(upbeat music) - It is a great day to learn something new.

I'm Jessica Saum and I'm so happy to be with you here today.

I have been working to research and find information about Arkansas, its symbols, and things like the state bird, the state insects, and details about the state flag.

There is a lot of information about Arkansas and it can be a little overwhelming and hard to narrow down what I am looking for specifically.

I'm finding in my research that text features and search tools have been really helpful when I need help in finding information, either in a textbook and online.

While you are likely pretty familiar with seeing and using pictures and image or an illustration used in a text to help support what you're learning, or the table of contents, which gives a breakdown of the topics covered in the text and where you can find them.

Captions, hyperlinks, and sidebars are also really, really important text features.

And you can use them to help you understand so much more about what you are reading.

Okay, so a caption, it is a title or a brief explanation and it's usually included underneath an image or a picture.

It can be used to add more information or even to describe what you're seeing.

Let's look at this picture and the caption that describes it.

By reading the captions, I am easily able to gain more details and more information.

And I get that information quickly about what I'm looking at.

A hyperlink is a link used on an address of a website.

For example, if you are wanting to see more about Rise and Shine and what we're doing this summer, you can go to www.myarkansaspbs.org\riseandshine.

There, there are hyperlinks of where to watch, a parent page that you can use with an adult, and links to really cool and frequently asked questions.

This makes using a website and find what I'm looking for just a simple click away.

It makes life so much easier.

Another common text feature is a sidebar.

A sidebar is a text box and it's going to give you extra information about the passage you are reading.

It's usually found on the left or the right of the text that you're looking at.

All right, let's think about some other text features that maybe you have seen.

Have you ever seen words that are in dark print or maybe they have funny looking slanted letters?

All right, that dark print is called bold.

And important words and text when they're shown in dark thick letters or italics, those funny slanted letters.

They are really important, and you need to pay extra close attention to them.

Well, this is one way we may see a heading like the title of a section of a text, something you're looking at.

These words also may be keywords and they can help you understand important vocabulary in the text you're reading.

These words stand out and you often times find them in non-fiction text like social studies and science.

In these subjects, content vocabulary is often something your teacher will have questions on during a test or quiz.

So make sure you're looking at these very, very closely.

Another feature you may see used is a chart.

A diagram, a table, or even a graph can help display information.

A graph can help you compare that information in a neat visual way while a table helps you look at numbers in a visual way, and it's really much easier to see, read, and understand.

Each text feature is really important and they all have specific purposes or jobs.

We use them to help us quickly and easily gain access to information that we may not know or not know enough about or maybe even something we don't understand yet.

Text features really help to make reading informational text and research materials so much more efficient.

I really love learning with you, but before we go, we need to go back.

Let's recap what we've talked about.

Let's start with captions.

Okay, do you remember what these are?

Captions are the titles or a brief explanation that are usually included underneath an image or picture.

What about what you could find on your computer?

Do you remember what those are called?

Hyperlinks.

Hyperlinks are used to the addresses of websites.

So remember, you can click on those and it takes you to other sections of the websites or other information that can help support what you're learning, what you've read, and what you want to learn more about.

And sidebars, do you remember where we can find those?

On the side of the text your reading, sometimes the left or right.

Those are text boxes and they contain extra information about the passage you have read.

I feel like you are so much more ready to go out and learn more about things that interest you.

Maybe it's Arkansas, science, or other social studies things.

Maybe you just want to learn something more you heard about in class.

There is information everywhere you look.

I've had so much fun learning with you today.

Thanks for paying attention, learning on our computers and our textbooks.

And keep looking for extra information every time you read at home, at school, or just for fun.

(upbeat music) ♪ It's a great day!

♪ ♪ To learn and build and grow.

♪ ♪ More ways!

♪ ♪ To show off what we know, let's show 'em.

♪ ♪ Science and reading skills, math and art, color wheels.

♪ ♪ Let's go to class, it's a blast.

♪ ♪ You're a great student.

♪ ♪ So we know that you can do it.

♪ ♪ Rise and shine.

♪ ♪ Get up on your feet, ah, ooh.

♪ ♪ It's time to rise and shine.

♪