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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 7 of 14

Forms & Features

Text patterns, visuals and media

What your child practices

Knowing what each text form does, how features such as an index, footnote or caption help readers, how signal words show a text's pattern, and how images, color and design shape meaning.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: E1.7(D); E1.8(C) · text patterns, visuals and media features

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Text forms have jobs: a script has dialogue and stage directions; an epistolary text is told in letters.
  2. Headings guide readers, footnotes add sources or notes, captions explain images.
  3. Signal words show patterns (because, in contrast, first). Images, color and design shape meaning too.

Example: A story is told in letters between two characters. What is this text form called? “Epistle” is an old word for letter. A text made of letters is epistolary. Answer: an epistolary text

Forms & Features in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 7 of 14 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Digital Smarts and before Summarizing Texts.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 scene is told in letters between two characters. What is this text form called?

    • an index
    • a script
    • an editorial
    • an epistolary text

  2. Question 2

    Which text form is mainly written to persuade readers to agree with an opinion?

    • A table of contents
    • A weather report
    • An editorial
    • A glossary

  3. Question 3

    A line graph in a news article is best used to show…

    • how something changes over time
    • the parts of a whole in a pie
    • a character's emotions
    • a list of definitions

  4. Question 4

    What is a footnote used for?

    • To give extra information or a source at the bottom of the page
    • To list every chapter
    • To thank the author
    • To show the title of the book

  5. Question 5

    What is a hyperlink in an online article used for?

    • To count the words
    • To hide the author's name
    • To connect readers to related information or a source
    • To change the font

  6. Question 6

    Two news sites report the same event with different headlines. What is the most likely reason?

    • Only one of them is a real website
    • One of them has no photos
    • They have different purposes or target audiences
    • Headlines are chosen at random

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