Printables | English Language Arts Essentials | Text Types and Student Glossary

When I began teaching Middle School ELA in the United States, I began a second career in teaching, that was totally different to my first career as a high school teacher in Australia. Education, it seems, is yet another one of the many facets of culture that differ vastly between Australia and the US (not simply our pronounciation and spelling of aluminium).

Now, I was no longer a teacher of various subjects to various grade levels, but a teacher of one subjects, to one grade level, simply performing what was essential the same lesson, six times in a row. Variety is truly the spice of life. 7th Grade ELA can become mind-numbingly boring after the third year. So mind-numbing, in fact, that one starts to ask questions one has never asked before.

How are the terms, 'non-literary' and 'non-fiction' related? What is the difference between an informational text and a non-fiction text? Are they different? The answers from my fellow teachers varied. It seemed to be a matter of opinion more than a matter of course.

And so I looked for a resource that would clearly deliniate the different types of texts and how they were related to each other. It seemed strange to me that I had never seen one.

Here I was, after more than a decade of teaching complex biological concepts in one subject, hortatory expositions and the relevance of Shakespeare to the modern audience in another, teaching genre to 12-year-olds, and unable to find a satisfying answer to how the term 'genre' relates to 'types of text' and how all the types of text in the lovely glossary I had typed out to give to my classes, were related to each other.

And so I set about classifying texts into their various types (I was a biology teacher first, after all), and began with the decision that the term 'genre' should be used only to define a category within those types of texts. The best examples, of course, are the genres of fiction (Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction, Fantasy etc) and the genres of poetry (ballad, epic, Limerick, etc). 'Genre' comes from the same root as 'Genus', which is the second to lowest level of classification of the species, so to my mind, genre should fall some way down the list when it came to 'types of texts'. I wrote down all the types of text I could think of, and asked my students and fellow teachers for more examples. I then set about classifying them under various headings until I had found a classification system that seemed logical to me. Oddly enough, there were a lot of 'ahaaa's from not only my peers, but several of my supervisors, when I showed them my little treasure map. Apparently there was a lot of confusion over the non-literary/non-fiction issue.

The reason this comes up now, is because I was fossicking about on my hard drive this evening, and found a long lost pathway of files left over from my classroom days. (I make it sound like it was an eternity ago, but it was really only 4 years.) And of course, I stumbled across my Text Types Chart, and my Glossary (that took forever to type out) and reminisced of how proud I was of them, and how useful they were to me and my students, (and how so very thankful I am to be at home with my two wee girls), and thought I would share them with anyone who wanted a copy.

I know this is mostly a preschool blog, but preschoolers grow up, and study various types of texts. If you're a classroom teacher, it behooves you to be a master of your subject area. There is nothing I hate more than the idea of ELA teachers who do not know grammar. If you're a homeschooler, it behooves you to make sure your children come into contact with all of the various types of text listed on the chart (especially if you are compelled to undertake some form of state testing).

You can download a pdf copy of the Student Glossary here.

And you can download the Types of Texts pdf chart here.


Or you could have just clicked on the images and not bothered to read down to the bottom of this wordy and unnessarily long post when you're just here for the free printables! Ha Ha! Got you!!!! ;)

Post Scriptum:  Don't you think we should all use the word 'behoove' more?  It's a great word.  Say it out loud a couple of times.  Let it roll around your tongue like a good wine.  Behoove.  Behoove.  Behoove.


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