In this episode of Fuel Up, we dive deep into one of the most powerful—yet often underleveraged—tools within K–5 literacy instruction: text sets. Whether you're new to EL Education or a seasoned user of the curriculum, this conversation will leave you with fresh insights, practical strategies, and a renewed appreciation for the role text sets play in building knowledge-rich classrooms.
Resource & Links:
Literacy Essentials – Best practices in literacy instruction
A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day/Tanya S. Wright
EL Education Required and Recommended Texts
EL Education Curriculum (K–5):
https://curriculum.eleducation.org
EL "Big Purple Book" – Your Curriculum Companion:
https://eleducation.org/resources/your-curriculum-companion
We're igniting that curiosity motor,
but then they're also building background knowledge. We're in these topics in frogs and toys for quite a while, allowing them to build deep knowledge around a topic.
These text sets are another tool that we as educators and leaders of our classrooms can put in place to really spark and support the curiosity as they learn about authentic topics in their classroom. Welcome back to fuel up a place for conversations with and for those using el education as a resource to support k5 literacy learning, we are so excited to have you with us for this week's episode. Today we zoom in on the topic of text sets, we hope today's talk serves as a pit stop, a chance to swing by for some fresh energy, insights, encouragement and celebration as we work together to do what's best for our learners, this is a chance to fuel up. So wherever this finds you today, we hope you are able to pull over, take a breath and crank it up, and in that spirit, here we go.
We are glad to have you back with us for today's conversation. Text sets are getting all the attention in the room today. Now, if you happen to be joining us and you're like, What is a text set? Let's start with a common definition. Text sets are collections of texts tightly focused on a specific topic. These sets may include varied genres, like fiction, non fiction, poetry and so forth, and maybe some types of media now. Katie, what is one topic that you've wanted to learn more about in the past, and you've worked hard to gather all the information you could on it?
Oh, well, that's a really good question. So in our house right now, we are really into dinosaurs. Oh, fun. It is really fun. But I knew zero about dinosaurs, all right, so we have really built our tech set in our house around dinosaurs. We've gone to the library. We've searched for those dinosaur books, and in fact, we are at a library the other day, and my four year old brought up a magazine, oh, with a he can't read, but he knew it had a dinosaur on it, so he wanted it so he could read and learn a little bit more. So I know a little bit more than I did a couple of months ago about dinosaurs.
Oh, sweet. I love dinosaurs, and I am going to put you on the spot like you are in the hot seat right now. Oh, boy. For those listeners who are like, I just need to know more about dinosaurs. Give me a cool dinosaur fact. All
right, well, our newest dinosaur that we've been learning about is the Mosasaurus. Oh, and it's a swimming dinosaur, and it's used to, I guess, ancestors, I don't know, with a lizard. So think about this giant swimming lizard that jumps out of the water and has a lot of teeth. So I'm very glad it doesn't currently live. But yes, that is so if you are curious, go Google Mosasaurus. Oh,
that sounds like a good one. And I would echo. It's probably a good idea for us living in the state of Michigan, next to Lake Michigan, like nobody wants to go down to the beach and worry about coming across the Mosasaurus. Mosasaurus, good vocabulary word today, yeah. All right, I'm gonna check that one out. Moses Soros,
I'll bring in a replica of one. We have a few. So nice. Next recording session. Okay, all right. Kevin, what about you? What is that topic you've really wanted to learn more about?
Yes, so one of the topics that I have really dove in and gathered as much information as I can on is beekeeping. Bee keeping, yeah, like, I am a really big fan of honey. Like, I love honey on corn bread. I could eat a spoonful of honey, and at some point you're like, I think I could just, like, do my own honey at home. And so for a while, I went to the library and went and checked out, similar to what you did with dinosaurs with your little ones. I went in and just got every different book and magazine and I could on beekeeping, and I learned some words like frame and honey extraction and swarming and. Tapping words that I didn't know before, but I would say I know a lot of them now, so I'm starting to think ahead, like usually, this hobby starts in the spring, and so I need to get back into the library to gather that text set on beekeeping, because I think that's going to launch in the spring.
