Variety of Texts
Text Forms
By: Alessia Picarelli
Common Texts
Functional Texts
Scripts
Business letters
Advertisements
Invitations
grocery and other lists
diaries or journals
essays
critical reviews
research reports
magazines and newspaper articles
Procedural Texts
instructional manuals
street maps
recipes
Evokes emotion
Words
Imagery
Rhythm
Verses
Fiction Genres
Mystery
Myth
Science fiction
Romance
Legend
Humour
Horror
Historical fiction
Folk tale
Fantasy
Fairy tale
Fable
Epic
Adventure
Sources
Contests where students are asked to pick their favourite book/movie. This is made each year by the Ontario Library Association. It is called The Silver Birch Award- https://accessola.org/web/ola/Forest_of_Reading/Programs_For_School_Aged_Readers.aspx
List of books that win awards (Ex. The Governor General's Award for Children's Literature).
Websites dedicated to the needs of young readers
Reviews in professional journals
Devices
Graphic organizing, assistive technology, voice recognition
Great for students that have special accommodations for reading and/or writing
Allow students to have multiple ways of obtaining information from visual/various sources.
Translation programs
Projectors/overheads
Give students opportunities to have shared reading and writing activities.
Audio recorders
VCR/DVD players
Cellphones can be used
Scanners
Video Cameras
Digital Cameras
Computers
Resources to Access Text Forms
Internet
Library
Public librarian
Ask the school librarian (teacher-librarian)
These librarians will help find a collection of resources that reflect the diverse reading levels, interests, and instructional needs of the students.
Mentor Texts
High-quality and well-written texts that can be used by teachers. They introduce students to a strategy, literary device, or text feature that students can use to remember how to apply the strategy.
Examples:
Strategy: questioning
Literary device: foreshadowing
Text feature: diagrams
Students read and imitate
Why Variety?
Being exposed to non-traditional books such as electronic and multimedia texts, allows students to assess materials critically
Being exposed to different reading materials/variety of forms of text allows students to make connections between reading and writing
Students need to see examples of good writing using different styles
Non-Fiction Genres
Memoir
Biography
Autobiography
Instructional Approaches
Shared reading
Read-alouds
Guided reading
Independent reading
What to consider
Choose resources that keep in mind the learning of all learners in the classroom. This means giving students a variety of texts and text forms.
Consider stories about identity, heroes, and role models
Consider the relevancy of the resources. Make sure that they are up to date
Consider talking to your colleagues about the resources used at the junior level
Look into your own school boards policies and standards about the resources available to you.
Student's reading levels
Consider the interests of the junior learner
Use a survey to find out the interests of the students in your classroom.
Make the students active participants in the process of selecting, organizing, and maintaining the classroom resources.
Consider the student's cultural backgrounds
Language-books in the students first language is a helpful starting point. Especially for ESL/ELL students.
Offer multiple resources because of this rather than one resource that you think may suit/interest all the learners. Never assume this.
Types of Resources
Poetry
Notes
In order to help student meet the literacy demands of a multicultural, multimedia world, the classroom collection needs to expose them to a broad range of text forms and genres (p. 75)
Reference Material
Word-game material
Style-guides
Thesauri
Dictionaries
Multimedia resources
Flyers
Journals
Reports
Song books
Brochures
Picture books
Graphic novels
Comic books
Magazines
Posters
Electronic newspapers
Computer access to websites
Non-Fiction
Fiction
Technology
Computers, laptops, iPads, chromebooks, SmartBoards are some examples of the technologies used in junior classrooms.
Can be used in lessons to support learning ie. digital learning
Technology supports lifelong learning
Technology gives students opportunities to explore and make connections with the world that they live in.
