Text Structure

Text StructureRealizing the text structure an author has used to organize information helps readers:

•comprehend information more easily•organize the information in order to add it to our prior knowledge•predict what the author will tell you later because of how he has structured the text

What Structure is the Author Using?

• Goose bumps make me shiver. When the temperature drops below 45 degrees, my skin crinkles into goose bumps.

What Structure is the Author Using?

• Some people get goose bumps from fear. Others get goose bumps when they are touched emotionally.

What Structure is the Author Using?

• Goose bumps make me shiver. First I get cold, then I shake all over. Finally, I rub my skin to make them go away.

What Structure is the Author Using?

• Goose bumps make me shiver. I get little bumps on my skin and my hair stands up. They look like little sesame seeds.

What Structure is the Author Using?

• Goose bumps make me shiver, but they disappear as soon as I cover up with a jacket or sweater.

Descriptive/Topic Focused

• provides information to help the reader learn details and facts

• describes a main topic

• may introduce general information and then get specific with subtopics

Sequential/Chronological

• is organized by the way things happened

• goes in time order

• may present information step-by-step

Cause-Effect

• explains how occurrences cause other things to happen

Problem-Solution• states a problem and poses

possible solution

Compare/Contrast• compares information, multiple topics, or

characteristics of something by describing similarities and differences

How does realizing text

structure help readers

understand the text?

• Descriptive: the reader expects to gather the details to create a visual picture of the topic

• Sequential/Chronological: the reader expects to the author to give us information in order

• Compare/Contrast: the reader expects to find out how two things are alike and different and to develop a better understanding of each individual topic

• Cause-Effect: the reader expects to learn how one thing affects another; we can also make predictions about the effects based on what we already know about the topic and the world around us

• Problem-Solution: the reader expects the author to tell them about a problem and makes predictions about how the problem will be solved as we read; we confirm and change our solutions as we learn more from the author

The great horned owl is such a fierce hunter that it is often compared to a tiger. Like the tiger, the great horned owl hunts in the dark, and it kills instantly. Its stripes let it blend with the forest patterns of dim light and shadow. Its two-inch feather tufts look like a tiger’s ears, and it has a face like an angry cat. It is a tiger with wings—a tiger that can fly almost unseen.

A beetle’s body is made up of three main parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Did you know that your body also has these three parts? Try comparing yourself to a beetle. If you were a beetle, you would have no bones. In place of skin, you would have a hard shell made of material much like your fingernails. You would have six legs to move. You might have curved, sharp jaws to make holes in trees.

You would sense life in a different way than you do now. You might taste with feelers instead of a tongue. Each of your eyes has one lens. But a beetle’s eye can have many lenses. Some have 2,500 lenses in one eye!