A Stressless Week Teaching How to Identify Text Structures

Let me be honest, my first year teaching I had to look up “what are text structures?”. It is so funny to think how far I have come. Now I am really passionate about helping teachers figure out the best way to teach text structure and why students are struggling with it.

Planning a whole text structures unit from scratch can be so overwhelming. What passages best teach text structure? How do you transition from whole group instruction to independent practice? When do you introduce each structure? If these swirling thoughts are something that makes you keep pushing it on your to- do list, I am here to help! We will cover a full week of text structure plans day by day. These focus on being strategic and minimize confusion!

If you are like me and first want to answer what are the 5 types of text structures? Head over to this blog post, then come back here for the lesson plan.

Text Structure Lesson Flow

This is a totally flexible suggestion, you know your students best! Pull out the part that you need or stretch this all over two weeks even! I love to follow this order of lessons because it gradually shifts the ownership to the students.

• teacher modeling (I do)
• guided practice (we do)
• collaborative practice (we do)
• independent practice (you do)
• review/ assess (you do)

Don’t let that over overwhelm sneak in, I GOT YOU. By the end of this post, you will have a complete picture of a week of text structure lessons for your elementary classroom. In addition, you can access to ready to use materials to implement it.

Text Structures Unit

Day 1- Whole Group Text Structures Instruction (I Do)

Start your text structure whole group lesson with teacher led modeling. This is when students observe, listen, and soak in all of that comprehension goodness.

By using interactive modeling with think alouds you show how a reader pauses during a passage to think and apply their comprehension skills. Then you are delivering text structure instruction in context. To read more about the overall think aloud strategy check out this blog post.

Interactive modeling can be done with a nonfiction book or short paragraphs just long enough to showcase the skill. In this powerpoint you can just open it and start teaching. The prompts of what to say to model the text structure think alouds are embedded right in there for you to follow along.

For younger students, they often need more time with this modeling format. I have a think aloud lesson plan template that you can use with any book. I stretch the book over the week with just 5-10 minutes of reading it a day. This shared reading time lets you still model and instruct with listening comprehension before they apply it themselves. You want to watch for students starting to feel eager to tell the text structure rather than you thinking aloud about it. (This means it’s clicking!)

Day 2- Guided Practice Differentiating Text Structures (We Do)

Moving into the second day, you may still be modeling but you are also letting the students get their feet wet. I created differentiated passages to ensure that readers are able to access high interest content, but I wrote it so intentionally to showcase each text structure.

There are even two answer options, highlighting text evidence and short answer. you can really scaffold what you are asking of the students. These might feel like small steps but trust me nurturing these small wins results in BIG confidence.

This can be done:

• whole group- you are showing it on the board and each student has their own copy to follow along/ mark up as they dive into the text
• small group- you are leading but they are able to mark the text evidence on the page to practice applying the skill themselves

This smaller setting is a great opportunity to still use those think alouds. With these activities you can model for any students who needs more practice before applying it themselves.

Walking students through these activities with you sets them up to be able to complete these exact text structure reading comprehension passages as their independent practice. They won’t have questions about the directions!!

Day 3- Integrating Text Structures into Reading Centers (We Do)

The “We Do” collaborative aspects of our learning is continued this day, but with peers rather than the teacher. These interactive reading activities are an opportunity for students to support each other’s learning while practicing the five text structures.

Ideas for text structure activities:

• Task Cards with short paragraphs– identify keywords for the text structure (also has general comprehension questions)
  • put the text structure task cards all around the room and send partners with clip boards to read then complete each activity
  • give a stack to pairs or a small group to work through together on an answer sheet

*the cards are leveled! I designed them so it is very easy to use these deliver differentiated text structure practice without it being obvious

These also make great text structure assessments of exit slips to check understanding at the end of the lessons.

• Text Structure Sort
  • print and laminate so students can practice sorting over and over again
  • make a large text structure anchor chart with a grid, students can sort and paste the short passages right on the chart. If this is being done in groups, give each group a nonfiction topic to sort.

HOW MEANINGFUL for an anchor chart to be hanging in your classroom that the students created with their friends.

This activity is also a great facilitator for discussion in small groups.

• Board games with short meaningful informational paragraphs
  • This has so many differentiated options to support students focusing on just keywords, overall text structure identifying, locating text evidence, etc. So you can really group students by their needs and give them direct interactive practice with that!

These interactive learning experiences are transitioning students into the phase of learning where they are thinking and applying the skill themselves.

Day 4- Text Structure Practice ( You Do)

You have been working so hard all week with your students to drive understanding of all of the things. How to know difference between cause and effect and problem and solution? You are pointing out compare and contrast keywords in science. You are demonstrating sequencing in math, but are you wondering if they are even getting it? Today is the day to figure that out!

If you feel like your class is not ready for this yet, continues day 2 and 3 structure for as long as you need!

In this “You Do” style lesson format, you are checking who gets it and who needs more support.

However, we do not want students to feel the pressure and have it be a formal “assessment” so let’s make it fun!

You can use one of the differentiated passages from earlier in the week or a Color by Comprehension format to check students understanding of a one page passage with multiple choice questions. Students can work on this independently in reading centers, as a whole group, in your small group, however it best fits in for you.

The Color by Comprehension format is helpful because it doesn’t put a time constraint on the students. After completing the multiple choice questions it unlocks a related color by code so no one feels rushed if others are done before them. Students can stay engaged during the whole allotted time by coloring by their answers.

You can easily tell from this activity who needs more support. Also, students LOVE the element of coloring after completing the questions it is SO motivating for them!

Day 5- Review with a Text Structure Game

End the week with high energy and inspire confidence in your little readers with a game! You can use this Jeopardy style review game to cover all five structure in a fun format.

• With the various point values the questions are scaffolding and cover a wide variety of interesting topics.
• If you do this whole group, the teams can earn points throughout the game. The file is totally no prep, ready for you to use tomorrow!

Wondering how to do this with literacy centers and small group instruction? Use this in your small group and let each person answer a question. Even with a shorter amount of time if you cannot complete all of the questions you can focus in on the ones you want those particular students to practice.

Whenever you are ready to take text structures off of your core focus, make sure to keep it on the back burner. Let those task cards and passages pop back in as spiral review every once in a while. The more often the students can interact with this skill the stronger their ability to use it in their own reading becomes.

Wow! What a week! We went from students watching to doing all in a week. Again, if this pace is too fast for your learners stretch if over two weeks! However you do it, increasing their independence in this gradual way really builds real lasting comprehension skills.

Every resource mentioned in this post is available in one complete bundle for you to start using! The differentiated passages, interactive modeling powerpoint, task cards, games, color by comprehension passages, ALL OF IT.

Stop agonizing over planning and start teaching!