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.
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 4.1.5.2; 4.1.5.3 · informational text structure, and the information in maps, graphics 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 Minnesota
In the Minnesota K-12 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.
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 of these is a glossary entry?
- Chapter 4: Making Honey
- nectar, 15, 18
- Bees visit hundreds of flowers each day.
- 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.
Question 2
Use the index. Which page or pages tell about lightning?
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 - 24, 26
- 17
- 8–12
- 16–17
24, 26
Hint: An index lists topics in ABC order. Find “lightning” in the Topic column and read across to the pages.
Question 3
Where in a book would you look to find what a word means?
- a heading
- the table of contents
- the glossary
- a caption
the glossary
Hint: A glossary is like a small dictionary at the back of a book.
Question 4
You want to find every page that mentions volcanoes in a big science book. Where is the best place to look?
- the glossary
- the first caption
- the index
- the table of contents
the index
Hint: The index is at the back. It lists topics in ABC order with ALL the pages where they appear.
Question 5
What is the job of a heading?
- It explains what a word means
- It lists every page in the book
- It tells who wrote the book
- It tells what a section of the text is about
It tells what a section of the text is about
Hint: Headings are like titles for small parts of a text.
Question 6
Look at the table of contents. On what page does “Rain and Snow” begin?
Wild Weather: Table of Contents Chapter Page Sun and Seasons 2 Clouds 8 Rain and Snow 13 Wind 19 Thunderstorms 24 Glossary 30 Index 32 - 30
- 8
- 2
- 13
13
Hint: Find “Rain and Snow” in the Chapter column, then read straight across to the page number.