So we can expect maybe some honey in the fall. That how that works? Yeah, right. Spring, you do your bees, and then you get the honey harvesting would be in the fall. Okay, I haven't read your text about beekeeper, yes, but I have a little background
now, so maybe you will reap the benefit of all this learning. I'm doing it a year from now, we might be sitting at this table enjoying Honey,
honey and some tea. That sounds great. Yeah, honey
and tea. I look forward as we read about dinosaurs, yes,
with the most thesaurus at the table, excellent.
So as we dive in to this topic of tech sets, we always want to stay current on the research. And so Katie, what does current research have to say about the value of text sets in the classroom?
Yeah, so there's a decent amount of research around text sets, so I'm going to read you just a little bit of that today. So text sets are important because they enhance reading comprehension, build deeper knowledge and develop critical thinking skills by presenting a variety of related texts on a single topic. Research shows they improve vocabulary, increase student engagement through diverse formats, and provide a scaffolded way to build background knowledge, especially for students who may struggle with complex text in isolation, using text sets allow for the exploration of a topic from multiple perspectives, fostering a more comprehensive understanding. A lot of a lot of good things there, but really it builds vocabulary. It helps with critical thinking and builds that background knowledge, but most importantly, it allows kids to access text that they might not typically have access to through scaffold.
Yeah, lots of benefits. Yes, research, absolutely okay. Now that we are grounded, we are ready to dive into our topic for today. Katie, I am so excited to talk more about tech sets, and my hunch is that as we have this conversation around this topic, it's gonna feel a little bit like a game of connect the dots. Did you ever play connect the dots? I did Yes. So this topic connects to so many of our previous episodes this year, so it's going to be fun as we have deeper conversations around tech sets to see how these practices actually connect and weave into some of our previous conversations. So we started today talking about what tech sets are. And I wonder if we continue our conversation with not just the what, but the why, like why tech sets, and I think about the stories we just shared, like you jumped into tech sets because of dinosaurs. I jumped into text sets even though I might have not have called them text sets at the time. I jumped them to text that's because of beekeeping. And you know, text says have this authentic way of supporting, like in the investigation and learning of something new, absolutely.
And we were curious about new things, yeah. So what better way than to read about it and to find multiple books that are talking about it
in the same way that we use text sets in our investigation and desire to learn something new. That pattern that we do as adults is the same for kids.
It drives their curiosity. And when Kevin and I were talking today in El they call it curiosity motors, yes. And I just love that, because it really gets him motivated and excited to learn new things. So that was a new word for me that I really resonated with that. Curiosity motors, yeah, each one
of these modules has a topic, whether it's animal defense mechanisms or fantastic frogs or weather toys, whatever that is, this topic that we hope launches this curiosity motor with our learners, and these tech sets are another tool that we as educators and leaders of our classrooms can put in place to really spark and support the curiosity of these learners as they learn about authentic topics in their classroom.
And so we're igniting that curiosity motor, but then they're also building background knowledge. Like you mentioned, Kevin, we're in these topics and frogs and toys for quite a while. So these tech sets are really allowing them. Time to build knowledge, deep knowledge, around a topic similar to what we were doing as adults,
as we were thinking about today, both of us reflected on a book that we've spent time in as literacy coaches. It's by Dr Tanya, right, and it's called vocabulary development across the day, and one of the quotes from this book, as it was talking about text sets, resonated with us. I'm going to invite our listeners into that and just read this quote the context of the quote, it's speaking to adults, and it's inviting us to reflect on our college experience. She writes in this text, think back to your college courses early in the semester. The readings might have felt challenging and confusing, but as you read more, the ideas began to make sense. The concepts that you learned in earlier readings helped you understand later readings, and over time, you became more knowledgeable about the topic and familiar with its associated vocabulary, and it actually changed the way you read. And that's not just true for our experiences in college. That is also true for our learners in kindergarten through fifth grade, which is the focus of this podcast, as they get into text, that's the more they read, the more ideas are going to make sense, the more their vocabulary is going to grow and their knowledge is going to grow on a topic.
