Informational TextInformational Text

Standard

• ELA7R1. The student demonstrates comprehension and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and informational texts. For informational texts, the student reads and comprehends in order to develop understanding and expertise and produces evidence of reading that:

• a. Analyzes common textual features to obtain information (e.g., paragraphs, topic sentences, concluding sentences, introduction, conclusion, footnotes, index, and bibliography).

• b. Identifies and uses knowledge of common graphic features to draw conclusions and make judgments (e.g., graphic organizers, diagrams, captions, illustrations).

Text Features• There are 4 main kinds of text

features that help you find information in your textbooks:– Headings– Keywords– Captions– Footnotes

Heading• What is a heading?• The title of a section of writing

(like a chapter, a section inside of a chapter, a newspaper or magazine article, etc.)

Find the Heading:

Keywords• Keywords are important words

from a text, usually vocabulary words or names of important people, events, or ideas.

• Keywords are usually in bold and/or underlined in textbooks.

• Find the keywords in the following example:

Find the Keywords

Captions• Captions are located under

pictures, tables, graphs, forms, and other images.

• Captions tell you what’s going on in the pictures.

• What is the caption in the following example?

Find the Caption

Footnotes• Footnotes happen when the author

wants to give you more info about something in the text.

• They’re usually used to explain things like vocabulary words or to give background information.

• Footnotes are usually marked with a small superscript number like this1

• Find the Footnote in the following example:

Why?• Why is it important to know about

text features like headings, keywords, captions, and footnotes?

• They help you find information quickly

• They help show you important information

• They’re like road signs pointing you to what you need to know.