Environmental Texts
Genre Definition
An environmental text focuses on biology and environmental science concepts. They often express the need for protecting the earth and its resources, including water, trees, animals, and etc.
Classroom Use
Science Activity: Help your students learn more about the environment that is around them by having each student create a Plant Observation Journal. Each week, they bring in something new that they found outside. This could be plants, leaves, acorns, etc. Have each student put their findings inside of a small plastic baggy. Next, they will staple the bag to a page inside their journal. Now have them describe the physical characteristics of the object that they brought and record their thoughts inside their journals.
Selection Process
When selecting environmental texts to use in your classroom, pay close attention to the accuracy of the information. It's important to make sure that whatever text you use contains correct, up-to-date, and unbiased information about the subject at hand. Environmental texts cover a range of environmental issues going on around the world. For concepts like global warming and air pollution, you may find texts that are may target one specific company or factory for it all. That would be a biased text and I recommend staying away from those in your classroom. It's also important to take a look at the pictures and illustrations provided within the text. Environmental texts can often be hard to comprehend, but if the imagery provided is done well, then the comprehension can be made easier.
Texts that I Recommend
Summary: In this Magic School Bus book, Ms. Frizzle and her students go on a field trip to see the water cycle. They learn all about why water is so important to us and about the process of making water safe for us to drink.
Text Features: Just like many of the Magic School Bus books this text includes sidebars that include more information about the water cycle. The illustrations and sketches make it easier to understand the text. Throughout the book, it defines content area vocabulary that may be harder for the reader to understand.
Book Reviews: “Liveliness and humor combine to provide valuable information in a simple, explicit text, totally complemented by cheery cartoon-like illustrations…This book will rarely sit on the shelf.”—School Library Journal
APA citation: Cole, J., & Degen, B. (1986). The magic school bus at the waterworks. New York, NY: Scholastic.
Lexile: 660L
Text Complexity grade band: 4-5
Read aloud grade band: 2-3
Support: Go through the book ahead of time and pull out the underlined words. This book helped select tier 3 words that your students may not know yet. Do a vocabulary lesson on the meanings of these words, first, before reading this book with your class.
Summary: This book is about the history of the United States’ environment. It’s told from the Indians point of view.
Text Features: This book contains great illustrations. Around each page is a border with illustrations of the different tools and artifacts from the Indians. Labels and captions help with comprehension of the text.
Book Reviews: “The current concern over the environment will make this a sought-after title, since it is brief enough to read aloud to groups of children. With assistance from informed adult readers, it makes an important contribution to literature on water pollution” –School Library Journal
APA citation: Cherry, L. (1992). A river ran wild: An environmental history. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Lexile: 670L
Text Complexity grade band: 4-5
Read aloud grade band: 2-3
Support: Environmental texts are full of scientific terms. It is important to build students’ vocabularies before reading books like these. It would also be helpful to provide your students with a background on Indians and the discovery of the “New World.”
