1st Grade · English Language Arts · Parent guide
Short answer. RI.1.5 asks first graders to use headings, tables of contents, glossaries, and icons to find facts in a book. What it means and how to practice at home.
Quick answer
Nonfiction books come with built-in navigation: a table of contents, headings, a glossary in the back, bold words, captions, and on screens, menus and icons. RI.1.5 asks your child to know these parts and actually use them to find information. So instead of flipping through a 40-page animal book hoping to stumble on the shark part, she checks the contents page and jumps straight there.
Why parents see this skill
This is the difference between reading a book and using a book, and it is the first real research skill. Kids who navigate text features find answers faster and feel capable around thick books instead of intimidated. Every reference skill that follows, from indexes to search results, builds on this exact move.
For reference
Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.Official Common Core source
See it, then try it
You do not need a lesson plan. Look for these signs in ordinary play, reading, and conversation, then choose one short activity.
Pick a question you know the book answers, like "What do pandas eat?" Say go, and she uses the table of contents or headings to find the answer as fast as she can. Time her with your phone if she likes a challenge. Two or three rounds and the navigation habit is getting real exercise.
Hand her a nonfiction book and have her give you a tour like a museum guide: "Here is the table of contents, it tells you where things are. These bold words are in the glossary..." Teaching you is the fastest way to find out what she knows and lock it in.
Fold 3 sheets of paper into a booklet and make a tiny nonfiction book about her: chapters like My Family, My Food, My Pets. Add a table of contents, headings, one caption, and a 3-word glossary. Making the features teaches them better than finding them, and the result is fridge-worthy.
Choose what helps today
Start with the domain guide for context, use the learning library when a concept needs explaining, or print a page when your child is ready to practice.
See every RI.1 skill in order and how the codes fit together.
Open resourceFilter free pages by literacy, phonics, handwriting, and comprehension skills.
Open resourceShort, repeatable reading activities for common early words.
Open resourceSimple reading and vocabulary ideas for home and classroom routines.
Open resourceThe standard mentions electronic menus and icons. Are they teaching screen stuff in first grade?
Only in the sense that finding information now happens on screens too, so the standard names both. Classroom practice is still mostly paper: contents pages, headings, glossaries. At home, letting her navigate a kids' encyclopedia app or a library catalog screen once in a while covers the electronic side without any big program.
My daughter ignores all of it and just flips pages. Does it matter?
Flipping is fine for browsing, and honestly it is how most kids fall in love with nonfiction. The features earn their keep when she wants something specific, so create those moments: ask her a question the book answers and let the flipping fail first. A couple of minutes of fruitless flipping makes the table of contents suddenly interesting.
Keep the sequence
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