Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS):
6.8.D
analyze characteristics and structural elements of informational text, including:
the controlling idea or thesis with supporting evidence;
features such as introduction, foreword, preface, references, or acknowledgements to gain background information; and
organizational patterns such as definition, classification, advantage, and disadvantage;
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS):
6.8.F*
analyze characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.
Pennsylvania Core Standards:
CC.1.2.6.C
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text.
Pennsylvania Core Standards:
E06.B-K.1.1.3
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, or elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples, anecdotes, or sequence of steps)
Pennsylvania Core Standards:
E06.B-C.2.1.2
Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, section, or text feature fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas
6th Grade Reading - Informational Text Lesson
INFORMATIONAL TEXT
Informational text refers to text that is written to inform readers about a topic in art, science, or society in general. Some examples of informational texts include newspapers, magazine articles, and textbooks. They can be found in print and online.
Elements of Informational Text
The thesis, or controlling idea, contains the main or overall message that a text is trying to convey. It can indicate the purpose of a text and give clues about the direction that it will take.
How to Identify a Thesis/Controlling Idea
1) It will typically be a statement, not a question.
2) It will identify the subject or topic of a passage.
3) It will generally take a position of some sort.
4) It will be narrow and specific in its focus.
Informational text will also contain facts, details, examples, and opinions that relate to the main topic of a passage. All of these things act as evidence to support the thesis or controlling idea of a text.
Being able to identify the various pieces of evidence that an author uses to support his or her thesis/controlling idea is important because it can help readers better understand the information presented in a text.
These two elements generally make up what is known as the body text. It contains all of the main or central text of an informational passage.
Go to the next page to see another element of informational texts.
Elements of Informational Texts
Text features are parts of a text that are not included with the main body. There are several different types of text features that can be used in an informational passage to help readers gain more information or improve their understanding of the topic being described.
GUIDE READERS THROUGH TEXT
Some examples of features with this purpose are tables of contents, glossaries, and indexes.
Tables of contents come at the beginning of a book and list the different chapters or sections and where they begin and end.
Glossaries typically come at the end of a passage or book and will define words that were used throughout the text.
Indexes can also be found after the main text and will have a list of topics and where they are mentioned in the text.
PROVIDE BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Some examples of features with this purpose are introductions, forewords, and prefaces.
All three of these features come before the main body of text in an informational passage.
Forewords and prefaces are usually used before longer works, such as books.
They provide background information on the main topic of a text or explain how and why a book was developed.
PROVIDE INFO / HELP READERS FIND INFO
Some examples of features with this purpose are titles, headings, and bold or italicized text.
Titles start an informational text and are usually in a larger font compared to the rest of the text. They help identify the main topic.
Headings help divide the text into different sections. Headings can tell readers the main idea of each section, which makes finding specific information in a text easier.
Using bolded or italicized type can draw attention to certain words in a text. This often indicates that they are vocabulary words or have some important meaning in the text.
CLARIFY MEANING THROUGH REPRESENTATIONS
Some examples of features with this purpose are diagrams, pictures/illustrations, and charts/tables.
Diagrams can show how a process works or different parts of a whole.
Pictures and illustrations can show what places, people, or objects look like more clearly than a written description.
Charts and tables help authors organize information more clearly.
CITE OR REFERENCE OTHER TEXTS
Some examples of features with this purpose are references, bibliographies, and acknowledgements.
References and bibliographies contain the sources that the author used to write his or her own text. The sources in these features can help readers find more information on the same or similar topics.
Acknowledgements, which can come at the beginning or end of a text, will usually let readers know if anyone assisted the author with the research or in writing the informational text.
Go to the next page to see another element of informational texts.
Elements of Informational Texts
Organizational patterns in informational texts refer to the structure of the text or how the ideas in the text are arranged. The way a text is organized helps support the author's purpose in writing the passage. Using specific writing patterns can also help readers understand the information more easily since the relationships between topics are shown more clearly.
In a classification, or topical, organizational pattern, a main topic is divided into smaller groups, and then the traits of each group are described.
In the compare-contrast organizational pattern, the similarities and differences between two or more items are described. A text can focus solely on comparison, contrast, or both.
In the advantage-disadvantage organizational pattern, an author will explain the positive and negative aspects of an event, object, or action.
In the cause-effect organizational pattern, the text will describe an event that is caused by another event or action. There can be multiple causes or multiple effects described within the text.
In the problem-solution organizational pattern, a specific problem is described, and then current or potential solutions to the issue are explained.
These are only a few examples of common organizational patterns. There are many others that can be used when writing an informational text.
6th Grade Reading - Informational Text Lesson