Text Structures

TEXT STR

UCTURES

A L S O KN O W N A

S OR G A N I Z

A T I ON A L

S T R U C T U R E S ! ! !

WHAT IS A TEXT STRUCTURE???Think about the structure of a building…..

It is HOW the building is put together.Text Structures are HOW a piece of

writing is put together…in what patterns.

THE RAPRap Lyrics:“Triple CDouble P

DOSS”

Stands for: Cause/Effect, Compare/Contrast, Chronological

Problem/Solution, ProcessDescription, Order of

ImportanceSequential, Spatial

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Our Example:If You Give a Mouse a Cookie….

He will want a glass of milk…

COMPARE/CONTRAST

We compared and contrasted Men and Women

CHRONOLOGICAL/SEQUENTIALCrono or Chrono means TIME

So Chronological and Sequential Text Structures tells us an order of EVENTS that happened.

SEQUENTIALSequence means orderSo ORDER OF EVENTS is what we think of

with the Sequential Text Structure.

The only difference between Sequential and Chronological is that Sequential focuses more on DATES

EXAMPLES OF SEQUENTIAL/CHRONOLOGICAL

“After his family moved from Clarksdale, MS to Chicago in 1933, Sam Cooke began singing gospel music with his siblings. In 1945, a teenaged Cooke joined the gospel group called The Highway QC’s. Five years later, he earned a spot with the Soul Stirrers, a major gospel quartet. The group worked its way to the top of gospel music by 1955, but Sam wasn’t satisfied. The nineteen year old wanted to make music for a wider audience, so he recorded the pop single, “Loveable” in 1956. Cooke then quit Specialty Records, his recording label because the head of the company began arguing with Cooke over the music he had stared recording. In 1957, he joined Keen Records and scored number one in the Billboard ratings with….”

NOTICE ALL THE DATES!!!!

PROBLEM/SOLUTION

This structure discusses a problem and then solves that problem or proposes solutions to that problem in the followingsentences.

PROBLEM/SOLUTION“Snickers, Jessica’s puppy, loved to ride in the car; however, she was terrified of the car’s windshield wipers. The last ride she had taken was during a rainstorm. Growling and barking hysterically, Snickers suffered through several miles as she nervously watched the wipers go back and forth. Traveling in the rain was chore, no matter what the distance. Jessica decided to try something new so that she could take Snickers on long trips without having to worry. She bought a carrier that had mesh on one side, was solid on the other side, and had zippers on both ends. She could put Snickers in the carrier and still…..

PrObLeM: Jessica’s dog could not travel in the rainSoLuTiOn: Jessica bought a dog carrier.

PROCESSAlso called Procedure….

HOW TORecipes, Directions, etc.

PROCESS “Having a beautiful rose garden is easy if you learn the basics before beginning your garden. First, you need to decide where you want to put the garden and what kind of roses you want in your garden. Once you have decided on your location, you need to till the soil until it is soft. Next, decide where the roses are going to be placed and dig holes that are the proper sizes for them. Once you have the roses planted firmly in the soil, place a weed barrier around each plant….”

GROUP ACTIVITY!

Discuss what steps one would take to carry out this activity.

Write your steps in PARAGRAPH form.

Determine how your team could act this out in CHARADES (silently)

The class will try to guess.Your team will read your

process

ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

- Usually used in persuasive texts

- The author lists reasons in order from Greatest to Least or Least to Greatest

ORDER OF IMPORTANCE “You need to buy our

Magic Mop! Let me tell you 3 reasons why!

First of all, this mop is enchanted to do all of the work for you!!!

Secondly, this mop is self cleaning so you never have to wash it!

Lastly, you don’t have to worry about your comfort during mopping since we have a comfort handle on this mop!”

SPATIAL Root word: SPACE

How is the space filled up?

Tells the LOCATION of something. Or describes WHERE things are in a room, city, etc.

INDEPENDENT ACTIVITYThink of your “dream room”.What 10 items would you put in your

dream room?On one side of your computer paper, draw

an aerial view (from the ceiling) of your dream room, including the 10 items. No more than 10!

Then, on the other side, write out a paragraph using spatial text structure to describe your dream room. You should have about 10 sentences, since you will be telling where the 10 items are in your room.

BE SURE TO USE SPATIAL SIGNAL WORDS!!!

DESCRIPTIONNot to be confused with SPATIAL,

although the signal words are the same.

This text structure describes an item with lots of adjectives. It tells how something looks or sounds, smells, etc.

Sometimes the writer may describe a room, but it is not spatial order. Look for descriptive words, NOT “to the right of” or “to the left of”

INDEPENDENT ACTIVITYFrom your desk, look around the

classroom and pick an item that you could describe.

KEEP IT A SECRET, but write it on your paper.

Write a 5 sentence description that discusses what the item looks like, sounds like, smells like, etc. Tell what someone would do with this item, but don’t say WHAT the item is. Make sure to include 1 set of coordinating adjectives in your description (X,Y)

When you are done, we will read some of the descriptions and your classmates will try to guess what your mystery item is.

GROUP ACTIVITYMrs. Lacey will give your group a bag with

a SECRET item in it.Your group will have to write a 5 sentence

description of the item, using the description text structure.

In your description, use at least ONE set of coordinating adjectives!! (x,y)

We will read out the descriptions and the class will try to guess what item your team has.

All descriptions will be turned in.