Well, we were talking about our listeners today, we're going to connect the dots between topics. But that's really kind of what that does for tech sets. Our kids are connecting dots when we read that. Was a big aha for me as you were reading that?
Yeah, connecting the dots to if you think about some of our previous episodes, one of them we talked about word walls, as a teacher is going through that module lesson, and in introducing some of the vocabulary that goes along with this topic, maybe in fourth grade with animal defense mechanisms. Maybe it's the word mandibles, and you introduce that, it goes upon your word wall. Not only does that support the learning in that lesson, my hunch is that the text sets out there that support that module, some of them are going to have the word mandibles in them. And so as that student goes to transition into their independent reading, and they pick up a book on animal defense mechanisms, and that book happens to have the word mandibles. They might not have known that a week ago, but now that that's been introduced in that learning in the classroom, and it that word is posted on the word wall, that kid now has greater access to that book. And as they read more, they're going to learn more, and it's going to transfer into the books in that text set.
And it deepens their comprehension. True, they're now able to comprehend what mandibles are, and I've unlocked another level of understanding.
Yes, it makes me also think about some of the reading we've recently done in the curriculum, companion book. Sometimes we call it the big purple book, the purple book, purple book. And there's so much good research and dialog about some of the topics that we talk about, they have a section in there called reading to systematically build knowledge and
let's read this one too. Let's do it. It's a good one. It
says engaging students in reading a variety of text on a module topic helps to build their knowledge on that topic in the world, as well as crucial academic vocabulary that they can carry with them to another text in the same or different domain, and that that connects to what we were talking about, this connectiveness to the word wall, to the conversations they may have with their peers, and even into these text sets for their independent reading. It continues on, and it says teachers generally lead students in the close reading, in a read aloud of the central text early in the module, to begin building background knowledge and vocabulary, and also to spark their interest for inquiry. That kind of connects to that curiosity language we were talking about. Says students then read a variety of texts to answer a guiding question and build their expertise on that topic. These texts are pre selected to complement the central text, and often can be read independently or with minimal teacher support. Grappling with a variety of text types and sources pushes students to expand their vocabularies and repertoire on text structures as well as their own understanding of a topic,
which goes right back to connecting those dots with background knowledge. We're building their background knowledge. We're building their vocabulary. They're independently reading. I think that. A really big key point there that yes, you're doing it as a teacher for that close read, but then you're giving them what they need to be able to do it independently. And it
connects back to our previous conversation with Jackie, when we were talking about building background knowledge, and that the literacy skills and the literacy practice is happening in the context of social studies, in the context of science. So as we're building these stronger readers, they're doing it in the context of a cool topics like frogs like we are building readers, but we're also building frog experts and we're building readers, but we're also building Weather experts and we're building readers, but we're also building experts on poetry, and we build those experts not just with the class learning interactions with the word wall, but also with their independent reading time and with the intentional choices of the text in the books that they read in these text sets.
And they're engaged, yes, they're engaged in these topics, and because they know at the end, they're going to become experts around these and have some really cool vocabulary, like mandibles.
So let's talk for a minute. Where do tech sets live? In El most people, we might assume, if they're using this resource, they know. But let's not make any assumptions. Let's be pretty clear about it. Where do these text sets live? There's two types of text that teachers and students engage in.
The first type of text that they engage in is the required text, which, that's what you do for your close reads. That's where your class research comes in. And then the second is the recommended text, which is fiction and nonfiction. Those are what students could use for their independent reading, but they're all around the topic that you're studying, such as frogs.
