Text Workshop for Content Literacy Class, Mary Baldwin College MAT Program, composed by Stephanie Hodde

1. Tuning up the Imagination:
The senses as tools for “reading”
“Those that cannot
imagine, cannot read.”
- -Eliot Eisner

2. What are the elements of a
Geography Text?

3. Posidonius (c. 150 – 130 BCE) Greek stoic philosopher,
polymath--πολυμαθής, polymathēs, "having learned much"
Antique Representation of the World & circumference

4. History Text?
The age demanded
an image.
--Ezra Pound
Migrant
Mother, 1936
Dorothea
Lange
Eyewitness to
History

5. What makes a good science text?
How might it draw on multiple genres,
modes, intelligences, disciplines?
www.sciencefriday.com
Blue Whale Barrel Roll- (NPR
podcasts, National Geographic)
Who thought diet could stimulate such an
interesting question?

6. Text Workshop for ML Project
• Step 1: Textbook Tour Analysis
– Readability, Content Usability, Interest
• (Measurement Options: FRY chart handout, Alv., p.
184-186 , or Lexile Measure
http://www.lexile.com/analyzer
• Step 2: Choose Diverse
Trade Sources / genres
http://inkthinktank.com
Simulations, web, audio, video

7. Is my textbook or tradebook
appropriate? (Alv, Chap 10)
• Readability (Cloze or Formula –Fry, Lexiles)
• Students Reading Level- CCS brings readers to
text, elastic reading bands
• Difficulty of Concepts, curricular match
• Organization
• Visual Appeal, Style
• Skill / Strategy Emphasis
• Depth, breadth
• Current information?

8. Analyzing Non-fiction Text
• “True” = informational? Let’s define some
genres!
• What are we looking for? (purpose, place in
learning process (B, D, A textbook?, Lisa’s list)
• Accuracy, style, focus, features (Figure 3.5)
• Linguistic challenges (non-linear text, vocab,
sentence length, density, abstract nouns
(Zang, 2008, p 479)