multiple genres TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

Use a checklist of student mastery. While an informational text is read to students, they should be able to identify that the text is informational based on the features and simple graphics found in the text. Types of features that students may notice include a table of contents, a glossary, index, diagrams, captions, photographs, headings, subheadings, bold and italicized words, maps, and charts. Additionally, students should be able to explain what they can learn from the text features and simple graphics. Teachers can ask questions to prompt student responses. 

Examples:

  • What kind of text do you think this is by looking at the pages?
  • What do you know from looking at this diagram?
  • What does this label tell us?
Informational texts are texts that present information in order to explain, clarify, and/or educate. In second grade, they could include procedural text, magazines, newspapers, menus, nonfiction books, pamphlets, textbooks. Informational text characteristics include text and graphic features such as a table of contents, captions, bold print, glossaries, diagrams, etc. Informational text structures include compare/contrast, central idea with supporting facts, description, and cause and effect.
Print and graphic features are parts of a text that draw the reader's attention to important information. Print features are the use of words to explain something in the text (e.g., titles, bold and italicized font, headings, subheadings, captions, glossary, index, table of contents). Graphic features are pictures, visual aids, or other images within a text used to support the author’s purpose and message (e.g. graphs, diagrams, charts, timelines, bullet points).
a text that presents information in order to explain, clarify, and/or educate