Yeah, some districts order just the required text, because you need those to do the close read and to do the class research, and you're introducing the vocabulary and the topics and the recommended text, which is where these text sets live. A district could choose to order those or not. Any of the districts we support have those, and they are that collection of like, 30 to 40 books and mix of fiction and nonfiction, but like you said, they're on that specific topic and picked intentionally by El. Those lists are designed intentionally to support the learning that was happening in
class, right? And that's where those vocabulary words are going to pop up that you've introduced so very intentionally in those books.
So the required text districts have purchased those the recommended you might have them you might not. So let's talk for a minute. What have we seen districts or classrooms do to gather those recommended texts that we might toss out for others to consider?
So I think the most popular one that I have seen is teachers just get that recommended list and they send it to their local library, yeah, and the libraries are so good at trying to find those, and then they send them right over, and they'll even, I think I heard, let them have them for over the period of time they're supposed to. Allegedly, that's what I've heard
some libraries have, like, a checkout timeline, sure. And you know, doesn't hurt to ask, like, go to your library and say, Man, I'm classroom teacher here. I'm using these books. I'd like to, we're going to be in this topic for a month or two. Like, what might it look like to extend that period?
In my experience and yours too, Kevin, they are so good at helping, so true, finding books and getting them in kids' hands,
and there's no cost to that. No if your district, for whatever reason, wasn't able to invest in the recommended text, and you choose to go to a local library to support that you're right, like they are so good, if you give them the list, build that relationship with that library, and that can be your BFF, right, your best friend. You give them your list, and a lot of times they'll, they'll, they'll gather those books for you, and there's no cost to use them.
No cost. They get delivered or you pick them up, and then they're in your room for those deliberate or intentional tech sets. The other one, I've had teachers that will write grants or put it on donors shoes. Donors shoes, yeah, yep. Which if, then, if you really want to have access to them for year to year to year without going through the library, that would be an option as well, but the library is a really great free choice.
Yeah, we've seen people use, like, ebooks too. Like, sure, you can use epic, which, there's not a cost to that, too. And there are a lot of a lot of texts are already on there. And for those educators who have gone. Long before they've already curated lists that go along with modules. What we've invited teachers to consider is just the time on technology, like technology can be such a great support to access to these texts. And so many of our learners are in technology, so much that if we can get it into the actual paper, bound text. It just gives a different alternative on high screen
time. So it's an option, but just be cautious how much screen time we have, and if you have an option, books in hand are always the preferred So, Kevin, we've talked about the why, we've talked about research, we've talked about how to find them. What about how to use them? How would teachers use those in their classroom?
I think both of us have seen ways that these text sets have been used successfully. It's most often, if you think about El education as a resource that independent reading time lives in skills block and all block, yes and skills block in that, you know, accountable, independent reading. Sometimes they call it air, and then in all block in the research reading, one of the things we've had big conversations around is, what does it mean to be independent? We say these text sets are used during our independent time, and often we think independent means a kid has to be reading by themselves. And I'm going to offer like independent means independent of the teacher, like the teacher doesn't have to be involved in the reading, in this independent reading, but doesn't mean a student has to be by themselves. Sometimes we see these texts and we're like, oh, man, this is, this is kind of a this could be a tough one. The hope is, all this work with vocabulary is going to give our learners greater access to reading these books. And we've seen great success with teachers, yes, at times, offering kids to explore these books independently on their own, and offering it to be read and engaged with as a partner. Like putting in some protocols of, how do you do some partner reading, and providing that support to access the text in that book, and we talked about the ebooks, and the support that having some of that technology might bring. So some of these texts are used in a electronic format and used as like private read a lots, where kids like a listen to book. So we've seen that too. So yes, it is independent, but let's reframe what it means to be independent doesn't necessarily mean that kid has to be by themselves. Be by themselves, and this room is totally quiet. It is independent of the teacher, because that teacher is probably running some small groups, but that these texts can be accessed in a setting of one student in partner work, and also, if you have technology in the format of a read aloud.
