Informational Texts - Language Features

Teach Starter Publishing
60 mins | Suitable for grades: 3 - 4

A 60-minute lesson in which students will identify and explore the language features found in informational texts.

Tuning In

  • Read the informational text, Thunderstorms, to the class. After reading, ask the students:
    • What type of words are used in this text?
    • Why do you think the author chose these types of words?
    • If these words were removed from the text, what might be the effect?

Teacher Instruction

  • Discuss the language found in informational texts as outlined on slide 14 of the Developing Informative Writing Skills PowerPoint. Encourage the students to identify some examples of informative language used in the text about thunderstorms.
  • Discuss the informative language examples on slides 15-16. Encourage the students to suggest other examples for each language feature.

Guided/Independent Learning

  • Display the informative language pair activity on slide 17. Monitor and support the students as they complete the activity. Encourage each pair to share their list of words with the rest of the class.
  • Display the informative language review activity on slide 18. Monitor and support the students as they individually complete the activity.
  • Display and discuss the suggested answers to the review activity on slide 19. Allow the students to self-correct their work to monitor how well they have understood the lesson's objective.

Wrapping Up

Differentiation

Extending Students

  • Encourage more confident writers to work individually during the pair activity.

Supporting Students

  • Allow students with lower literacy levels to work with a teacher or teacher aide during the review activity.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

  • used strategic whole class or individual questioning
  • observed student participation during learning activities
  • recorded student progress on a checklist
  • annotated student work samples
  • collected and reviewed student work samples
  • facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
  • encouraged student self-reflection
  • administered formal assessment tasks.

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Curriculum

Teach Starter Publishing

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