Text Structure

Jump to Lesson plans in the following Text Structure areas:

Text Structure
Compare and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Sequencing

Text Structure

Reading Trail
Focusing on text structure, this site provides a series of lessons with sample readings about climbing Mt. Everest.
www.everestquest.com/reading.htm

Strengthening Reading and Writing Skills Using the Internet
Scholastic offers a series of lessons focusing on different text organizing strategies, e.g., sequencing, compare-contrast.
teacher.scholastic.com/professional/teachtech/internetreadwrite.htm

Understanding Text Implementation Guide
This site provides an introductory lesson to the concept of text structure and includes sample social studies texts and questions.
go.hrw.com/secure/ss/general/strategies/STRAT02U.PDF

Idea Maps
This site provides very simple graphic organizers for different text structures.
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/idea.htm

The Textmapping Project
This site describes the benefits of textmapping, which is an alternative type of graphic organizer that involves the text being reproduced in scroll fashion and a spatially descriptive form of marking text.
www.textmapping.org/index.html

Literacy Matters—Graphic Organizer Page
Go to the Literacy Matters Graphic Organizer page to check out our pre-selected list of graphic organizers.
http://www.literacymatters.org/content/study/organizers.htm

Compare and Contrast

Comparing and Contrasting
Prentice Hall School provides a web page that uses a science example to teach the compare-contrast structure. It includes a simple exercise for students to do online comparing two different kinds of cells.
www.phschool.com/science/biosurf/superread/unit4/4strategy2.html

Teaching the Compare/Contrast Essay
This is a simple, well-organized lesson plan that provides step-by-step directions for writing a compare-contrast essay and paragraph. It includes a proofreading guide and a compare-contrast rubric.
www.tnellen.com/cybereng/rubric/c&c.htm

Compare and Contrast
This site offers a simple lesson for 5th graders that uses the example of comparing soccer and basketball. It also provides directions for writing a compare-contrast paper.
www.geocities.com/fifth_grade_tpes/compare_contrast.html

Comparing and Contrasting Journals
This page is a middle-school level lesson that has students compare journals of two different explorers.
www.everestquest.com/read5.htm

Teachers' Handbook of Lesson Plans
This is a lesson with sample biographical paragraphs to compare and a usable diagram.
www.floridatechnet.org/ged/LessonPlans/LanguageArtsReading/ReadingLesson17.pdf

Using Graphic Organizers Implementation Guide
This page focuses on using graphic organizers to understand the compare-contrast text structure by citing sample essays that compare Jefferson and Hamilton.
http://go.hrw.com/social/strategies/STRAT03U.PDF

Picture This
This is a math lesson that focuses on compare-contrast using variations of shutter speed in photography.
teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/picturethis.htm

Reading: How Television has Redefined Americans' Lives
This page uses sample articles and charts to help students write a compare-contrast essay. The students compare their own TV watching habits with a national poll.
http://www.smasd.k12.pa.us/pssa/html/Reading/redefine.htm

Compare and Contrast Diagram
Reading Quest offers a printable handout for graphing the compare-contrast text structure. It is especially useful for younger students.
curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/pdf/compare.pdf

Comparison-Contrast Organizers
This web site shows different graphical ways to organize compare-contrast essays. It explains column, matrix, and Venn organizers and gives a general sample and specific example of each.
muskingum.edu/~cal/database/organization.html#Comparison

Thinking Maps: Examples
This page has a sample of a double bubble map, which allows for showing both the similarities and differences at the same time.
www.thinkingmaps.com/httmexam.php3

Cause and Effect

Cause-and-Effect Writing Challenges Students
This article presents three teachers' views on teaching the cause/effect text structure and contains links to five lessons on the Web.
www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr376.shtml

Cause and Effect
This site offers tips for writing a cause/effect essay, including sample outlines, thesis sentences, and transitional words.
http://web.archive.org/web/20031229130406/http://virtual.parkland.cc.il.us/jforman/expository/Causal+Analysis.html

What and Why (Cause and Effect)
The University of Illinois Extension offers a lesson for teachers to use with science and social studies. It begins by explaining real-life examples of cause and effect and transitions into science examples for the middle grades.
www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/ce/strat130.html

Cause and Effect Reading Lesson Plan
This is an excellent introduction for science teachers to the concept of cause and effect. It offers a chart, chain of events, problem/solution diagram, and Venn diagram to analyze the different aspects of cause and effect.
www.everestquest.com/read2.htm

Seeing Reason: Mindful Mapping of Cause and Effect
Intel provides a free, interactive, online mapping tool that helps students map relationships and construct models of their understanding. This page also includes examples and classroom strategies.
http://educate.intel.com/en/thinkingtools/seeingreason/

Sequencing

May I Take Your Order, Please? (A Sequencing Activity)
This lesson plan provides a sequencing activity in which the students narrow down the story's key events and then create a sequencing quiz to go with the story. It also offers suggestions for use in other content areas.
www.education-world.com/a_lesson/03/lp301-05.shtml

Timelines: Timeless Teaching Tool
This article offers an overview lesson on how to use timelines in your class.
www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson044.shtml

Sequencing Fun Page
This site provides manipulative games for putting things in order using pictures of typical student behavior like brushing teeth, making a sandwich, and other everyday activities. This is an excellent site for students who benefit from using a hands-on approach.
www.quia.com/pages/sequencingfun.html

Non-fiction Retelling Rubric
This page by Julie Kendall, MiddleWeb's language arts expert, shares her rubric for retelling expository text in order.
www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/retellnonfictrubric.pdf

Sequencing Rubric
This page by Julie Kendall, MiddleWeb's language arts expert, shares her rubric for sequencing.
www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/SeqRubric.pdf

Sequencing Chart
Houghton Mifflin offers a simple chart on sequencing for students.
www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/sequence.pdf

Sequencing Map
This site provides a simple sequencing map.
home.att.net/~teaching/graphorg/sequmap.pdf

Printables: Sequencing
This site provides a simple sequencing map.
webcenter.netscape.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-2270.html

Time Line Maker
This site provides a simple online generator of vertical or horizontal time lines.
www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/

TimeLiner 5.0
This web site offers a free download of a demonstration piece of software. This teacher favorite generates timelines that can be used in all content areas.
www.tomsnyder.com/products/productextras/TIMV50/

Do you have a favorite lesson plan or web site that is not included in this list?
Email: literacymatters@edc.org