Text Features & Comprehension

Teaching Text Features to Support Comprehension 3D book cover

When K-5 students understand how to read text features like bullets, insets, and bold print, they are reading the whole page — essential for deep comprehension of nonfiction and fiction text. In the revised edition of Teaching Text Features to Support Comprehension, seasoned educators Michelle Kelley and Nicki Clausen-Grace show teachers how to explicitly instruct K-5 students to read text features, use them to navigate text, and include them in their own writing.

Sixty mini-lessons for teaching print, graphic, and organizational features provide ample choices for meeting the standards while adapting to students’ needs. The lessons, which follow the gradual release of responsibility model and increase in difficulty, can be used within the typical 90-minute reading block, during content area instruction, in small groups, and as part of independent practice opportunities. Each lesson offers concept review, suggestions for differentiation, assessment options, and technology connections, requiring students to find, explore, manipulate, and create text features in their own writing.

The book features important resources and convenient lesson supports including:

  • Thinksheets
  • Visual examples of each text feature
  • Rubrics
  • Assessment picture book
  • Downloadable Readers’ Theatre scripts                                            

  For Your Reference          

Text Features Definitions & Examples
Image of an airplane with a green title called "Airplanes"
Type: Title

Definition: The name of a text located on the front cover or at the beginning of a chapter

How it helps: Indicates the topic and/or main idea of the entire text

Image of a text example with a heading
Type: Heading/Subheading

Definition: A secondary heading that divides a section of text; sometimes differentiated from a title by font color

How it helps: Indicates the main idea of a section of text

Image of a text example with a bolded word
Type: Bold Print

Definition: Words written in a dark and thick print within the main body of text; often, these words are also defined in the glossary

How it helps: Signals important vocabulary and/or a phrase that is integral to understanding the content of the text

Image of a text example with italicized words
Type: Italics

Definition: Font slanted to the right within the main body of text

How it helps: Indicates proper nouns and important vocabulary or that the reader should emphasize this word when reading

Image of a text example with a caption box
Type: Caption

Definition: Text located near a graphic feature (such as a picture, map, diagram, etc.) that explains what it is

How it helps: Explains the graphic feature it is nearest to

Image of a text example with a pronunciation guide sounding out the word "hirudin"
Type: Pronunciation Guide

Definition: Text located near a graphic feature (such as a picture, map, diagram, etc.) that explains what it is

How it helps: Explains the graphic feature it is nearest to

Image of text with bullet points
Type: Bullets

Definition: Listed text that is indented and aligned using a dot, symbol, or dash in front of each idea

How it helps: Summarizes or lists information in a text

Image of text with a sidebar text underneath the main text
Type: Sidebar

Definition: Additional text (not the main body of text) within a box, often with a shaded background; located at the sides, top, or bottom of a page

How it helps: Provides additional details, facts, or information related to the text

Image of a sheep drinking water from a hose
Type: Photography

Definition: Picture taken by a camera; captions explain what is shown in photos

How it helps: Helps the reader visualize real events, steps, or objects described in the text

Image of a drawing depicting a town or scenery with smoke fuming into the air
Type: Drawing

Definition: A hand-created sketch; captions explain what is in the drawing

How it helps: Helps the reader visualize and better understand something from the text

Image of an inset that shows a close-up of the moon's surface
Type: Inset

Definition: A small photo, picture, or map inside or next to a larger picture; insets magnify a part of the larger picture

How it helps: Helps the reader visualize something in the text in both large and small scale, in combination with the larger picture

Image showing an x-ray view of a coral
Type: Cross Section

Definition: A picture of a person, place, or thing that has been cut completely in half, with the open half facing forward so the entire inside is revealed

How it helps: Allows the reader to visualize all the layers of a person, place, or thing in the text

Image of a cutaway exposing the inside of an organ
Type: Cutaway

Definition: A picture of an object with part of the side dissolved, partially revealing the inside

How it helps: Allows the reader to visualize both the interior and exterior of a person, place, or thing in the text

Image of a diagram showing a butterfly life cycle
Type: Diagram

Definition: A series of pictures with captions showing steps, stages, or the progression of events

How it helps: Explains steps in a process or how something is made

Image of an airplane with labeled diagrams describing airplane parts
Type: Labeled Diagram

Definition: A picture with labels on lines pointing to various parts

How it helps: Shows the different components of something in the text

Image of a map showing North America
Type: Map

Definition: A picture with labels on lines pointing to various parts

How it helps: Shows the different components of something in the text

Image of a graph called "Our Favorite Pets" by a number of students selecting from dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and birds
Type: Graph

Definition: Data in diagram form, such as a bar graph, line graph, or pie graph

How it helps: Condenses data and/or displays numeric information important to the text; can be used to compare amounts or show changes over time

Image of a chart/table of each planet and their number of moons
Type: Chart/Table

Definition: Large amounts of information or data organized and condensed into columns and rows with headings

How it helps: Allows the reader to easily read and compare data related to the text

Image of timeline showing specific years of events
Type: Timeline

Definition: Events listed in linear format in the order that they occur

How it helps: Allows the reader to understand when events in the main body of text occurred relative to other events

Image of a table of contents over a picture of a bird standing in water
Type: Table of Contents

Definition: Located at the beginning of the text and lists key topics in the book with the page number in the order they are presented

How it helps: Helps the reader quickly find the topic he/she is seeking

Image of an index example
Type: Index

Definition: Located at the back of the book; specific topics, events, names, and terms listed in alphabetical order with page numbers; more specific than the table of contents

How it helps: Helps the reader quickly find where the specific information he/she is seeking is located

Image of a glossary example
Type: Glossary

Definition: Located at the back of the book, an alphabetical listing of text-important words with definitions and sometimes a pronunciation guide; usually, the words in the glossary are bolded in the main body of the text

How it helps: Helps readers understand new or text-critical words; definitions can be easily found

Grade Level Downloadables

Grade 1

Table 1.2: Text Feature Definitions and Examples

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Appendix C:  Knowledge of Text Features Assessment