Students explore the ways nonfiction is organized — sequence, cause & effect, compare & contrast, problem & solution, and description — and learn the signal words that reveal each one.
Students will be able to…
Authors organize information in different ways for different reasons. How can spotting a text’s structure help you understand and remember it?
Project this and tap each text structure. Have students record what it does and the signal words that point to it.
Tap any phase to open the teacher moves and student actions.
A recipe vs. a debate — organized the same way?
Teacher teaches structures.
Class practices.
Students identify + write.
Students share their writing.
Aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
Describe the overall structure of events, ideas, or information in a text or part of a text.
Refer to details and examples when explaining what a text says.
Explain events, procedures, or concepts in a text.
Write informative/explanatory texts, organizing ideas clearly.
Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.
Have students pair each text structure with a graphic organizer (timeline, T-chart, cause-effect chain) and use one to plan a paragraph. A printable organizer set is in the ELA library.
Tap a card to flip it, then rate whether you knew it. Built from this lesson’s vocabulary.
A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.
A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.