How to Teach Text Structure to Improve Reading Comprehension

Teaching text structure increases students' reading comprehension.

A text's structure provides clues to readers that help them comprehend the work's events. When students can recognize the different text structures, they know what to expect in a given passage and can answer questions to display their understanding. The five types of text structures are description, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, order or sequence, and problem and solution. Most students understand these basic concepts by kindergarten, so a teacher simply needs to translate their knowledge into writing to enhance reading comprehension.

Instructions

1. Discuss the types of text structures with students, using examples from their everyday lives. Include a worksheet using more everyday examples and instructions for students to identify the type of structure used in each example.

2. Provide students with paragraphs that display each type of text structure and explain how each structure is used in that particular text.

3. Ask students to provide the keywords or clues that identify each structure type. Description provides details to aid in visualization. For example, description might include the words "is" or "has," followed by a list of descriptive words; cause and effect might be denoted by words such as "because" or "so;" sequence can be identified by keywords such as "first," "before" or "then;" and compare and contrast clues include "like," "but," "also" and "too." Problem and solution structures might use the same clues as cause and effect. Because these structure features are less easily identified by clue words, teach students to look for the problem at the story's beginning and the solution at the end.

4. Create graphic organizers as a class to help students visualize the text's structure and events. You can make Venn diagrams to display comparison and contrast; create a storyboard to map out sequences of events; or create a story map that illustrates multiple structure types by identifying characters, setting, events, problem, solution and relationships among different events.

5. Instruct each student to write a sentence or paragraph that uses each type of text structure, and provide help as necessary. It's easier to evaluate their understanding of each structure type by reviewing each student's individual work.

6. Ask students questions about the text so that they learn how to answer main idea questions and how to generate those questions when reading on their own.

7. Ask each student to summarize the text you're studying so they can use their knowledge of text structure and reading comprehension. Students should use their own words to explain the main idea, and identify central ideas and how they relate to the main idea, sort through necessary and unnecessary information, and identify events in the story.

Tips & Warnings

• Divide students into work groups, and provide a paragraph or story they can help each other to comprehend.

References

• Reading Rockets: Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension
• Adolescent Literacy: Text Structure
• Council for Exceptional Children: How to Use Text Structure to Teach Reading Comprehension
• Scholastic: Five Text Structures