TEXT & TASK ANALYSIS NOTETAKER
When teachers know how to identify the demands a text makes on the reader, and in
relation to a particular learning task, they are able to select appropriate texts for classroom
use, plan appropriate learning tasks, and anticipate supports. Your group will complete
and submit the analysis inquiry using the Text & Task Analysis Notetaker.
How it works—
1. From a lesson you have already planned or delivered (or intend to deliver), review
the text and task that was used.
a. What strategies are you using with students to make sense of the text to
support students’ learning and application?
i. What knowledge are you drawing on to make meaning of the text?
ii. What schema challenges may the text present to readers (e.g., specific
content knowledge that readers may not know? Specific content
knowledge that readers have studied previously but will need review
or help to recall? Unfamiliar vocabulary? Familiar words used in
subject-specific ways? Unfamiliar forms of texts or new text structures
and features? Difficult or unfamiliar sentence structures?)?
b. What learning opportunities may this text present for readers (e.g.,
opportunities to encounter key curriculum ideas or concepts? Opportunities
to explore discourse conventions of the discipline?
2. Try the task yourself, paying close attention to the work you are doing to complete
the task.
i. What challenges does this task present?
ii. What kinds of discipline-specific thinking are required?
iii. What experiences have students had with tasks like this previously?
iv. What new skills and strategies are demanded?
3. Reflect on the text and task:
a. What is involved in reading the text?
b. What reading strategies are (would be) helpful?
c. What knowledge is necessary (including personal experience and other
funds of knowledge)?
d. What teaching and learning opportunities does this text offer?
TEXT & TASK ANALYSIS NOTETAKER
Complete the table below as part of your text and task analysis inquiry. A completed table is
what your team will submit.
KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT &
THE WORLD
(A learned and lived knowledge
base)
KNOWLEDGE OF TEXTS KNOWLEDGE OF
(Text genres and text
LANGUAGE
structures; visuals and
formatting features)
(Words & morphology;
syntax and text signals)
READING STRATEGIES:


Read Aloud
Think Aloud
TEACHING & LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES (Tasks & Supports)
KNOWLEDGE OF
DISCIPLINARY DISCOURSE &
PRACTICES
(The particular ways members of
a subject-area-community
communicate and think)