How can you tell what type of bond an element is

The 3 types of bonds are ionic , covalent and polyatomic(a.k.a molecular) Google up periodic table, you'll see a colour table which are divided into groups(the columns) and periods( the rows). Ionic bonds [where the terms DONATING and RECEIVING electons are used ], are usually bonds between elements of metals (Group 1-2) with that of (non-metals)Group 14-17. Covalent bonds [where the terms SHARING electrons is used ], are usuallu bonds between elements of non-metals(group 14-17), Polyatomic bonds are usually natural bonds between elements of (metals)Group 1-3(usually 2 atoms together) , for example aluminium.

I can't help you, I'm only in 9th grade. What grade are you in?

Well Allen, I should be able to help you with this question but you really need to change your attitude toward your teacher. If you were to NICELY tell her that you all are lost and need to go back and start over, she'd probably be willing to do it. I taught high school science for 31 years, and had many students who said they didn't like me. Most of them were kids who didn't want to put any effort into learning. Anyway...let's give this a shot.
1. Your first question is how one can tell what type of bond exists between atoms. That's really pretty simple - you look up a number called the electronegativity of each atom and subtract them. Here's a really good periodic table of elements that has a lot of information about the elements on it. http://www.ptable.com/
2. The substance whose formula you gave is named trichloromethane (doesn't really matter) and its formula is CHCl3. There is one carbon atom with one hydrogen and three chlorine atoms attached to it. So there are 2 kinds of bonds - carbon-hydrogen, and carbon-chlorine. Look up the electronegativity of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine and write them down. Now subtract the numbers for carbon and hydrogen (C=2.55, H=2.2 2.55 - 2.2 = 0.35); and do the same for chlorine-carbon (Chlorine=3.16, carbon=2.55 3.16-2.55 = 0.61). Now for bond types - a bond is covalent (atoms sharing electrons if the electronegativity difference is <1.67; the bond is ionic if the difference is 1.67 or greater! Simple isn't it. All bonds in the compound CHCl3 are covalent.
3. The Lewis structure is simply a model of the molecule - it shows what is looks like. For this molecule you'd hear terms like, "it's tetrahedral" to describe its shape. Well, tetrahedral simply means a pyramid with three sides. I can't really draw the tetrahedral shape here on Yahoo! but I can show you what it looks like: click on this link http://www.sciencegeek.net/Chemistry/che… (look at 'D' on page 4 of this document) . Another one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chloro… (the black sphere is carbon, the white one is hydrogen, the three green one are chlorine.

I don't always send this much information in answer to a question Allen, but I really wanted you to see that most teachers really care about teaching their students. Give your new teacher a chance, she'd be glad to go over these concepts for the entire class if you guys would just wake up and listen!