Use print and digital text features and the words of a text to locate information and understand key events

Learning goal: This lesson teaches two of Ohio's 2026 reading standards for informational text, first implemented in 2027-28. You will use text features such as headings, labels, charts, graphs, legends, key words, sidebars and hyperlinks to locate information; explain how text features support details in the text; interpret text features in print and digital formats; and use information from nonfiction text features (table of contents, maps, illustrations, index and glossary) together with the words to understand where, when, why and how key events occur.

What a text feature is. A text feature is any part of an informational text that is not the main running sentences but helps a reader find or understand information. Some features help you locate information quickly: a table of contents, headings, an index and key words in bold print. Some features give information in a different form: a map, a chart, a graph, a labeled illustration, a sidebar. Some features explain words: a glossary. In a digital text, hyperlinks, search boxes and menus do some of these jobs. A feature is useful only when you read it and connect it to the words.

Original article — Monarchs on the Move (a short book; its pages, map and glossary are described here in words, as they would appear in print)

Table of Contents: Meet the Monarch, page 2. The Long Trip South, page 4. Back North Again, page 6. How You Can Help, page 8. Glossary, page 10. Index, page 11.

Meet the Monarch (page 2). The monarch is an orange and black butterfly. A monarch caterpillar eats only milkweed. Milkweeds are a group of plants; most have milky sap, and different kinds have different leaf shapes. A female monarch lays her eggs on milkweed so the caterpillars will have food as soon as they hatch.

The Long Trip South (page 4). Every fall, many monarchs from the eastern United States and Canada, including Ohio, fly south. They travel thousands of miles to mountain forests in central Mexico. Monarchs cannot survive a freezing northern winter, so they spend the winter in these cool forests, resting close together on the trees. This long journey is called a migration. Scientists are still studying exactly how monarchs find their way.

Back North Again (page 6). In spring, the monarchs leave Mexico and fly north. Along the way they lay eggs on milkweed. The butterflies that reach Ohio in late spring and summer are usually the children or grandchildren of the ones that left in the fall.

Sidebar — A Butterfly's Weight. A monarch weighs about as much as a paper clip, yet it can cross mountains and rivers.

How You Can Help (page 8). Planting milkweed and flowers gives monarchs food. A school garden can become a stopping place during migration.

Map (page 5). An arrow runs from Ohio down through Texas to a star in central Mexico. The legend says: arrow = fall migration route; star = winter forests.

Glossary (page 10). migration: a long trip that animals make at the same time each year. milkweed: a group of plants, most with milky sap; the food monarch caterpillars eat.

Index (page 11). caterpillars, 2; eggs, 2, 6; migration, 4–7; milkweed, 2, 6, 8; winter forests, 4–5.

Using features to locate information. Suppose your question is "What do monarch caterpillars eat?" Scanning every page wastes time. Start from a word in your question. The index lists caterpillars on page 2, and the table of contents shows that Meet the Monarch starts on page 2. On that page the bold key word milkweed tells you the important word is there, and the glossary defines it. Four features point to the same answer. (You could not begin by looking up milkweed in the index, because you did not know that word was the answer yet.)

How features support details in the text. The words on page 4 say monarchs fly thousands of miles to central Mexico. The map supports that detail by showing where the route goes, from Ohio through Texas to the star. The legend tells you how to read the map: without it, you would not know what the arrow and star stand for. The sidebar adds an interesting fact that is not in the main text (a monarch weighs about as much as a paper clip), which makes the long trip more surprising. When you explain a feature, say which detail it supports and what it adds.

Reading a graph and its title. Look at the bar graph with this lesson. Its title says it shows monarchs a class counted in its school garden during four weeks of one fall; these are fictional counts for practice: week 1, 2 monarchs; week 2, 5; week 3, 9; week 4, 4. To interpret a graph, read the title and labels first, then compare bars. The tallest bar is week 3, so the class saw the most monarchs that week. The graph cannot tell you why the number dropped in week 4. The text about migration suggests a possible reason (the monarchs were moving south), but the graph alone does not prove it.

Print and digital formats. In the digital version of this article, the headings appear as a menu, migration is a blue hyperlink that opens the glossary definition, and a search box finds every page that uses a word. A print book uses page numbers, a table of contents and an index for the same jobs. A hyperlink can take you away from the page you were reading, so after following one, return and reread the sentence you left. Ask whether a linked page belongs to the same trusted source or to a different website.

Where, when, why and how. Features and words together explain key events. Where: the map shows the route from Ohio to central Mexico. When: page 4 says every fall, and page 6 says spring. Why: the words explain that monarchs cannot survive a freezing northern winter. How: they fly, and scientists are still studying how they find the way. Notice that the map alone could not answer why; the words had to do that.

A misconception to avoid. Some readers skip features because they are "just pictures and boxes." Others read only the features and skip the words. Both lose information. The map answers where, but only the text explains why. Read both and connect them.

Worked example 1 — Locate information. Question: On what pages can you learn about the winter forests? Use the index: "winter forests, 4–5." Check the table of contents: The Long Trip South begins on page 4. Answer: pages 4 and 5; the index and the table of contents agree, and the map on page 5 shows the forests with a star.

Worked example 2 — Explain how a feature supports a detail. Question: How does the map support the text on page 4? The text says monarchs fly thousands of miles to central Mexico. The map shows an arrow from Ohio through Texas to a star in central Mexico, and the legend explains that the arrow is the fall route and the star marks the winter forests. Answer: the map lets a reader see where the route goes, which makes the words "thousands of miles" easier to picture.

Worked example 3 — Interpret a graph and use the words to explain an event. Question: In which week did the class count the most monarchs, and what might explain the change afterward? Read the title and labels, then compare the bars: 2, 5, 9, 4. Week 3 is highest with 9. From week 3 to week 4 the count fell by 5 (9 − 4 = 5). The article says monarchs fly south in the fall, so a possible explanation is that many had moved on. Answer: week 3; the graph shows when, and the text suggests why, but the graph alone cannot prove the reason.

Feature hunt (record task): Make a three-column chart: Feature, What it helped me find or understand, Which detail in the words it supports. Fill in at least six rows, including the table of contents, index, glossary, map with its legend, sidebar and bar graph.

Print and digital comparison: With an adult, open a digital article from a trusted children's science source that your teacher chooses. Find one hyperlink, one heading menu or search box, and one picture or chart. Write what each digital feature does and which print feature does the same job.

Independent performance: Using a new nonfiction book or article, answer four questions your teacher gives: one where, one when, one why and one how question about a key event. For each answer, name the text feature you used, the words you used, and explain in one sentence how the feature supports a detail in the text. Success criteria: you use at least four different features, including one from a print text and one from a digital text; each answer combines a feature with the words; you explain what the feature adds; and you say when a feature cannot answer the question alone.