- Nov 5, 2020
- 2 min read

Multilingual and Multimodal Text Sets: 9 Ways to Curate & Use Text Sets in RW and GR.

I've been really into text sets. My own kids and students have too. I wanted to share some of the ways we've been using them!

Something that I appreciate about using digital book platforms is the ability to search for and curate sets of books! Whenever I decided to reorganize my physical classroom library, it was time-consuming to find and regroup books. On EPIC, I can not only search and organize efficiently, I can put the same book in multiple collections! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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I am a big fan of thematic text sets because of their power in building vocabulary, knowledge, and connections. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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Another feature I appreciate about EPIC is that I can curate both multimodal AND multilingual text sets. Here is an example text set I created on frogs. There are both fiction and nonfiction texts on the topic, books in English and Spanish, and a mixture of ebooks, audiobooks, and videos! This combination is POWERFUL as it provides access in multiple ways to a topic. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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I am now reimaging ways that I can bring this back into the physical classroom. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Kiddos will definitely always have access to digital libraries (hello EPIC and Padlet) as well as physical ones. But when thinking of my physical library, I'm considering creating multimodal and multilingual book boxes on thematic topics, and even thematic baggies within a box! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Also, let's normalize multilingual books being part of our entire library and included in text sets (even for monolingual speakers). I'm thinking of including books in different languages that contain important/engaging information connected to the theme/topic within the visuals. That way it encourages all language speakers to navigate the multilingual texts. Building knowledge, building empathy.

9 Different Ways of Curating Text Sets for Reading Workshop and Guided Reading (and Beyond!)

Different ways to curate text sets for guided reading and reader's workshop (and let's face it - you could use text sets for a whole bunch of other things! Close reading, writing mentors, research, vocabulary, grammar, conventions, book recommendations to classmates... the list goes on):