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Text Structure

Text Structure. Overview. What is text structure? What are the common text structures? How does text structure help readers understand nonfiction?. What is text structure?. Text structure refers to the internal organization of a text

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Text Structure

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  1. Text Structure

  2. Overview • What is text structure? • What are the common text structures? • How does text structure help readers understand nonfiction?

  3. What is text structure? • Text structure refers to the internal organization of a text • As authors write a text to communicate an idea, they will use a structure that goes along with the idea

  4. What are the common text structures?Description • This text structure shows what an item or place is like • Transitions in this structure might include spatial words, such as next to, on top of, beside, and so forth

  5. What are the common text structures?Sequence or Chronological order • Also known as time order, sequence, or temporal order • This structure is organized from one point in time to another

  6. What are the common text structures?Sequence or Chronological order • Transition words such as first, next, later, and finally are included to help the reader understand how events relate to one another • Dates and times are also used

  7. What are the common text structures?Compare and contrast • This text structure shows how two or more ideas or items are similar or different • The text may use a clustered approach, with details about one topic followed by details about the other • The text may also show an alternating approach, with the author going back between the two topics

  8. What are the common text structures?Compare and contrast • Transition words may include like, similar, unlike, on the other hand, also, and too • Compare and contrast paragraphs are often embedded in other text structures as an author needs to explain a similarity or difference

  9. What are the common text structures?Cause and effect • This text structure shows how one or more causes led to one or more effects • This text structure also has a strong time component, since causes come before effects

  10. What are the common text structures?Cause and effect • Transition words such as cause, effect, as a result, consequently, and because are used

  11. What are the common text structures?Problem and solution • This text structure presents a problem, and shows how it can be (or has been) solved • This text structure can be confused with cause and effect

  12. What are the common text structures?Problem and solution • The key difference is that problem and solution always has a solution, while cause and effect does not • Transitions may include problem, solution, solve, effect, hopeful, and so forth

  13. How does text structure help readers? • When readers do not have a strong knowledge of the topic of a text, they depend more on the structure (Cataldo and Oakhill) • A well-written text guides the reader through the content

  14. How does text structure help readers? • Research shows that efficient searchers use the structure of the text to help them find specific information

  15. How does text structure help readers? • The structure of a text can help readers find answers to questions, as well • For example, knowing that causes come before effects can help students to narrow their search as they’re trying to find the answer to a question

  16. How does text structure help readers? • Text structure is also an important component to summarizing • When readers summarize, they need to reflect the text structure in the summary

  17. Resources • A chapter about text structure can be found in my first book, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling (Emily Kissner) • Information about how students can use transition words to find details can be found in my second book, The Forest AND the Trees: Helping Readers Identify Important Details

  18. Resources • Toolkit Texts: Heinemann Firsthand. Available at www.comprehensiontoolkit.com

  19. Resources • A free Powerpoint for teaching text structure to students is available at TeacherspayTeachers • “Understanding Text Structures” explicitly teaches the different structures

  20. Resources • Teaching Students to Read Nonfiction, by Alice Boynton and Wiley Blevins, is an excellent resource with short texts for students • Available from Scholastic

  21. Resources • Nonfiction Passages with Graphic Organizers, also available from Scholastic, is another good resource

  22. References • Cataldo, Maria and Jane Oakhill. 2000. “Why Are Poor Comprehenders Inefficient Searchers? An Investigation into the Effects of Text Representation and Spatial Memory on the Ability to Locate Information in Text.” Journal of Educational Psychology 92 (4) 791-799. • Meyer, B.J.F. 1985. “Prose Analysis: Purpose, Procedures, and Problems.” In Understanding Expository Text, edited by B.K. Britton, and J.B. Black. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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