Explain how a story and an information text differ in purpose, structure and key features, and find the evidence an author gives

Learning goal: This lesson teaches Ohio's 2026 standards RL.1.5 and RI.1.8, first implemented in 2027-28: explain the differences between literary and informational texts by identifying their purpose, structure and key features; and identify the evidence an author gives in an informational text and tell how it supports key ideas. The earlier grade 1 lesson mentioned stories and information books; the 2026 statement asks children to explain the difference using three named tools: purpose, structure and features. The earlier grade 1 lesson on an author's support taught reasons; the 2026 statement asks for evidence.

For the adult: Read both texts aloud. They are about the same topic, puddles, on purpose. The information text has a picture caption; before reading, draw or show the picture it describes (a puddle on blacktop with a chalk line around it, and the water far inside the line by afternoon), or let children draw it from the caption, so they can see what the caption tells about. When the topic is the same, children have to look at purpose, structure and features to tell the texts apart.

Original story — Tess and the Puddle

After the rain, Tess found a puddle by the back step. It was as round as a pizza. "This is my puddle lake," she said. She floated a leaf boat on it and pushed it with a stick.

The next morning, Tess ran outside. The puddle was smaller. "Who drank my lake?" she asked. Her mom smiled and pointed to the sun.

By lunch the puddle was only a dark spot on the ground. Tess felt sad. Then she had an idea. She drew her puddle lake on paper, with the leaf boat in the middle. "Now it can stay," she said, and she taped the picture to the door.

Original information text — Where Does a Puddle Go?

Contents: What Is a Puddle? · Two Ways a Puddle Goes Away · How Do We Know? · Word Help

What Is a Puddle? After rain, water flows to low places on the ground and stays there. That water is a puddle.

Two Ways a Puddle Goes Away. First, some water can soak down into the soil. Second, some water evaporates. The water changes into a gas called water vapor and goes into the air. You cannot see water vapor. Sun and wind can help a puddle dry faster. Water cannot soak through most blacktop, so a puddle on blacktop dries mostly by evaporating.

How Do We Know? You can check. In the morning, draw a chalk line around the edge of a puddle on the blacktop. Look again in the afternoon. On a dry day the water is usually far inside the line, and the ground between the water and the line is dry. Most of the water could not soak into the blacktop, so most of it went into the air. (A little may also run off or splash away.) Does the sun help? On the same morning, draw a line around two puddles of about the same size, one in the sun and one in the shade. Check them together in the afternoon. The puddle in the sun has usually pulled farther inside its line.

Picture caption: The same puddle in the morning and in the afternoon. By afternoon the water is far inside the chalk line.

Word Help. evaporate: to change from liquid water into water vapor, a gas in the air.

Two kinds of text. A literary text (a story, poem or play) often tells about characters and what happens to them; a poem may instead describe a thing or a feeling. An informational text teaches true facts about a topic. Some books mix the two: an information book can follow a character, and a story book can have a caption. That is why we look at all three tools below, not at one feature. Both can be about puddles. So we can't decide what kind of text it is from the topic alone. We use three tools.

Tool 1: Purpose — why was it written? Ask, "Does it tell me a story, or teach me facts?" Tess and the Puddle was written to tell a story about a girl who loses her puddle lake and finds a way to keep it. It makes us feel something, too: sad, then pleased. Where Does a Puddle Go? was written to teach how puddles form and how they go away. It wants us to know something true.

Tool 2: Structure — how is it put together? A story tells events in time order, and many stories, like this one, have a beginning (Tess finds the puddle), a middle with a problem (the puddle shrinks and disappears) and an end where the problem is settled (she draws it so it can stay). Not every story has a problem to solve, but this one does. The information text is built in sections about parts of the topic: what a puddle is, then two ways it goes away. It even uses first and second to list the two ways. Those words are not the order of a character's day; they organize facts.

Tool 3: Key features — what special parts does it have? Stories usually have characters (Tess, her mom), a setting (by the back step), events and often dialogue in quotation marks ("Who drank my lake?"). Information texts often have features that help readers find and understand facts: a table of contents, headings in bold, bold words, a caption under a picture and a glossary or word-help box that explains a hard word like evaporate.

Putting the tools together. Look at one sentence from each text. The story says, "Her mom smiled and pointed to the sun." That sentence is an event with characters, and it hints at the cause without explaining it. The information text says, "Sun and wind can help a puddle dry faster." That is a fact that is true for puddles in general, not just Tess's puddle. The story shows the idea through what happens; the information text states it directly.

