NOTE: To change the image on this slide, select the picture and delete it. Then click the Pictures icon in the placeholder to insert your own image. TEXT FEATURES Mini Lesson

Connection  We have discussed how to tune in to interesting words while reading to expand our vocabulary.  Some readers/students have even set goals to work on better understanding vocabulary in their reading.  Today we will learn how to use text features as a means to better understand important vocabulary in text.

Teaching  Text features are things in an informational text like titles, captions, headings, maps, and graphs.  When we read informational text, we may be tempted to just look at the pictures and read the text.  However, we miss out on a lot of important information that may help us better understand important vocabulary if we don’t also read the captions, headings, maps, and graphs.  Let’s look at a couple of pages from this book Usborne Internet-Linked Greeks by Susan Peach and Anne Millard.  The text features on this page include headings, pictures, and captions.

 At the top I notice the heading “Clothes and Fashion” and as I glance down I see the subheading “Women’s clothes.”  I know that I will be learning about the type of clothing that women in Greece wore.  I’m going to read the text in these two sections and as I read, I will pay attention to interesting words, or important vocabulary, that I think will help me better understand the types of clothes women wore.

 I am going to read the text features to see if it gives you a better understanding of meaning of chiton and himation.  Let’s look at the pictures and read the captions by each picture.  Let’s look at these pictures and reading the captions gives you a clearer understanding of these words.  By paying attention to text features in informational text, we may gain a better understanding of important vocabulary that will aid our comprehension of the text.

Clothing in ancient Greece primarily consisted of the chiton, and himation. While no clothes have survived from this period, descriptions exist from contemporary accounts and artistic depiction. Clothes were mainly homemade, and often served many purposes (such as bedding). Despite popular imagination and media depictions of all-white clothing, elaborate design and bright colors were favored.chitonhimation

 Read the section under the heading “Men’s clothes.”  Use the text and text features to help you understand the words tunic and chlamys.

Link  Today we learned how to use text features as clues to determine a word’s meaning.  As you read informational text, pay attention to the text features as a means to better understand important vocabulary in the text.