Using Text Features to Understand Information is a Grade 3 ELA resource for reading and literature studies that helps students use text features to find, connect, and understand key information in informational text.

Make Text Features Work for Readers

Students learn how headings, captions, and bold words support understanding by connecting these features to the sentences around them. Rather than treating text features as isolated elements, students practice identifying what each feature helps them notice and understand in an informational passage.

Apply Features to Reading

The resource asks students to use text features to answer questions about a short passage and match specific features with what they help the reader do. This gives students practice using visual and structural clues to locate important information and connect a feature with the surrounding text.

Question and Activity Formats

Students work through multiple-choice questions, true-or-false statements, short-answer responses, a reading passage, matching, a cloze passage, an essay, and a "Did You Know?" activity. The varied response formats allow students to identify text features, explain their purpose, and apply them while reading informational text.

Teacher and Student Support

• Student Notes & Lesson Summary supplement for reinforcing the key lesson concepts.
• Separate Teacher Guide PDF with learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes.

Classroom Application

Use this text features worksheet during direct instruction, guided reading, independent practice, or review. Students can apply the skill directly to the included reading passage while the supporting notes and teacher guide provide additional structure for teaching and discussion.

For Grade 3 classrooms using the Ontario framework, this resource keeps informational text instruction focused on practical reading skills. Students identify how text features support key information, connect headings, captions, and bold words with nearby sentences, answer passage questions using those features, and recognize what different features help readers do.