Text Structure
Recommended Practice: Help students to identify and use a text’s organizational structure to support comprehension.
- Overview & Tools: Video overviews and professional development materials
- Learn What Works: Expert interviews about text structure
- See How It Works: Videos and sample materials from schools
Helping Students Focus on Text Structure
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > Overview & Tools
This multimedia overview describes several ways teachers can work with students to improve their understanding of the structure of narrative and informational texts. Also included in this practice...
Resource Type
Overview
Uncovering Text Structure
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > Learn What Works
Dr. Joanna Williams discusses the importance of teaching children about narrative and informational text structure and describes some instructional tools she has used in her research with teachers.
Resource Type
Expert Interview
We’re Ready for Text Structure
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
Listen to a literacy coach discuss why it’s important to teach text structure beginning in kindergarten. She describes the differences between narrative and expository text structure and gives...
Resource Type
School Example
Gertrude Took a Nose Dive: Identifying Problem and Resolution
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
Watch a third-grade teacher demonstrate how to teach narrative text elements using a graphic organizer. The teacher incorporates several strategies throughout the lesson, such as modeling,...
Resource Type
School Example
Interactive Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Text Structure
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
A third/fourth-grade teacher shares instructional activities designed to help her students understand the compare-contrast and sequence nonfiction text structures. She uses cooperative learning...
Resource Type
School Example
Compare-Contrast Graphic Organizer: A Whale Is Not a Fish
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
Watch a third-grade teacher use a graphic organizer to help students compare and contrast information in a nonfiction text. She models the use of clue words and provides practice through partner...
Resource Type
School Example
Teaching Character and Setting in an Inclusion Classroom
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
Hear how a kindergarten teacher adapts a lesson on narrative text elements for her special needs students. Instructional strategies include building on background knowledge, using visual materials,...
Resource Type
School Example
Story Elements Graphic Organizer
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
This organizer was used by a third-grade teacher during a lesson on teaching narrative text structure, specifically identifying problem and solution. Watch the video Gertrude Took a Nose Dive:...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Text Structure Activities and Student Work
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
This sample material includes a lesson plan, signal words, literacy cards, and graphic organizers used to help students learn about text structures. Two examples of student work are included to...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Bat-Bird Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
This organizer was used by a third-grade teacher to teach the compare and contrast nonfiction text structure. It includes filled-in student examples, sections for recording similarities and...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Kindergarten Lesson Plan: Character and Setting
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > See How It Works
This plan was developed by a kindergarten teacher. It provides details on standards, objectives, and essential questions guiding text structure instruction, and describes lesson activities and ways...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Instructional Planner: Strategies for Teaching About Text Structure
Reading Comprehension > Text Structure > Overview & Tools
Use this tool to help teachers develop instructional plans for teaching about text structure. A note-taking tool guides participants’ viewing of related media and a planning tool identifies...
Resource Type
Tool
