Repurposing Those Old, Boring Textbooks

My school had some old Social Studies big books and Open Court textbooks that were being sent away for disposal. I snatched them and repurposed them for a nonfiction text feature lesson!  I set it up like a scavenger hunt. The students had a list of features. They worked in cooperative groups to cut out the examples, label them, and write a short description. They glued everything down on large pieces of butcher paper and we hung them up as an anchor chart during our Navigating Through Nonfiction unit.

This activity is easily differentiated for students at- or above- grade level and for those students below-grade level or who have a disability of some sort. The work sample above is the average or above-average group. They did the entire activity on their own. 

The work sample below was completed by a group of exceptional needs students with learning disabilities. I had the descriptions pre-written and cut out for them.  I also had the text features already cut out. They had to match the descriptions to the examples and glue them down.