What is Textmapping?
Textmapping is a reading comprehension technique where non-fiction text features are identified and their relevance to the content is recognized. It is a technique based on ancient scrolls for an experience with one long piece of text where the text becomes the organizer.
- A graphic organizer technique using scrolls, colored markers, and mapping techniques with a focus on pre-reading and text organization.
What are the Benefits of Textmapping?
- Explicit - adds a visual element to the teacher's modeling and creates a concrete model for abstract ideas
- Teaches strategic reading: The scroll provides a whole, comprehensive model of the text- students are required to recognize and use typographic and textual cues - and it creates a model for writing
- Encourages active reading: students move physcially across the length of the scroll - marking the text requires physical interaction with the text - and students can clearly see progress on the task by looking at marked pages
- Links comprehension concretely to the text: the text itself becomes the the map - bridges the gap between text and the graphic organizer - clearly focuses students on pre-reading strategies
- Produces a visual record of thinking: students clearly see their progress - shows concretely what comprehension is - teachers can easily monitor the work
- Accommodates a wide range of learning styles: Particularly helpful in reaching students who are Visual, Spatial, Tactile, Kinesthetic, and Global learners
- Especially helpful for students with learning disabilities/delays, cognitive deficits, auditory processing, auditory processing, memory and sequencing issues and ADD as it allows for visual tracking.
Implementation
- Scrolls are the foundation
- Scrolls enable students to see and comprehend the whole text at once
- The text organization is explicit
- Students can see the heading structure, illustrations, key words
Making the Scroll
Copy the text
Tape the pages end-to-end
Tape to colored butcher paper or attach to a white board in the classroom - either option forms an extended marking area around the text.
- Magazine article
- Textbook passage
- Textbook chapter
- Story
- Poem
Tape the pages end-to-end
Tape to colored butcher paper or attach to a white board in the classroom - either option forms an extended marking area around the text.
- The scroll and paper/whiteboard become a common text
- Teacher "thinks aloud" and marks text and board to record thinking
- Markings form a cumulative record of the lesson
Mapping a Scroll
How to Begin (I Do)
Once you’ve chosen the colors for your key it is recommended that you always use the same colors for the text features. Ie; captions, title, main idea, etc. will always be identified with the color used for the first scroll completed in your classroom.
- Gather students near the board or around the scroll
- Start off with whole group, scaffolding to the needs of those students who need it
- Create a textmapping key – this can be done by the teacher prior to the lesson or with the students to provide ownership in the process.
Once you’ve chosen the colors for your key it is recommended that you always use the same colors for the text features. Ie; captions, title, main idea, etc. will always be identified with the color used for the first scroll completed in your classroom.
Set expectations: I want to see you looking for this… doing that.
- Identify relevant features of the text
- Mark the features
- Mark the areal extent – these boxes lift the text from the “text stream”
Guided Practice (We Do)
- Allow the student volunteers to mark the text under teacher supervision. Have them trace the text feature with their finger first to show that they know the correct place to mark the text.
- Examples: "Mark all of the illustrations...headings...vocabulary words...maps...graphs...captions."
Alternate Guided Practice (We Do)
- Put students in groups
- Model specific tasks while students write on their copies
Independent Practice For Upper Elementary Students and Above (You Do)
- Assign groups to work independently to mark scrolls
- Provide specific tasks for each student in the group: headings, vocabulary, maps, captions, text stream
- Groups present finished product to the class
Independent Practice for Early Elementary students:
- It is not necessary to break into smaller groups. Allow younger students to continue working as a whole group- taking turns mapping one scroll with very little to no teacher guidance.
Research articles related to mapping text and non-fiction text
Incorporating Informational Texts in the Primary Grades: A Research-Based Rationale, Practical Strategies, and Two Teachers' Experiences | |
File Size: | 148 kb |
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Improving Reading Comprehension for Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities: UDL Enhanced Story Mapping | |
File Size: | 152 kb |
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Improving Reading Performance for Economically DisadvantagedStudents: Combining Strategy Instruction and Motivational Support | |
File Size: | 329 kb |
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