4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 14
Text Features
Headings, glossaries and indexes
What your child practices
Using the parts of a nonfiction book to find information: reading a table of contents and index, knowing what glossaries, captions, labels and timelines are for, and choosing headings.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.23 · headings, glossaries, maps and indexes
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- The table of contents at the front lists chapters and their pages.
- The index at the back lists topics in ABC order. The glossary explains special words.
- Captions explain pictures, headings name sections and timelines show events in order.
Example: Which text feature lists the chapters and their page numbers at the front of a book? It is at the front, not the back. It lists chapters, not word meanings. Answer: the table of contents
Text Features in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 14 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Reading Detectives and before Figurative Language.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Use the index. Which page or pages tell about hail?
Wild Weather: Index Topic Pages clouds 8–12 fog 11 hail 17 lightning 24, 26 rainbows 15 snowflakes 16–17 thunder 25 tornadoes 28–29 - 16–17
- 8–12
- 17
- 28–29
17
Hint: An index lists topics in ABC order. Find “hail” in the Topic column and read across to the pages.
Question 2
A timeline is the best text feature for showing…
- events in the order they happened
- the meanings of hard words
- the parts of a plant
- where places are on Earth
events in the order they happened
Hint: A timeline is a line marked with dates from earliest to latest.
Question 3
Look at the table of contents. On what page does “Coral Reefs” begin?
Amazing Oceans: Table of Contents Chapter Page Waves and Tides 3 Life in the Shallows 9 The Deep Sea 16 Coral Reefs 22 Protecting Our Oceans 28 Glossary 33 Index 35 - 35
- 22
- 28
- 33
22
Hint: Find “Coral Reefs” in the Chapter column, then read straight across to the page number.
Question 4
Which sentence would make the best caption for a photo of a beaver dam?
- dam: a wall that holds back water
- Beavers pile sticks and mud across a stream to build a dam.
- Chapter 3: Forest Animals
- beavers, 12, 15–17
Beavers pile sticks and mud across a stream to build a dam.
Hint: A caption is a sentence or two that tells about the picture. The others are a chapter title, a glossary entry and an index entry.
Question 5
What does a chart or table help readers do?
- find the meaning of a word
- learn who wrote the book
- compare information quickly
- see where a place is
compare information quickly
Hint: Tables put facts in rows and columns so you can look across and compare them.
Question 6
Which of these is a glossary entry?
- nectar, 15, 18
- Bees visit hundreds of flowers each day.
- Chapter 4: Making Honey
- nectar: a sweet liquid made by flowers
nectar: a sweet liquid made by flowers
Hint: A glossary entry gives a word followed by what it means.