Informational text is all around you: newspaper and magazine articles, letters or emails from businesses, and even textbooks and online courses that you use to learn science or social studies. Most websites also contain informational text, and there's a good chance that your home or school contains a least a few instruction manuals--guides that tell you how to use a tool, a piece of equipment, or an appliance.
Other examples of everyday informational text may seem less obvious even though they're right in front of you! For example, what about the back of a cereal box, or the dentists' recommendations on a tube of toothpaste? Then there are sales catalogs and junk mail, billboards and other signs, and the sides of buses and buildings.
See what happens when you keep a log of the informational text you read in a day. Click the Activity button to print or download the Informational Text Log. Fill it with informational text you find around you today and tomorrow, and then submit your log to your teacher.
Your work on this assignment will be graded according to the following rubric.
| Criteria | |
| List of Texts 2 points |
1 Point: You provided a list that seems long enough to include the number of informational texts that a student your age would encounter in a day. |
| 1 Point: You provided enough detail about each informational text to make the text’s purpose or topic clear. | |
| Location and Range 2 points |
1 Point: You included the location where you found each example of informational text. |
| 1 Point: Your list is varied enough in type to suggest that you understand the wide range of informational text forms and sources. |
