Grade by Grade
A. Literacy Connections and Applications / C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Understanding and Responding to Texts

How Texts Are Organized: Patterns and Features

C1.3 C1.1About 35 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can find text features like a table of contents, a chart and icons.
  • I can explain how text features help me find and understand information.
  • I can tell when a text is in time order (chronological order).
  • I can tell what makes a journal entry a journal entry.

Words to know

text pattern
The way the ideas in a text are organized, like time order or a journal.
chronological order
Time order. Telling things in the order they happened: first, next, then, last.
journal entry
A piece of writing about one person's day, with a date, written with I and often sharing feelings.
text feature
A special part of a text that helps you find or understand information, like a title, heading, chart or icon.
table of contents
A list near the front of a book that shows each part and the page it starts on.
chart
Information organized in rows and columns or in a picture, so it is easy to see and compare.
icon
A small picture that stands for something, like ⚠️ for "be careful".

Texts have a plan

A house has a plan: the kitchen goes here, the bedroom goes there. Texts have a plan too! Writers organize their ideas in a pattern, and they add text features to help readers.

When you know the plan, reading gets easier.

Text patterns

Chronological order (time order): The writer tells what happened first, next, then and last. Stories, recounts and how-to texts often use time order. Clue words: first, next, then, after that, finally, in the morning, on Monday.

Journal entry: One person writes about their own day. It has:

  • a date at the top
  • the word I (the writer is telling about themself)
  • things that already happened (past tense: went, saw, tasted)
  • the writer's feelings and thoughts

Read-aloud: Ravi's Journal

Saturday, March 21

Today my family went to a sugar bush. A sugar bush is a forest of maple trees. First, we walked through the snow to see the buckets on the trees. Sap was dripping into them, plip, plop. Next, we went into the sugar shack. Steam was everywhere! Then we watched the sap boil in a big pan. Finally, we poured hot syrup on clean snow and rolled it onto sticks. It was the best treat ever. I felt sticky and happy. I want to go back next year!

Worked example

Let's find the pattern

What patterns does Ravi's Journal use? Find the clues.

  1. Look at the top: there is a date, Saturday, March 21. That is a clue for a journal entry.
  2. The writer uses I and my: my family, I felt. One person is telling about their own day.
  3. The writer shares feelings: I felt sticky and happy.
  4. Look for time words: First, Next, Then, Finally. The events are told in the order they happened. That is chronological order.
  5. Retell in order: walked to see the buckets, went into the sugar shack, watched the sap boil, made maple taffy on snow.

It is a journal entry told in chronological order. The time words help us follow the day step by step.

Text features

Text features are like signs in a store. They help you find what you want and understand it.

  • Table of contents: near the front, shows the parts of a book and their page numbers.
  • Headings: titles for each part, so you know what the part is about.
  • Charts: show information in rows and columns or pictures, so you can compare quickly.
  • Icons: small pictures that stand for an idea.
  • Captions and labels: words that explain a picture.
  • Bold words: important words, often explained in a glossary.
Table of ContentsMaple Trees2Collecting Sap4Boiling Sap into Syrup6Glossary8
A table of contents for a fact book called All About Maple Syrup.
DayLitres of sap collected
Monday20
Tuesday35
Wednesday10
Thursday40
A chart from page 4 of All About Maple Syrup: sap collected at one small sugar bush.
01020304020Mon35Tue10Wed40Thulitres of sap
The sap chart as a bar graph. The tallest bar is Thursday (40 litres) and the shortest is Wednesday (10 litres).
IconWhat it means in this book
⚠️Be careful! Ask a grown-up.
💡A fun fact
🔍A word you can find in the glossary
Icons in All About Maple Syrup
Worked example

Let's use the text features

Use the table of contents, the chart and the icons above to answer: (1) What page tells about boiling sap? (2) On which day was the most sap collected? (3) A page shows ⚠️ next to "Boiling sap is very hot." What does it mean?

  1. (1) Look in the table of contents for Boiling Sap into Syrup. Follow the dots to the page number: 6.
  2. (2) Look down the chart for the biggest number: 20, 35, 10, 40. The 40 is on Thursday.
  3. (3) Find ⚠️ in the icon chart: it means be careful and ask a grown-up.

(1) Page 6. (2) Thursday (40 litres). (3) Be careful, ask a grown-up: boiling sap can burn you.

Why text features help

Text features save you time. Instead of reading a whole book to find one fact, you can use the table of contents to jump to the right page. A chart lets you compare numbers at a glance. An icon tells you something important without many words.

Just for fun

It takes about 40 litres of maple sap to make just 1 litre of maple syrup. That's a lot of plip, plop!

Hands-on activity

Make a mini book with text features

You need: 3 sheets of paper folded in half and stapled (a little book), crayons.

  1. Choose a topic you know a lot about (your pet, hockey, snow, your favourite food).
  2. Page 1: make a table of contents with 2 or 3 parts and page numbers.
  3. On each page, write a heading and one or two facts. Draw a picture with a caption.
  4. Add one chart (for example, My family's favourite fruits: name and fruit).
  5. Make up one icon (like ⭐ for "fun fact") and use it.
  6. Read your book to someone. Ask them to use your table of contents to find a page.

Your turn

1

What does a table of contents tell you?

2

In Ravi's Journal, what did Ravi do first?

3

What did Ravi do finally?

4

Name two clues that Ravi's Journal is a journal entry.

5

Using the chart, how much sap was collected on Tuesday?

6

What does the 💡 icon mean in the maple book?

7

Which page in the maple book is the glossary on?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is another name for time order?

2

Name two time-order clue words.

3

What goes at the top of a journal entry?

4

Is an icon a big paragraph or a small picture?

5

Where in a book is the table of contents usually found?

More practice: on your own

1

Using the chart, on which day was the least sap collected?

2

How many more litres were collected on Thursday than on Monday?

3

You want to learn how sap is collected. Which page of the maple book would you turn to? How do you know?

4

Put these in chronological order: Then we ate lunch. / Finally we went home. / First we got to the zoo.

5

Why does a how-to text use chronological order?

Challenge

1

Ravi's journal says Sap was dripping into them, plip, plop. Who is them?

2

Turn Ravi's Journal into the first two steps of a how-to text called How to Make Maple Taffy on Snow.

3

Why might a book about the sugar bush put a ⚠️ icon next to the boiling pan, instead of writing a long warning?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

What does a table of contents help you do?

2.

Which words are time-order clue words?

3.

Which is most likely a journal entry?

4.

In the chart, how much sap was collected on Monday?

5.

What is an icon?

6.

What did Ravi feel at the end of his day?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Writers organize texts in patterns (like chronological order or a journal entry) and add text features (table of contents, headings, charts, icons, captions) to help readers. Grade 2 students should be able to find these features and explain how they help.

How to help at home:

  • When you open a non-fiction book, start with the table of contents: "Which part do you want to read first? What page?"
  • Read charts together: bus schedules, weather charts, calendars, nutrition charts.
  • Point out icons in daily life: washing symbols on clothes, signs in stores, app icons.
  • Encourage a short family journal: date, what happened, how you felt.

Common difficulties:

  • Reading a table of contents left to right with no page connection. Use a finger to follow the dots from the part name to the page number.
  • Reading charts. Go across a row with one finger and down a column with another.
  • Retelling out of order. Use the clue words first, next, then, finally.

Fact note: collecting sap and making maple syrup is a late-winter and early-spring activity in Ontario and Quebec. First Nations peoples in this region made maple sugar long before Europeans arrived.