Nonfiction Text Features Probes Editable

About this resource

Everything inside: 25 pages · 6 original silent-reading passages with 24 questions · 6 equivalent probe forms across six nonfiction text features · a shared answer-key and scoring page for all six forms · a data log and scaled trend graph · a caseload summary · a ready-to-send family update · a classroom teacher check-in (a second setting) · a 17-starter phrase bank · a binder cover and 4-section binder map · a worked, invented example.

The store already had probes that test reading comprehension of a passage's content or structure, but nothing that asks a student to look at a short nonfiction-style passage and name WHICH text feature it is using — a heading, a caption, a bold key term, a labeled diagram, a table of contents, or a sidebar fact box — and what job that feature does for a reader. This file hands the student six original, invented passages, each about 95–115 words, about an everyday classroom project (a weather station, a butterfly garden, a recycling program, a model volcano, a class nature journal, a class fish tank), each written to clearly carry exactly one of six text features, printed in the passage itself in a literal, checkable way (an all-caps or bold-styled heading line, a bracketed photo-and-caption pair, a bolded key term with its definition, a bracketed labeled diagram description, a literal contents list with page numbers, or a literal “Did You Know?” box) and referenced again in the passage's own plain words. Scoring, the rubric and the answer key live on separate adult-only pages, never in the student's hands. Because the feature is always printed in the passage itself, every accepted clue on the key page is a literal quote from that form's own passage, so a scorer can check any accepted answer against the text itself without taking the file's word for it.

WHAT IS INCLUDED — 25 pages, 491 type-in fields

Prepare To Give The Probes

• Binder Cover and Section Map — a spine/cover card, a 4-box section reference (not a cutting page), and an 8-row "where to find things" index
• How This Pack Works — how the six forms share one rubric and one key page, plus a 3-row table comparing what each of the file's three tools measures
• Text Feature Goal, Rubric and Directions — a sample IEP-style goal (invented, every bracket editable), a baseline table (median of the first three probes), a rubric defining correct/incorrect (a clue counts only if it is quoted on the key page for that form), and a 2-row benchmark table

Take The Data

• Six Probe Forms (A–F) — each a clean, student-facing page: a "My name" line, one kid-worded instruction with a book icon, the passage, and four numbered questions with a real four-line answer box each (1 question naming the text feature from a closed list of six, 1 on what that feature does for a reader, 2 asking for a different clue word or phrase each) — nothing scored, no goal text, no marks on this page. Features covered: heading/subheading (Form A), caption (Form B), bold or italicized key term (Form C), diagram with a label (Form D), table of contents (Form E), sidebar/fact box (Form F).
• Answer Keys and Scoring — one shared adult-only page with all six forms' accepted feature name, "what it does for a reader" phrasing and two quoted clue words/phrases (the feature and "what it does" answers are each one of a short closed list; the two clue answers accepted in either box) and a Score /4 field per form

Track, Report And Share

• Text Feature Accuracy Data Log — 12 dated rows, one form per row
• Text Feature Accuracy Trend Graph — a scaled 0–100% grid plus a 12-row log table
• Caseload Summary — 12 students by 8 probes, baseline and criterion percent, trend and decision columns
• Family Update — Reading Nonfiction at Home — a ready-to-send communication page: what was read, how it went in plain words, a practice idea, and a 7-day practiced table
• Classroom Text Feature Check-In — two half-page notes per sheet, cut apart: a checkbox, one sentence, no codes, for the general education teacher or paraprofessional during regular class reading (a different setting from the six probe forms)
• Progress Note Phrase Bank — 17 observable-language starters across 5 groups (text-feature accuracy, clue-identification accuracy, pattern across probes, next steps, the quarterly-report sentence), every one ending in a blank pulled from a data sheet in the file
• A Filled-In Probe Set and Log — a worked, invented example (Priya N., third grade) with a 4-row weekly log and a 2-row answer-key excerpt, every number cross-checked against the arithmetic behind it

Plus a Start Here quick-start, a 3-section contents page with real page thumbnails, 3 section dividers, and a "what's next" back page.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF. Open it in a PDF reader, click a field, type, save. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT a Google Sheets file, a Google Doc, or an Excel workbook, and it does not calculate a percent for you. The six probe forms print cleanly for the student to write directly on.

It is not a norm-referenced or standardized reading test, and it is not a Lexile or grade-level placement tool. It does not set a passing criterion or sort a student into any category — that is a blank line for your team. It is not Text Structure, Point of View, Character Traits and Motivation, or Compare and Contrast Reading Comprehension Probes, each of which measures comprehension within or about a passage's own content or organization; this file is the one place in the family where the question is "which text feature is this, and what job does it do," checked against the words the passage actually prints.

No age, eligibility or IDEA-timeline claim anywhere; no health data is pre-filled, and the example student (Priya) is invented and named as such on page 24.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers, reading interventionists and case managers who need nonfiction text-feature identification measured with the student's own written answers as the evidence, scored from an answer key in under a minute a form.

If You Want More

Text Structure, Point of View, Character Traits and Motivation, and Compare and Contrast Reading Comprehension Probes are the sibling comprehension-passage probes, the same six-form shape, each scoring a different reading skill.