Text and Resource Navigation

Resources for Navigating E-Texts

Navigating a textbook, whether a hard copy or an e-text, can be a challenge for students. Teachers need to tell students explicitly about the special features of the textbook(s). Students are quick to explore social media, but not so quick to click on a link in their e-text or even to use a print glossary.

This presentation by Tasha Ploss and Sarah Powley (Reading E-Texts Successfully: What it Takes) explains the Chromebook skills students need and the instruction that teachers need to give them for navigating a particular E-text.

This article from UC-Berkeley highlights best practices for transitioning students from print to digital texts.

The padlet for Reading Comprehension at the Secondary Level, created by the MHS Literacy Team, contains many more articles, including research on reading digital texts.

Resources for Navigating Print Textbooks

Teachers should not assume students know how their textbooks are set up or about the special features of their specific texts. Students may not know how the table of contents and the index work, what a glossary is, how sidebars function, or how the headings, colors, fonts, and type sizes contribute to the meaning of the words. ELLs and international students may find our textbooks especially mystifying.

Teachers should cover the basics with their students and point out the unusual features of the textbooks students will be using.

This printable chart covers both fiction and non-fiction text features.

Resources for Media Literacy

Students need direct instruction in media literacy, especially in finding appropriate online resources for research projects and assessing the thoroughness and credibility of their sources of information. Too often, students select the first item or the shortest item that pops up on a Google search.

This article outlines a process for helping students evaluate the information they encounter online. Students are directed to ask three questions about information they read on the internet: Who is behind it? What is the evidence for its claims? What do other sources say?

In this lesson in media literacy from the Newseum, students apply the “consumer’s questions” for analyzing information to a research topic. The site offers many downloadable lesson plans and supporting documents designed for middle and high school students.

This article from The New York Times Learning Network provides links, ideas, and examples for teaching about news, fake news, headlines, fact-checking sites, and satirical sites.

This website offers free digital citizenship lessons (K-12) from Common Sense Media. Lessons categorized under News and Media Literacy deal with online research.