So really, being able to think about your classroom and what makes sense, and how are you ensuring all of your kids have access
to those tech sets? Yes, so that's some of the ways that both of us have seen these text sets be implemented to best support the needs of our learners? I think that leads into another question, and that is, what have we seen these text sets look like? You know, it's one thing to get the text set, then it's like, Okay, where am I going to put these? How am I going to display them? Can we just talk for a minute like, how have we seen this look in classrooms that we've supported?
Well, I think we've seen this look a few different ways. Sometimes we go into rooms and they're maybe in a bucket, right? Sure, sometimes we go in and they're displayed on the board and you can see their beautiful titles and pictures. So I think if we were really thinking that engagement and motivating and wanting kids to read these, I would go with that second option, maybe not just having them in tubs, and sometimes they're hidden too, right on a
bookshelf somewhere. But sometimes we've come in and there may be a teacher who doesn't even know they have them, and they've been in a cupboard, or maybe they've been tucked away somewhere.
Absolutely, I've had teachers say I got these books, but I have no idea what they are, and they've been in my closet for two years. Wait, what are they? Yes, well, so now you know, they're your tech sets, and we're going to put them out so kids can see them and engage with them, right?
Such a great reminder for us to just to continue having this conversation so often. You know, there's an assumption that all of us know what these extra books are and why they're important, and so. Get them out, because they're such a great support to learning. We've seen we've seen them in tubs sometimes, and sometimes that could be a space issue, but we've also seen them displayed beautifully. It makes me think back to our conversation. I think it was episode number two. We were talking about fueling up around classroom environment and classroom libraries and some of these texts that's being displayed on the wall in just what
I would say, beautiful ways it could be.
You know, we've seen teachers interact with a tray on their whiteboard. We've seen these magnetic, like plastic book trays that get stuck to a wall. We've seen people use the floor space, and in all of those cases, the teachers have been intentional about taking those books and turning them so we can see the faces of them. It makes me think about when you went to the library with your kids and looking for books like my hunch is, if you were to let your your little ones go and explore, most often, they go to the ones that are displayed where they can see the front, because the pictures are engaging.
That is absolutely true. They're not really interested in the ones that are, you know, rank and file, because they can't see the pictures. Yes, they want they look for those books that they can see the covers and they're bright and at their eye level. Those are the ones we pick.
Yeah, so having those books turn just like they would in a professional library, we can see the pictures and they're engaging in. You might not have the space to get every single one of those books in your text set out, but be intentional about getting some of them out, and maybe the Rangers Go on the tub. Or we've seen people who don't have the the wall space, but they have the floor space, and they kind of lined them up where the carpet meets the wall, and it's just like a display along the floor. And you mentioned in episode number two, those are the books the kids go to first.
They, yes, they, I feel like I've had teachers tell me they always fight over them because they can see them and they're around their topic. And I think that's another thing, let them use them. These are not just in a museum, right? They're for kids to read, yes, to let them go, get them engage with them, and hopefully put them back at some point. Well,
I've seen a teacher too, just a smart, smart move that put a label on one of her book holders that said student recommendation. And after some of this reading time and engagement with the tech sets, there's a conversation of man, what have you noticed is one of your favorites? Maybe it's the student of the week or and that student gets to pick a book that's been really special from that text set to them, and it gets onto the board in this special space that's labeled, you know, Samantha's recommendation. And you know, that book's gonna be hot off the shelf all week long, right? Like just some of these small, intentional moves of how to get engagement with the text sets, not just displaying all of them, but allowing kids to have voice into which ones that they've learned a lot from, or maybe hold some of the key vocabulary words. And that one gets highlighted in this special space where kids can get to interact with and it goes back and that one is a popular one.
Absolutely, it reminds me of like book blessings. Yes, like they are blessing this book, and this is why I like it. And teachers can do that too, but I think it's powerful when it comes from your peers.
