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

Form & Composing

Pick the right form for your audience and shape a clear text.

What your child practices

Practices choosing a form for purpose and audience, tone, organization, transitions, text features and design choices when composing and publishing.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: E1.9(A); E1.5(H) · choosing a form and tone for the audience

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Choose a form for your purpose and audience: a how-to guide explains steps, a letter speaks to one reader.
  2. When you revise, improve ideas, organization and wording. Put the strongest point first in persuasive writing.
  3. Use transitions, text features and design to make the text clear.

Example: Which form best explains the steps for building a bird feeder: a poem, a how-to guide or a review? The goal is to explain steps in order. A how-to guide is made for that. Answer: a how-to guide

Form & Composing in Texas

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

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

    Publishing a text means…

    • sharing a final version with an audience
    • taking notes
    • starting a draft

  2. Question 2

    Which form would best share your opinion on a school rule?

    • a recipe
    • a timeline
    • an editorial or letter to the editor

  3. Question 3

    A news article uses an “inverted pyramid”, which means…

    • the title comes last
    • the story ends with a surprise
    • the most important facts come first

  4. Question 4

    Which form would best invite readers to a community cleanup?

    • a lab report
    • a poem about clouds
    • a poster or flyer

  5. Question 5

    When writing for a formal audience such as a principal, you should use…

    • only pictures
    • polite, precise language
    • slang and text-message spellings

  6. Question 6

    Which form best suits a personal reflection on a hockey season?

    • a journal entry
    • a legal contract
    • a lab report

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