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. www.justreadnow.com/training/StrategicReading/menu7e.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 MattersGraphic Organizer Page Go to the Literacy Matters Graphic Organizer page to check out our pre-selected list of graphic organizers. 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. go.hrw.com/secure/ss/general/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. www.pasd.com/PSSA/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 Reading a Cause-and-Effect Article Thislesson for middle school students explores in depth how to infer and analyze cause/effect patterns by reading a news article. go.hrw.com/elotM/0030526671/student/ch03/lg1403092_103.pdf Cause and Effect This site offers tips for writing a cause/effect essay, including sample outlines, thesis sentences, and transitional words. virtual.parkland.cc.il.us/jforman/expository/Causal%20Analysis.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. www97.intel.com/scripts-seeingreason/index.asp Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone Diagram) This site gives a blank fishbone diagram and an example of a filled out diagram. www.sytsma.com/tqmtools/cause.html 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/