How-to-create-a-text-set-for-whole-class-instruction-grades-k-12.pdf. Teaching with Text Sets. This week, we celebrate the publication of Mary Ann and Erika’s book, Teaching with Text Sets.
We wrote Teaching with Text Sets because we have witnessed the power of children’s literature to engage students, inspire deep content exploration, and differentiate instruction. We’ve also seen the potential for digital multimodal texts, like the kinds we regularly include in our Classroom Bookshelf blog entries, to transform K-8 classrooms. Over the years, the teachers with whom we work at Lesley University have expressed the desire to teach using multimodal, multigenre text sets, but feel that they lack the resources, time, support, as well as the strategies that we have developed over the years.
Thus, this book is an outgrowth of our work as classroom teachers and teacher educators. Shell Education (2013) Teaching with Text Sets. Text Sets across Content Areas and Genres. By Amanda Wall A text set is a group of texts that share a common theme.
Text sets are common in elementary school classrooms, and they can also be a great resource in middle school classrooms—across the content areas. How-to-create-a-text-set-for-whole-class-instruction-grades-k-12.pdf. Why use thematic text sets? Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching.
In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators. This is the fourth in a series of posts on thematic text sets. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing some examples of thematic text sets, or groups of books that cover one topic and span multiple genres and multiple reading levels. Many of the coaches and administrators I’ve met with have been really excited by the prospect of planning this way, but have been (understandably) a bit overwhelmed, too.
Between choosing a topic and finding enough books from all the different genres and levels you’ll want to include, compiling these text sets can be time-consuming and potentially expensive, especially given the resources you may or may not have available. The Way School Should Be: Navigating Learning with Text Sets. By Lauren Freedman, Western Michigan University Don’t let school get in the way of a good education.
Mark Twain Ok! I introduced the books and ninety minutes later, I was physically taking books out of students’ hands and pushing them out the door. Let’s talk about getting more of these for other units. While sometimes school can be irrelevant, it doesn’t have to be. Text sets consist of books, print materials and websites organized around a theme, topic, or concept. Text set materials are chosen by the students are not doled out or distributed by the teachers. The purpose of using text sets rather than textbooks, worksheets, and lectures is to support an inquiry model that will: Validate each student’s developmental level Text sets include print materials that range in complexity levels from simple picture books to full print chapter books and reference books.
A Common Core Approach: ‘Teaching with Text Sets’ Y now it’s old news that the Common Core State Standards have influenced a shift in the role of informational text in classroom instruction.
It’s also clear that these standards don’t spell out how text should be taught; that important task has been left up to teachers and curriculum developers. Bridging this gap, Teaching with Text Sets (Shell Education, 2013), by Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes, offers a framework for developing content-rich, standards-based curriculum backed by the authors’ years of teaching experience and extensive knowledge of engaging, age-appropriate materials. First off, the authors clarify what they mean by a “multimodal, multigenre text set.” Simply put, it’s a group of resources—print, audio, and visual—on a particular topic or theme presented in a variety of genres. Here genre is defined as “a form of writing that serves a socially recognizable purpose”—a designation that includes everything from tweets to recipes to articles to books. Text Sets - Content Literacy 101. Text Sets (from "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?
") "When teachers make the transition from textbook only classrooms to multitext classrooms, the focus of study becomes concepts rather than the content of one particular book. Students gain both a broad perspective and an in-depth sense of the subject matter from reading many texts on the same topic. I know of no one textbook that contains enough information to help a student become even mildly expert on any topic. " Teaching Multicultural Literature . Workshop 4 . Teaching Strategies . Text Sets. Text Sets Description Text sets are resources of different reading levels, genres, and media that offer perspectives on a theme.
By collecting materials ranging from fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to maps, charts, historical documents, photographs, songs, and paintings, teachers can add voices and perspectives to the study of any complex issue. This is especially important in classrooms where the whole class is using a single textbook or novel. Putting together a text set also provides all students -- regardless of reading level or learning style -- with a "way in" to a subject. Learning & Support. How to use text sets in your classroom – Newsela. To help you get your creative juices flowing, we have identified some sample lesson and unit plans that you could easily pair with a text set.
These text sets have already been created either by the Newsela staff or by one of our rockstar educators. Connecting The Giver to Non-Fiction (Lisa Jenkins, 6-8) In this captivating lesson, students learn to discover similarities in themes found in The Giver and news articles found on Newsela. Click here to access the entire lesson planClick here to access the text set related to this lesson plan Battling Bullying (Newsela Staff, 5-8) This 3-tiered lesson is an engaging introduction to your students' exploration of bullying, conflict-resolution, and designing solutions to encourage empathy and understanding.
Click here to access the entire unit planClick here to access the text set related to this unit plan Compare and Contrast (Newsela Staff, All grades) Finding text sets – Newsela. Introduction to text sets – Newsela. Featured teacher text sets – Newsela. Text Sets Toolkit – Newsela. Newsela’s Text Sets Toolkit contains various resources to help you use this great feature.
Below is a brief description of each item in this Toolkit. Please click on the item to view it. Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events.