Virginia SOL 6.RI.2.A
The Standard
Determine the purpose of text features (e.g., boldface and italics type; type set in color; underlining; graphics and photographs; and headings and subheadings).
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Craft and Style
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students locate visual and typographic cues in an informational text. They explain what each cue helps the reader notice, understand, find, or remember.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an informational page, students can identify several features and explain each one’s specific purpose. They support their explanation with details from the feature’s content and placement.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name a feature without explaining its job. They may assume every bold word is important or every image is decoration. They may confuse a feature’s purpose with the author’s overall purpose.
How to Assess It
- Give students a one-page article with three marked features. Ask them to name one feature and explain how it helps readers use or understand the page.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed article and sticky notes; they label each text feature and write its specific job on the note.
Ask students to remove one feature mentally, then write which information becomes harder to find or understand and why.
Play Feature Match: students pair page excerpt cards with purpose cards, then defend one match to a partner.
Compare a school lunch menu, transit map, or website homepage, and identify how design features help users find information quickly.
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Printable 6.RI.2.A Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 6.RI.2.A, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- K.RI.2.A
With prompting and support, identify the purpose of common text features: table of contents, headings, bolded words, and pictures
- 8.RI.2.A
Evaluate an author’s use of text features (e.g., boldface and italics; type set in color; underlining; indentation; sidebars; illustrations, graphics, and photo...
- 7.RI.2.A
Analyze how an author uses text features (e.g., boldface and italics; type set in color; underlining; indentation; sidebars; illustrations, graphics and photogr...
- 2.RI.2.A
Use text features (table of contents, headings, pictures, captions, maps, and charts) to preview, set a purpose for reading and gain information.
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