English Language Arts · 2nd Grade

Active learning ideas

Navigating Headings and Subheadings

Active learning works for this topic because headings and subheadings are functional tools students must use independently to navigate texts. When students physically interact with headings—predicting, sorting, or hunting—they move from passive readers to strategic information seekers who see text features as meaningful guides.

• Common Core State Standards
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.5

• 20–25 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Think-Pair-Share
• 20 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Heading Predictions

Before reading an informational text, display only the headings and subheadings. Ask students to write one thing they predict they will learn under each heading. Pairs share their predictions, then read the section to check. Debrief focuses on how well the heading prepared them for what they actually read and what that tells them about how headings work.

How can subheadings help a reader predict what they will learn next?

Facilitation Tip

During Think-Pair-Share: Heading Predictions, circulate and listen for students who move from vague guesses to specific text-based predictions.

What to look for

Provide students with a short informational text. Ask them to circle the main heading and underline two subheadings. Then, have them write one sentence explaining what they expect to learn from one of the subheadings.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 20 min · Pairs

Gallery Walk: Feature Scavenger Hunt

Post three or four pages from different informational books around the room. Student pairs rotate to each station and record on a sheet: the main heading, the number of subheadings, and one thing they predict they will learn from one subheading. The class compiles findings to compare how different authors organize similar topics.

Differentiate between a main heading and a subheading in an informational text.

Facilitation Tip

For the Gallery Walk: Feature Scavenger Hunt, assign small groups to specific subheadings to avoid crowding around one section.

What to look for

Display a page from an informational book with clear headings and subheadings. Ask students to point to the main heading and then to a subheading. Pose a question: 'If you wanted to learn about [topic of a subheading], which heading would you look under and why?'

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Inquiry Circle
• 25 min · Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: Heading Mix-Up

Give small groups a short informational text with the headings removed, plus an envelope of heading options. Groups must read the sections and decide which heading belongs with which section, justifying their choices. This reveals how much information a well-chosen heading conveys and why heading selection matters for the reader.

Justify the author's choice of headings for a particular section.

Facilitation Tip

In Collaborative Investigation: Heading Mix-Up, provide blank cards so students can physically rearrange headings and see how misplacement changes meaning.

What to look for

Present two different sets of headings for the same topic. For example, one set might be 'Animals: Mammals' and 'Animals: Birds,' while another might be 'Warm-Blooded Animals' and 'Cold-Blooded Animals.' Ask students: 'Which set of headings helps you understand the information better? Explain your reasoning.'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should model how to read a heading aloud and ask, 'What does this tell us we’ll learn?' Avoid explaining the text’s content before students use the heading to predict. Research shows that previewing with headings activates prior knowledge and improves comprehension, so let the heading do the work first. Keep mini-lessons short and focused on one skill, like noticing question marks in subheadings to signal inquiry-based sections.

Successful learning looks like students using headings to preview sections, locate information quickly, and explain how headings connect to the text’s meaning. By the end of these activities, they should confidently treat headings as functional signposts rather than decorative elements.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Think-Pair-Share: Heading Predictions, watch for students who treat headings as decoration and make predictions unrelated to the topic.

  Use the activity’s structure: ask students to point to the heading and read it aloud before predicting. If their prediction doesn’t connect to the heading’s words, prompt them with, 'What word in the heading tells you this section is about plants?'.

• During Gallery Walk: Feature Scavenger Hunt, watch for students who skip subheadings and only look at main headings.

  Direct students to find one fact under each subheading before moving on. Ask, 'What does this subheading tell you to look for in the text?' to refocus their search.

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Methods used in this brief

• Think-Pair-Share
• Gallery Walk
• Inquiry Circle