Subscribe

6th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 9 of 12

Text Forms & Features

Patterns, scripts and visuals

What your child practices

Recognizing problem-and-solution reports, scripts, and web features like menus, and explaining how pictures and graphics add to a text.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 6.1.5.2; 6.1.5.3 · how parts of a text fit its structure, and what graphics add

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A biography is about a real person’s life. A script has speaker names and stage directions.
  2. A problem-and-solution text names a problem, then explains how to fix it.
  3. Websites use menus and links. Pictures and graphs add information the words don’t give.

Example: A report explains that a creek is full of litter, then tells how a class cleaned it up. What text pattern is this? First a problem is named: litter. Then a fix is described: the cleanup. Answer: problem and solution

Text Forms & Features in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 9 of 12 in 6th grade English Language Arts, after Punctuation Power and before Check the Source.

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.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    On a website, a pull-down menu helps a reader…

    • see the author's photo
    • choose from a list of pages or options
    • read the glossary

  2. Question 2

    A graph, a photo and a map all appear in one article. What do they help the reader do?

    • understand ideas that are hard to explain in words alone
    • know who the author is
    • skip reading the text

  3. Question 3

    A script has stage directions in brackets. What are they for?

    • to give the title of the play
    • to tell actors what to do or how to speak
    • to name the audience

  4. Question 4

    What is the purpose of a subheading?

    • to list the sources
    • to tell what a section is about
    • to name the author

  5. Question 5

    What is the likely result if the school uses reusable containers?

    Too Much Plastic

    The problem is clear: our lunch room produces a huge amount of plastic waste. Every day, hundreds of wrappers go into the garbage.

    One solution is to bring reusable containers. Another is to set up a recycling station. As a result, the school could cut its garbage in half.

    • less garbage
    • more wrappers
    • no lunch at all

  6. Question 6

    What text form is this?

    The Mystery Light

    SCENE 1: A dark kitchen. A single flashlight beam moves across the floor.

    ZOE: (whispering) Did you hear that?

    LEO: (looking up) It's only the fridge, Zoe.

    ZOE: (nervously) The fridge doesn't giggle.

    • a poem
    • a news report
    • a script

More 6th grade