Evidence the author gives (RI.1.8). An information author does not only tell facts; the author can give evidence: something you can see or check that shows a key idea is true. Where Does a Puddle Go? has two key ideas with evidence in the section How Do We Know?. Key idea 1: puddle water evaporates into the air. Evidence: a chalk line drawn around a puddle on blacktop in the morning, with the water far inside the line by afternoon (the picture caption shows the same thing). It supports the key idea because most of the water could not soak into the blacktop, so most of the missing water went into the air; the author is careful to say a little may run off or splash. Key idea 2: sun helps a puddle dry faster. One puddle shrinking on a sunny day does not show that by itself, because we would not know how fast it dries without sun. So the author gives a comparison: two puddles of about the same size, one in the sun and one in the shade, marked on the same morning; by afternoon the sunny one has usually pulled farther inside its line. Starting with puddles of about the same size matters: if the sunny puddle had started smaller, being smaller later would show nothing about the sun. Evidence that compares is stronger evidence for "faster." To tell how evidence supports an idea, children say: "The author says ___. The author shows it with ___. That helps because ___." A reason is different from evidence: "so it dries mostly by evaporating" explains, while the chalk line shows. The story gives no evidence in this way; Mom only points to the sun.

A common mistake. Some children say, "It has pictures, so it's a story," or "It's about something real, so it's information." Both kinds of text can have pictures, and stories can be about real things like puddles. Another mistake is thinking a story can't teach anything. Readers can learn from stories, but the story's main purpose is still to tell what happens to characters.

A fully worked model. Question: "Which text is informational? Explain with purpose, structure and one feature." Model answer: "Where Does a Puddle Go? is informational. Its purpose is to teach how a puddle goes away. Its structure is sections with headings, and it lists two ways using first and second. One feature is the Word Help box, which explains evaporate. Tess and the Puddle has characters, a beginning, middle and end, and talking in quotation marks, so it is a story." That answer uses all three tools and gives evidence for each.

Worked example 1: Purpose. Read the first sentence of each text. Story: "After the rain, Tess found a puddle by the back step." A named girl finds something: a story begins. Information: "After rain, water flows to low places on the ground and stays there." No character; it explains what happens to rainwater that collects on the ground. Answer: "The story tells what happened to Tess. The information text teaches what happens to rainwater."

Worked example 2: Structure. Put three sentences from the story in order: Tess makes a leaf boat (beginning); the puddle shrinks and becomes a dark spot (middle problem); she draws it and tapes it up (end). Now try to put the information sections "in story order": there is no character to follow. Instead, the sections go from what a puddle is to how it goes away. Answer: "The story goes beginning, middle, end. The information text goes topic, then parts of the topic."

Worked example 3: Features. Sort these parts: contents list, "Who drank my lake?", bold heading, Tess, Word Help, caption, back step. Story features: "Who drank my lake?" (dialogue), Tess (character), back step (setting). Information features: contents list, bold heading, Word Help, caption. Check: in these two texts, every story feature is about the characters and what happens, and every information feature helps a reader find or understand facts.

Worked example 4: Same topic, different answers. Question: "Why did the puddle get smaller?" The story only shows Mom pointing to the sun. The information text explains: water evaporates, and sun and wind help it dry faster. Answer: "The information text answers why with facts; the story shows it through what the characters do."

Worked example 5: Find the author's evidence. Question: "How does the author show that puddle water goes into the air?" Step 1, find the key idea: water evaporates into the air. Step 2, find what the author gives you to see or check: the chalk-line test and the picture caption. Step 3, connect them: "The author says water goes into the air. The author shows it with the chalk line: the water pulls far inside the line by afternoon. That helps because most blacktop does not let water soak in, so most of the water went into the air." Then ask about the second key idea: "How does the author show that sun helps?" Answer: "With two puddles of about the same size, one in the sun and one in the shade. By afternoon the sunny one has usually pulled farther inside its chalk line."

Representation task (with an adult): Fold a paper in half. Label one side Story and the other Information. Make three rows: Purpose, Structure, Features. The child draws or dictates one entry in each box, using the two puddle texts. Then sort six cards (character, heading, dialogue, glossary, beginning-middle-end, caption) onto the side where each is found in these two texts. If a card could fit both kinds of text in other books (a story book can have a caption), put it on the side where it appears here and say where else it could appear.

Independent performance: The adult gives two new short texts on one topic, one story and one information text (from your class library or written by the teacher). The child tells (1) which text is the story and which is informational, (2) the purpose of each, (3) how each is organized, and (4) at least one key feature of each that proves the choice.

Success criteria: The child uses all three words (purpose, structure, features) or clearly explains each idea. Each claim has evidence from the text. The child does not decide by topic or by "it has pictures" alone. The adult records whether the child named the features without prompting. For the information text, the child also names one piece of evidence the author gives and tells which key idea it supports.