring. The Text Feature Walk aligns with this by encouraging students to engage with a text’s structure before reading, fostering deeper understanding and improving retention.
-
Hattie’s research (2018, Hattie) highlights the importance of activating prior knowledge and setting clear learning intentions. The Text Feature Walk facilitates this by prompting students to interact with a text’s structure before reading, helping them connect new information with what they already know.
-
Shanahan’s research on text structure and explicit instruction (Shanahan, 2005, 2014) emphasizes the role of text features in reading comprehension. He advocates for explicitly teaching students how to navigate and interpret these features to improve their ability to extract key ideas and understand the organization of a text. The Text Feature Walk supports this by systematically guiding students through these features before they engage with the main body of the text.