So many good ways to display these text sets in a way that allows kids to engage with them, speaking of engaging with them.
Katie, what have you noticed
about how teachers and or students respond to these text sets? For those of who are intentional about putting them out and using them and talking about them and highlighting them, what has been some of the response that you've noticed?
Yeah, so I have the privilege of going into a lot of classrooms that have had these recommended texts for a while, and teachers are excited about them because students are engaging with them, and not only engaging but they're accessing texts that are maybe above their level at times, but most importantly is they're using vocabulary, and they're sharing their knowledge. And you go in and they are so excited to show you these books. They're excited to tell you about birds or frogs or whatever that topic is. So I really think that is a great noticing that teachers are continuing to use them because they're noticing their students are responding to
it. Yes, I was having a conversation with a teacher last week. We were talking about tech sets, and she shared the story about how one of her students was so excited to bring up one of the books from the tech set and say, Hey, look. It. The word Paleontology is in here, and that's on our word wall we've been talking about that I found this in the book. And I'm like, that is exactly what this is about. And so to echo, yeah, they see kids engaging with these books and connecting with the vocabulary that they're introducing in the module lesson. That's pretty cool.
Well, it goes back to connecting the dot, yes.
And I think we've talked about this a number of times, but just to rename it like how if students responded, and I think if you just step back and watch just the fact that they're engaged, I mean, in their independent reading time, there's often choice, and for kids to choose these books and stay engaged with them, they're powerful.
You
know, I've been in classrooms watching students engage with these text sets. They are able to access complex text and they're feeling really successful. So I think that's a really good byproduct of these text sets, that kids are feeling good about what they're doing,
and it supports student talk because it gives them common learning and common vocab to have conversations around. We often talk about second graders and their dinosaur unit and going out and digging for fossils. And my hunch is, if we were to be like a fly on the wall or, you know, a fly on the tree. However, that works outside during recess time, and we listen to the conversations of these kids, second graders digging in the dirt for fossils. My hunch is they are using vocabulary that has been introduced in the module lesson and that they're coming across and being exposed to in these text sets. It just becomes part of the conversation, and they, as a group, have the shared learning experience. And that's pretty cool.
It's really cool.
It's really neat to see it in action.
All right, well, as we bring our conversation around, tech sets to a close today, it's time to think about small steps. Katie, as you think about our listeners, some who may be jumping into El education for the first time, and others who may have been using this curriculum for years. If you can invite them to be mindful of one thing when thinking about tech sets, what small step would you invite them to consider? I
would invite our listeners to consider just finding the books. Check your closet, check your bookshelves. El will give you the recommended list for each module. So pull that list out and just go on a little scavenger hunt. See if you if you have the books, just find them, or go to your library and see if they could help you.
Yeah, find them first of all. And if you don't have them, get them. Get them. And we'll link in our show notes today. If you don't have access to this already, we'll link the list that has all of the recommended text for each module. So you have that if you want to use that to work with your local librarian, your district, or even a grant source.
So Kevin, what about you? What's your small step?
I will tag on to what you said, and after you found them, be mindful of how you set them up. The intention we put behind how these books are displayed will affect the engagement of them. Take the time to find a space where you can display them, turn those books so you can see the front of them, have conversations around them, invite feedback to what they're learning and what favorites are, and highlight those because how you display them and talk about them will increase engagement, so be mindful of that.
Find them, display them, and watch the magic happen. There you go.
Well, as we close up this episode, we hope you got some fuel in the tank and leave us some fresh energy for the weeks ahead, and we're going to close things off today with high fives and hitchhikers. Here's the cool thing, we have the power to re energize and refuel those around us. So find a colleague. It could be the person next door, it could be the person across the hall, and maybe it's in another grade. Find that colleague and give them a high five. Tell them you got this. Remind them you're a rock star and pick them up as a hitchhiker. Invite them to join the conversation and take a seat with us at the table. All the best to you and see you next time on fuel up you.