Rub a sewing needle with a magnet about twenty times in the same direction. Push the needle through a small piece of cork. Float the cork in a bowl of water and watch the needle turn to point north and south.
4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 13
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.
Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 4.RI.5; 4.RI.7 · 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 Arizona
In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 13 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.
- 4th grade guide for Arizona parents
- Printable 4th grade English Language Arts sheet
- Arizona report cards explained
Source: Arizona Department of Education
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
Which sentence would make the best caption for a photo of a beaver dam?
- Beavers pile sticks and mud across a stream to build a dam.
- beavers, 12, 15–17
- dam: a wall that holds back water
- Chapter 3: Forest Animals
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 2
Which text feature shows where places are?
- a glossary
- a map
- a timeline
- a caption
a map
Hint: This feature is a drawing of an area, showing places such as rivers, towns and roads.
Question 3
You want to find every page that mentions volcanoes in a big science book. Where is the best place to look?
- the table of contents
- the glossary
- the index
- the first caption
the index
Hint: The index is at the back. It lists topics in ABC order with ALL the pages where they appear.
Question 4
Which heading best fits this section?
- Floating and Sinking
- How to Make a Compass
- The History of Maps
- Why Magnets Stick to Fridges
How to Make a Compass
Hint: These are steps for making something. What are you making?
Question 5
Which of these is a glossary entry?
- nectar, 15, 18
- Chapter 4: Making Honey
- nectar: a sweet liquid made by flowers
- Bees visit hundreds of flowers each day.
nectar: a sweet liquid made by flowers
Hint: A glossary entry gives a word followed by what it means.
Question 6
Which part of this book should you use to learn what bees do with the nectar they collect?
Busy Bees: Table of Contents Chapter Page Meet the Bees 4 Inside the Hive 10 Making Honey 15 Bees and Flowers 21 Helping Bees 26 Glossary 30 Index 31 - Glossary
- Making Honey
- Helping Bees
- Bees and Flowers
Making Honey
Hint: Read each title and ask which one fits the topic. Remember: a glossary explains words, and an index lists every page a topic is on.