HYBRID TEXTS: AN INNOVATIVE GENRE TO INTEGRATE LITERARY AND INFORMATIONAL TEXT William Bintz College of Education, Health and Human Services, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA
My ELA standards emphasize reading literary text, but they also emphasize reading informational text. I’ve always associated ELA with teaching literary text, especially fictional narratives. My problem is that I don’t know how to integrate literary and informational text in my ELA classroom (10th grade ELA teacher). This article is a response to the problem expressed by this English/ Language Arts (ELA) teacher, and many others like her. It introduces hybrid text as an innovative genre to integrate literary and informational text. I begin by describing hybrid text as an extension of paired text and then identify several design features of hybrid text. I end with some final thoughts. Paired Text Hybrid text is rooted in paired text (Bintz, 2015). A paired text is two texts that are conceptually related in some way, e.g. topic, theme, genre, etc. Paired text is based on the belief that reading is about making connections, specifically making personal connections between the books readers are currently reading and their past experiences. Purpose of Paired Text Paired text has many purposes. One purpose is to put intertextuality into action. Intertextuality refers to the cognitive process of making connections across texts. Paired text is an instructional strategy that helps readers make intertextual connections across texts. By using paired text, readers develop both an expectation for connections and strategies for making the search for connections more productive and wide ranging. Types of Paired Text There are many different types of paired text. A paired text can be two texts by the same author or illustrator, two texts on the same story one of which is a traditional version and the other a variant, two texts with similar story structures or text types, two texts with similar topics or themes, two texts with similar content areas, two texts from the same genre, two texts – one literary (fiction) and one informational (nonfiction) – that deal with the same or related topic, and combined-text picture books, texts that integrate multiple genres of expository and narrative writing. Consciously pairing texts or recognizing the intertextual connections between texts has multiple benefits. Benefits of Paired Text Paired texts help students learn about one book from the other. They also help students learn content 7
