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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 6 of 12

Forms, Patterns & Visuals

Text forms, patterns and visual design

What your child practices

Comparing text forms such as editorials, news articles, poems and graphic novels, spotting text patterns like problem-solution and compare-contrast, and judging how features, images and design add to meaning.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 8.1.5.2; 8.1.5.3 · informational text structures and what visuals add

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Text forms: news articles report facts, editorials argue an opinion, graphic novels tell stories in panels.
  2. Text patterns: problem and solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect, sequence.
  3. Features like glossaries, headings, images and design help readers understand.

Example: A passage tells how two bikes are alike and how they differ. Which text pattern does it use? It shows likenesses and differences. That is the compare-and-contrast pattern. Answer: compare and contrast

Forms, Patterns & Visuals in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 6 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Whose Story Is It? and before Reading Detective.

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

    A sidebar in a textbook usually…

    • replaces the main text
    • gives extra information related to the main text
    • is the title page
    • lists every source

  2. Question 2

    A graphic novel tells its story using…

    • only paragraphs of text
    • sequenced panels of images and words
    • stanzas and rhymes only
    • only graphs and tables

  3. Question 3

    Which text pattern does the passage mainly use?

    Paper or Screen?

    Printed books and e-books both let readers enjoy stories. A printed book has pages that you hold and turn, and it does not need a battery. An e-book, in contrast, can hold hundreds of titles on one device and lets readers change the size of the text.

    However, many readers find that they remember more of what they read on paper. E-books are easier to carry; printed books are easier on the eyes for some people.

    • compare and contrast
    • cause and effect
    • sequence
    • problem and solution

  4. Question 4

    Which text pattern does the letter mainly use?

    A Letter to the Editor

    Dear Editor,

    Every morning, dozens of students cross Maple Road to reach our school, but there is no crosswalk. Last month, a driver nearly hit a boy who was running late. A painted crosswalk with a flashing light would cost the town little and could save a life. I urge the council to approve one before someone is hurt.

    Sincerely, R. Ahmed

    • compare and contrast
    • problem and solution
    • description
    • sequence

  5. Question 5

    Which word signals a contrast?

    Paper or Screen?

    Printed books and e-books both let readers enjoy stories. A printed book has pages that you hold and turn, and it does not need a battery. An e-book, in contrast, can hold hundreds of titles on one device and lets readers change the size of the text.

    However, many readers find that they remember more of what they read on paper. E-books are easier to carry; printed books are easier on the eyes for some people.

    • Printed
    • enjoy
    • However
    • pages

  6. Question 6

    What does a glossary do?

    • introduces the author
    • lists the sources used
    • defines key words used in the text
    • tells where each topic is found by page

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