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Text Structure. EQ: How are different texts arranged? What signals should I watch for to differentiate between styles? REVISED: Allyson Cook THS 2014 October 2009 Pearl River County School District S. Baudoin. T exts have a structure….
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Text Structure EQ: How are different texts arranged? What signals should I watch for to differentiate between styles? REVISED: Allyson Cook THS 2014 October 2009 Pearl River County School District S. Baudoin
Texts have a structure… • Texts (even the text in your science and social studies textbooks) have different organizational patterns. • These organizational patterns are called text structures.
Signal Words • Text structures can often be identified by certain signal words.
Description • This structure resembles an outline. Each section opens with its main idea, then elaborates on it, sometimes dividing the elaboration into subsections. • Questions to Consider: • What are you describing? • What are its qualities? • Graphic Organizers • Bubble Map
Example of Descriptive Text Structure • "The crocodile is the master of deception in the water. It stalks its prey and then swiftly closes in for the kill.” A book may tell all about whales or describe what the geography is like in a particular region.
Sequential Order • Texts that follow this structure tell the order in which steps in a process or series of events occur. • Questions to Consider: • What happened? • What is the sequence of events? • What are the substages? • Graphic Organizers • Flow Map • Multi-flow Map • Timeline
Example of Sequential Order Text Structure • "Archaeologists have helped us to understand that the evolution of the crocodile began with ...” A book about the American revolution might list the events leading to the war. In another book, steps involved in harvesting blue crabs might be told.
Compare and Contrast • Texts that follow this structure tell about the differences and similarities of two or more objects, places, events or ideas by grouping their traits for comparison. • Questions to Consider: • What are the similar and different qualities of these things? • What qualities of each thing correspond to one another? In what way? • Graphic Organizers • Double Bubble Map • Venn Diagram
Example of Compare/Contrast Text Structure • "The power of the crocodile is like that of a monstrous machine. With one lunge it can destroy its prey and protect the kill from other predators.” A book about ancient Greece may explain how the Spartan women were different from the Athenian women.
Cause and Effect • In texts that follow this structure, the reader is told the result of an event or occurrence and the reasons it happened. • Questions to Consider: • What are the causes and effects of this event? • What might happen next? • Graphic Organizers • Multi-flow Map
Example of Cause and EffectText Structure • "We observed the crocodile as it stalked a raccoon moving through the moonlight toward the edge of the water. As a result of a noise we made, the raccoon bolted...” Weather patterns could be given that explain why a big snowstorm occurred.
Problem-Solution • The writer presents a problem then expounds upon possible solutions for that problem. • Questions to Consider: • What is the problem? • What are the possible solutions? • Which solution is best? • How will you implement this solution? • Graphic Organizers • Circle Map • Flow Map • Multi-flow Map
Example of Problem-SolutionText Structure • "One problem to resolve in crocodile watching is transportation. How can an observer get close enough to watch without scaring it away or being attacked?” • “One problem with the modern Olympics is that it has become very big and expensive to operate. ”
How to Find Text Structure As a class we will… • Read examples of paragraphs that correspond to each text structure. • Make an outline of the text to find how the text is structured. • Examine topic sentences that clue the reader to a specific structure. Look for the signal words that are associated with each text structure. • Highlight all the signal words in the text.