Informational Texts—Why They Are Important

1. Informational Texts—Why They Are Important • 95 % of what you read as an adult are informational texts (non-fiction) • Informational texts are used almost exclusively for higher education (textbooks, articles, magazine articles, etc.) • Nearly 44 million American adults cannot extract even a single piece of information from a written text if any inference or background knowledge is required (Levy, 1993)

2. Reading for InformationNAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress)-2005 • Involves the engagement of the reader with aspects of the real world • Reading for information is most commonly associated with textbooks, primary and secondary sources, newspaper and magazine articles, essays, and speeches.

3. NAEP-Informational Text • When reading for information, readers need to know the specific text patterns, or forms of organization (e.g., cause and effect, sequential order, comparison/contrast, opinion and supporting arguments), to develop understanding. • People frequently have different purposes for reading text of this nature (e.g., to find specific pieces of information, answer a question, or get some general information when glancing through a magazine article). Reading informational text calls for orientations to the text that differ from those used in reading for literary experience because readers are specifically focused on acquiring information. When people read for information, they may select parts of the text they need, rather than reading from beginning to end. What are the instructional implications?

4. Duke-2005 • Five ways to improve comprehension of informational text: • Increase access to informational text • Increase instructional time with informational text • Increase explicit teaching of comprehension strategies, along • with lots of opportunities for guided and independent practice • 4. Increase attention to the unique and the especially challenging • characteristics of informational text • 5. Ensure that informational text is used for authentic purposes as • much as possible

5. Text features that signal importance • Fonts and Effects • Cue Words and Phrases • Illustrations and Photographs • Graphics • Text Organizers • Text Structures from Strategies that Work, Harvey and Goudvis, 2000

6. Text feature considerations • What is the author's purpose for using this specialized text feature? • What are the main ideas represented? • Why did the author choose this type of feature to convey the meaning? • Can you think of another way of conveying the same meaning? Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

7. Text structure • Because of the possible complexity of informational writing, teachers may elect to use the following guidelines for creating an informational map as suggested by Vacca and Vacca (1996): • Look for the most important idea in the selection. Note any signal words that indicate an overall organizational pattern. • Locate additional important ideas. Identify their relationships to the most important one. • Outline or diagram these ideas, visually representing in some way the superordinate and subordinate concepts. Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

8. Text structure • Chronological/Sequential Order: A main idea is supported by details that must be in a particular sequence. • Enumeration/Description: A major idea is supported by a list of details or examples. • Comparison/Contrast: The supporting details of two or more main ideas indicate how those concepts are similar or different. • Cause/Effect: The supporting details give the causes of a main idea or the supporting details are the results produced by the main idea. Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

9. Text feature considerations • What is the author's purpose for using this specialized text feature? • What are the main ideas represented? • Why did the author choose this type of feature to convey the meaning? • Can you think of another way of conveying the same meaning? Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

10. Text structure:Chronological/Sequential Order

11. Signal Words and Phrases Associatedwith Chronological/Sequential Order • first next then initially before after when finally preceding following Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

12. Graphic OrganizerChronological/Sequential Order

13. Signal Words and Phrases Associated with Enumeration • for instancefor examplesuch asto illustratemost importantin additionanotherfurthermorefirstsecond Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

14. Graphic Organizer-Enumeration

15. Signal Words and Phrases Associated with Cause/Effect • because of as a result of in order to may be due to effects of therefore consequently for this reason if ... then thus Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

16. Graphic Organizer-Cause/Effect

17. For your thinking and planningCause and Effect • What is the cause/effect process the author is describing? • Why did a cause/effect structure emerge? • What is the cause? • What is the effect? Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005

18. Signal Words and Phrases Associated with Comparison/Contrast • different from same as similar to as opposed to instead of although however compared with as well as either... or Pennsylvania Assessment System Classroom Connections, 2005