CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.5
The Standard
Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students recognize common features in print and digital nonfiction. They use the right feature to quickly find a page, word meaning, or key fact.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students choose a useful feature without reading every page. They explain how a heading, table of contents, glossary, menu, or icon helped them find a fact.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat headings as part of the main paragraph or confuse a table of contents with an index. They may know a feature’s name but not use it to find information.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short nonfiction book and ask, “Which page explains what penguins eat? Show the feature that helped you find it.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs nonfiction books and sticky notes to label headings, tables of contents, glossaries, and icons, then find one assigned fact.
Display a nonfiction page and ask, “Which feature would help you find where this animal lives, and why?”
Play Text Feature Race by calling out a fact and having students point to the feature they would use first.
Open a school lunch webpage and have students use menus and icons to find tomorrow’s meal and allergy information.
Free download
Printable RI.1.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.5, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Informational Text progression map.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5
Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7
Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, an...
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.