1. Informational Text

2. 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).

3. Text Features There are 4 main kinds of text features that help you find information in your textbooks: –Headings –Keywords –Captions –Footnotes

4. 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.)

5. Find the Heading:

6. 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:

7. Find the Keywords

8. 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?

9. Find the Caption

10. 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 this 1 Find the Footnote in the following example:

12. 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.