Text Sets in Action: Pathways Through Content Area Literacy

Today’s teachers have a strong desire to find creative ways to engage students in a student-centered curriculum that prioritizes their authentic questions. But with trends, standards, and district mandates so abundant, true passion for discovery and deep appreciation for knowledge can sometimes seem elusive.

Fortunately, a ‘text set’ approach offers the possibility of igniting curiosity in young learners, opening pathways to explore a given topic through reading multiple texts, and achieving lasting understanding along the way.

In Text Sets in Action: Pathways through Content Area Literacy, Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes reveal how text sets can prompt serious thinking far more effectively than a textbook or any single text. As the authors explain, exploring many texts leads teachers and learners to ‘think more deeply, empathize more fully, and take action more deliberately.’ Teachers who adopt this approach find that the texts’ various lenses enable students not only to meet curriculum standards but also to experience lasting engagement and a spirit of inquiry across the disciplines.

This book will:

Move beyond what is merely required and inspire integrated, customized curriculum
Demonstrate how teachers can build on students’ interests and questions
Provide resources and suggestions for designing text sets—books, news articles, websites, YouTube videos, primary source documents, and works of art
Offer logical and creative ways to sequence texts
Demonstrate how text sets can scaffold, differentiate, and extend students’ learning
Present specific invitations for designing, curating, and juxtaposing multi-genre, multi-model texts, accessible for at-home learning as well as in classrooms
Share a panoply of student work in response to learning with text sets.

When texts are intentionally sequenced and juxtaposed with one another, readers discover different ways to see and explain the world around them. Immersion into text sets fosters critical thinking and appreciation for different points of view, which is crucial in nurturing a respect for diversity and preserving democracy.