Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

5.3.R.6 Students will distinguish the structures of texts (e.g., description, compare/contrast, sequential, problem/solution, cause/effect) and content by making inferences about texts and use textual evidence to support understanding.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students closely inspect the structure and content of the text.

• Students make inferences about the text.

• Students support their understanding with textual evidence.

• Students diagram these structures using a graphic organizer.

• Students examine topic sentences that clue the reader to a specific structure.

• Students attempt to write paragraphs that follow a specific text structure.

• Teachers review different structures of texts and explain how to closely inspect the structure and content of the text.
• Teachers provide students with clue words and strategies to identify to structure of a text. Text Structure Features and Organization (webpage)
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to closely inspect the structure and content of the text.
• Teachers model how to and provide opportunities for students to make inferences using textual evidence to distinguish the structures of texts.
• Teachers model how to and provide opportunities for students to support understanding of different text structures by using textual evidence.
• Teachers provide examples of paragraphs and larger articles that correspond to each text structure. Guided practice of analyzing structure in several mentor texts helps scaffold toward independence of this reading skill. 
• Teachers model the writing of a paragraph that uses a specific text structure.
• Teachers provide examples of text structures for students to use when writing for different purposes. 

Supporting Resources

Teacher Insights

20 Research Based Strategies for Teaching Text Structures (PDF)   
Poster of Text Structure Signal Words (PDF)
How to Teach Text Structures/ Reading Rockets (webpage)

Exploring Cause and Effect Using Expository Texts About Natural Disasters (webpage)

Teaching Science Through Picture Books: A Rainforest Lesson (webpage)

Exploring Compare and Contrast Structure in Expository Texts (webpage)

Using Science Texts to Teach the Organizational Features of Nonfiction (webpage)

• Text structure refers to the way an author organizes their text.

• Identifying the text structure at the beginning encourages the reader to question how subsequent sections of the text fit into the identified text structure. This process enables the reader to monitor their comprehension.

• Proficient readers of literature will not necessarily be  proficient readers of expository texts. Fiction texts follow similar general organizational patterns; however, expository texts can have very different text structures.

• To describe structure in a text, students need the academic vocabulary:

• Description: text structure that presents a topic, along with information that describes that topic.

• Each section opens with its main idea, then elaborates on it, sometimes dividing the elaboration into subsections.

• Signal Words: For example, for instance, specifically, in particular, in addition

• Compare and Contrast: text structure in which ideas are related to one another on the basis of similarities and differences.

• Signal Words: However, unlike, like, by contrast, yet, in comparison, although, whereas, similar to, different from

• Sequential Order: text structure in which ideas are grouped on the basis of order or time.

• Signal Words: Next, first, last, second, another, then, additionally, finally

• Problem and Solution: text structure in which the main ideas are organized into two parts: a problem and a solution to the problem, or a question and an answer that responds to the question.

• Signal Words: problem, solution, resolution

• Cause and Effect:text structure that notes a relationship in which an event (the cause) make(s) another event happen (effect).

• Cause: Why? Effect: What Happened?

• Signal Words: Consequently, therefore, as a result, thereby, leads to

• The easiest way for students to see the difference in organizational patterns is to show them similar information presented in different text structures.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.