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Text Features Anchor Chart: Build It and Use It in Class

By Eduminate

Pastel desk scene with a blank poster on an easel, markers, a book, a magnifying glass and sticky notes on yellow.

A text features anchor chart shows students the parts of an informational text, such as headings, captions and bold words, and what each part helps a reader do. This guide explains which features to put on the chart, how to build it with your class, and how to practice with passages and questions so students use the features while they read.

What are text features?

Text features are the parts of a nonfiction page that help a reader find, understand and remember information. They are not the main paragraphs. Instead, they surround and support them. A student who knows how to use these parts can skim a page, find a fact quickly and check an answer.

Text features fall into a few groups, and sorting them this way makes the chart easier to read.

  • Features that help you find information: title, table of contents, headings, subheadings, index and page numbers.
  • Features that stress important words: bold words, italics, bullet points and a glossary.
  • Features that show information visually: photographs, captions, labeled diagrams, maps, charts, graphs and timelines.

What goes on a text features anchor chart

A good chart keeps each entry short: the name of the feature, what it does and where to find it. Below is a set of entries you can use as is or adapt to your grade level.

  • Title: tells what the whole text is about. It is at the top of the first page.
  • Table of contents: lists the chapters or sections and their page numbers. It is at the front of a book.
  • Heading: tells what one section is about. It is often in larger or bold print.
  • Subheading: a smaller heading inside a section that names a smaller topic.
  • Bold words: show a key word that may be defined in the text or in the glossary.
  • Italics: slanted print that may show a title, a special word or a stressed word.
  • Caption: a line of text under a photo or diagram that explains it.
  • Photograph: a real image that shows what something looks like.
  • Labeled diagram: a drawing with labels that name its parts.
  • Map: shows where places are.
  • Chart or table: organizes facts in rows and columns.
  • Timeline: shows events in the order they happened.
  • Bullet list: lists items or facts in short lines.
  • Sidebar: a box with extra information on the side of a page.
  • Glossary: an alphabetical list of key words and their meanings, at the back of a book.
  • Index: an alphabetical list of topics with page numbers, at the back of a book.

Sixteen entries are too many for one chart in the early grades. Start with five or six, such as title, heading, bold words, caption, labeled diagram and glossary, and add the rest as students meet them in real texts.

How to build the text features anchor chart with students

Students remember a chart that they helped to build. Here is a process that spreads the work over several lessons.

  1. Bring a real nonfiction text. Use a book or printed passage that has a variety of features.
  2. Look at a page together. Ask students what they see on the page besides paragraphs.
  3. Name one feature at a time. Write the name on the chart and ask what the feature does for a reader.
  4. Add a clue to remember it. A short phrase works, such as “Caption: explains the picture.”
  5. Attach an example. Glue a small cut-out from a printed passage next to the entry.
  6. Revisit every time you read nonfiction. Ask which features appear in today’s text.

Group the entries by color: one color for the features that help find information, one for those that stress words, and one for the visual ones. The colors do much of the explaining for you.

Teaching what each text feature is for

Naming a feature is only the first step. Students also need to know why it is there and when to use it. Practice with a question such as, “You want to find the page about volcanoes. Which feature helps you?” The answer is the table of contents or the index.

Features that help you find information

Ask students to find an answer using only the headings. For example, in a passage about plants, a heading such as “How Roots Work” tells the reader where to look to answer a question about roots. Teach students to skim headings first, then read the section they need.

Features that stress important words

A bold word is a signal: this word matters. Students can look in the same sentence or the next one for its meaning. If the book has a glossary, they can check there. Practice by asking, “Which words are bold on this page, and what do they mean?”

Features that show information visually

Images give information that the paragraphs may not. A caption can name what a photograph shows. A diagram can show the parts of a plant or the steps of a process. Ask students: “What did you learn from the picture that was not in the paragraph?”

Text features and text structure

Features show the shape of a page, and structure shows how the ideas are organized, such as cause and effect or compare and contrast. Both work together. A heading like “Why Leaves Change” hints at a cause and effect structure, and a timeline suggests sequence. If you want a lesson on the second concept, our guide to text structure goes through the common patterns.

Practice activities for text features

Text feature scavenger hunt

Give pairs a printed passage and a list of features to find. Students highlight each one and write what it does. For example: “Found a caption under the diagram. It tells the parts of the machine.” A hunt like this takes a first look at a text and turns it into a game of observing.

Feature sort

Write each feature name on a card. Give students a stack of cards and three headings: Find, Stress and Show. They sort the cards into the groups. Discuss any cards that students place differently and ask them to explain their thinking.

Answer from the feature

Ask a question that can be answered only by using one feature, such as: “What is the second chapter about?” for a table of contents, or “What does the word migrate mean?” for a glossary. Students must name the feature they used.

Create a page

Let students write a short informational page about a topic from class, such as the water cycle or a magnet. They must include a title, one heading, one bold word and a labeled diagram. Making a page shows whether they understand why each feature exists.

Passages for text feature practice

Informational passages with questions give students material to read and apply the chart to. These packs from our shop can serve that purpose.

Before you use a passage, look at its layout. Mark the features that appear on it, so you know which ones the passage can help you teach. Not every passage has every feature, and that is fine: use each one for the features it does have.

A sample lesson with one page

Here is a lesson outline you can use with any printed nonfiction page. It teaches students to scan before they read.

  1. Show the page and cover the paragraphs with a sheet of paper, leaving only the features visible.
  2. Ask students to predict what the page is about using the title, headings and captions alone.
  3. Uncover the paragraphs and read them.
  4. Check the predictions. Which features gave the best hints?
  5. Add any new feature to the anchor chart.

This simple cover and predict routine shows students that features are doing real work. They can see how much of a page can be understood before reading a word of the paragraphs.

Using text features to answer questions

Many comprehension questions can be answered faster when students use the right feature. Teach them to ask, “Which feature would hold this answer?” before they start to read.

  • A question about where something is found points to a map.
  • A question about the meaning of a bold word points to the glossary or the sentence around it.
  • A question about the parts of something points to a labeled diagram.
  • A question about the order of events points to a timeline.
  • A question about which page covers a topic points to the table of contents or the index.

After students choose a feature, they check the paragraph to make sure it agrees. A feature gives a quick answer, and the text confirms it.

Common mistakes with text features

  • Mixing up a caption and a heading. A caption sits next to a picture. A heading sits above a section.
  • Treating bold words as unimportant. Bold print is a signal, so students should stop and find the meaning.
  • Mixing up the glossary and the index. The glossary gives meanings of words. The index tells which pages to find a topic on.
  • Skipping the visuals. Some students go straight to the paragraphs. Ask them to describe the diagram first.

Tips for a text features anchor chart that works

  • Keep it neat and large. Letters should be readable from the back of the room.
  • Use actual examples. A real caption on the chart teaches more than a description of one.
  • Leave space. Add new features as the class meets them.
  • Make a small version. A page in each student’s reading folder lets them use the chart at their desk.
  • Use it every time. Before reading, ask which features students can spot, and after reading, ask which one helped most.

Frequently asked questions

Which text features should I teach first?

Begin with the ones students see most: title, headings, bold words, captions and diagrams. Add the table of contents, glossary and index when you work with full books.

What is the difference between a heading and a title?

The title names the whole text. A heading names one section inside it.

Do fiction books have text features?

Some do, such as a title, chapter headings and a table of contents. Most of the features on this chart, such as glossaries, captions and diagrams, appear mainly in nonfiction.

How many features should be on the chart?

Only as many as students can use. Six well-understood features beat sixteen that nobody remembers.

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