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3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 19 of 21

Kinds of Texts

Fables, biographies, poems, plays and more, and how texts connect.

What your child practices

Your child names a text's genre from its features (fable, biography, tall tale, play, informational text) and makes text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections, including tales from different cultures.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 3R9; 3R5 · recognizing genres and connecting texts to other texts, cultures and their own lives

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A fable is a short tale, often with animals, that ends with a lesson.
  2. A biography tells about a real person’s life. A tall tale stretches the truth a lot.
  3. A play has lines for characters to speak. Informational text teaches facts.

Example: A farmer lifts a barn with one hand and digs a lake with a spoon. What genre is it? Nobody can really do these things. A story that stretches the truth like this is a tall tale. Answer: Tall tale

Kinds of Texts in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 19 of 21 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Posters, Slides & Media and before Pictures, Features and Points of View.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    What makes a text a piece of fiction?

    • It must have a glossary
    • It only gives true facts
    • It is always about animals
    • It is made up by the author

  2. Question 2

    Lines are grouped into stanzas, and the words have rhythm and rhyme. What genre is it?

    • News article
    • Poetry
    • Dictionary entry
    • Biography

  3. Question 3

    What makes a text nonfiction?

    • It starts with "Once upon a time"
    • It always has talking animals
    • It gives true information about real things
    • It is always a poem

  4. Question 4

    Which genre is most likely to start with "Once upon a time"?

    • News article
    • Fairy tale
    • Biography
    • How-to text

  5. Question 5

    A detective follows clues to find out who took the missing class hamster. What genre is it?

    • Informational text
    • Mystery
    • Biography
    • Poetry

  6. Question 6

    Leo says, "This story reminds me of another book where friends solve a problem together." What kind of connection is that?

    • Text to world
    • Text to text
    • Text to self
    • No connection

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