Ensuring the Accessibility of Texts

Learning from textbooks is inevitable. At some point, all students will be expected to read and learn from these sources of information. Understanding how to read textbooks though is not an inherent trait, and often textbooks are written at a level that is too difficult for many of the students expected to use the book. As Cris Tovani states in Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?, (2004) "[w]hen students are always given text that is too hard for them to read on their own, they begin to associate school reading with reading that is pointless" (p. 41). Obviously, the goal of any teacher, whether a reading teacher or a content-area teacher is to help his or her students learn and make meaning from this new knowledge. If students view reading as "pointless," then teachers have an enormous obstacle to overcome.

One way to overcome this obstacle is to explicitly teach how to read a textbook, using the features of a nonfiction text. Another way is to develop a collection of supplemental texts that meet the needs of a diverse range of readers within one class. Below are several resources that teachers can use to do both.

Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/using-thieves-preview-nonfiction-112.html

Textmasters: Shaking Up Textbook Reading in Science Classrooms

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/textmasters-shaking-textbook-reading-1180.html?tab=1#tabs

An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploration-text-sets-supporting-305.html

Using Science Texts to Teach the Organizational Features of Nonfiction

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/using-science-texts-teach-413.html?tab=1#tabs

Multimedia Text Sets
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gipej/mts/textsets.htm

A Sample Text Set for a Sixth Grade Class Learning about Early European History
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30139185

Conducting an Insectigation! Text Set and Unit for a First Grade Class
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30139569
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30139568

Two Sample Multicultural Text Sets for a Primary Classroom
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30139713
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30139705