What are informational text features?
Informational text features are the parts of an explanatory text that are not ordinary sentences: a title, headings, a caption under a picture, a diagram, a glossary, a table of contents. They tell you what the text is about and where each part begins, so you can find the section you need before you read every word.
Informational text features in plain words
An informational text explains a process, a part, or a sequence. A story keeps you reading to find out what happens next; an informational text keeps you reading for something you can use.
The title names the whole text, and the headings name the parts: a heading is a promise that the lines underneath are about that word. A caption under a picture says in words what the picture shows. A diagram draws a process, a part, or a relationship that sentences would take longer to describe. A glossary gives the key words of the text a meaning. A table of contents lists the sections and where each sits. Formatting sets them apart: bold type, bullet points, numbered steps, and lines set off from the paragraph.
Start with the title, then the table of contents, then the headings and the graphics, which say which part your question belongs to. Transition words do the same job inside a paragraph, naming the relation between two sentences.
ETS lists recognizing informative and explanatory text features, such as titles, transition words, formatting, and graphics, among the topics for the Reading & Writing subtest (5758).
Why a paraeducator uses this in class
A paraeducator often has less time with a text than the teacher does, and a room where students read at different speeds. The features are the fastest way into a text for a student who does not trust a wall of paragraphs.
They also let a student ask for help precisely. "I do not understand this page" has no answer. "I do not know what the diagram under the first heading shows" has one: read the caption, then the labels, then the paragraph it belongs to.
Worked example
A class is reading a text called "How a Composting Bin Works". It has a title, a contents box, three headings, a diagram with a caption, and a glossary. One student must answer one question: which layer goes in the middle of the bin, and which section explains what happens there?
- The title says the text explains a process, and the contents box lists "What Goes In", "What Happens Inside", and "What Comes Out", so the question about what happens goes to the second entry.
- The heading is a promise: "What Happens Inside" means the lines under it describe the inside of the bin, so a paragraph about what comes out does not fit there.
- The diagram shows dry leaves on top, kitchen scraps in the middle, and soil at the bottom, and the caption says the layers are built up one at a time. The picture shows that order at a glance, which the paragraph cannot. So the middle layer is kitchen scraps, and the section to read about it is "What Happens Inside".
- The glossary explains "fibrous", a word the text uses once without stopping to define it, and the transition words open the steps with "first", move on with "then", and close with "finally".
- Nothing says how long the process takes, and the contents box shows that no section covers it.
Practice questions
Question 1: naming the parts
A text has a photograph with one line under it, a labeled drawing, and a list of words with meanings at the end. What are those three parts, and what does each do?
Show the answer
The line under the photograph is a caption, and it says what the photograph shows. The labeled drawing is a diagram of how the parts fit together. The list of words with meanings is a glossary, and it defines the key words.
Question 2: what the contents box settles
A contents box lists "How the System Works", "What It Costs", and "How to Get Help". A student needs to know what the system costs. What does the box settle?
Show the answer
Open "What It Costs", the entry that names the subject. The box also settles that no other section is about cost, so if that one carries no figure, the text does not answer it.
A contents box answers "is it in here?" before the text is read.
Question 3: what the connectors do
Under the heading "How to Build a Simple Shelf" the text gives three steps, and each begins with one word: "First, cut the board." "Then sand the edge." "Finally, screw the brackets on." What do those words do?
Show the answer
"First", "then", and "finally" mark the order the steps run in, so the board is cut before it is sanded and the brackets go on last. Without them the steps are separate sentences.
A transition word is a feature inside a sentence, doing the job a heading does outside.
Continue learning
- Text structure: how the parts of a text fit together.
- Supporting details: the sentences under the right heading.
- Finding main ideas: what the title and the headings promise.
Try it on a full practice test
Once you can name what each part of a text is doing, work through the free ParaPathways practice test.
Our study book covers every skill on both subtests, in English and Spanish.
Sources
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