
When I was a kid, I do not recall reading much nonfiction. In fact, I am not sure my teachers even taught me the difference between fiction and nonfiction, but since most of our students reading content is nonfiction, it’s URGENT that you spend time teaching kids how to read it and here’s how you might make those features stick.
INTRODUCING TEXT STRUCTURES
One handout I’ve found very helpful is this nonfiction text structures anchor chart from Ms. Jordan Reads. I have mine put it in their interactive notebooks, and as we explore text structures with various articles and books, my kids refer to it for mapping out the big ideas.

WHY WE TEACH THE FIVE TEXT STRUCTURES
Now just why do we need to teach the five text structures? How does this help our students? Well, the answer is that it alerts our students to narrow the information to the big ideas. As we know, a child’s thinking capacity is charged with lots of skills…decoding, fluency, and then, comprehension. If we scaffold their learning by showing them how to hone in on the important pieces, we free up thinking space for other work. Here are a few important points about teaching text structure.
1. Each structure is organized in a special way. You can use the thinking maps as a guide on how that organization looks.
2. Before you read, preview the text to see if you can pick up on what structure the piece may follow.
3. During reading, look for the evidence. If you find conflicting evidence, then refer back to your chart. You may have the wrong structure in mind.
4. As you read, look for signal words that are often used in conjunction with the structure.
MODEL, MODEL, MODEL
Further Explanation with Powerpoint Lesson
As you are introducing the structure types, this Powerpoint by Emily Kissner might come in handy. I liked how she thoroughly explained each, so with my students, we’ve done one structure type per day before comparing/contrasting them. Emily has excellent resources in her store if you find your students struggling some.
DRTA Practice with Sample Books
Once you’ve introduced the text structures to your students and modeled with a few short articles, your students may be prepared to tackle more. As far as teaching strategies go, you might find Reciprocal Teaching or DR-TA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity) would work well. A lesson with Reciprocal Teaching might begin with making predictions about the article’s text structure and main ideas, continue with questioning during the reading of the book, pausing to clarify any key observations, and summarizing the information at the end. These roles are transferred to the students for group (cooperative) learning with other example articles analyzed by the group. DR-TA is more of a predicting strategy. Readers are asked to preview and predict to selected spots in the text and then read to confirm thinking. The process is intended to help students use their observations to create new predictions and improve overall comprehension.
Regardless of which strategy you use for teaching the five structures, the information will certainly prove beneficial come test time in particular. Many states are increasing the amount of nonfiction texts since most all of our learning is done from nonfiction, and knowing how to map out text structure would be a very helpful skill in the content areas especially.
BOOK SUGGESTIONS for TEXT STRUCTUREs
DESCRIPTION Text structures
Books with a description structure describe something by listing its features, characteristics, or examples. These nonfiction books focus on one topic. Here are two examples, but there are so many more.
Books in this category are generally informational. They explain a topic such as tornadoes. I love the National Geographic Kids nonfiction books, and you can find many titles available now. They have wonderful photographs and are well planned out.
This book explains what life was like during the colonial time. It would include information about school, crafts, jobs, and government. Again, the focus is on describing the period.
SEQUENCing text structures
Books with a sequence structure describes events in order or tell the steps to follow in order to make or do something. They might be a “how-to” style book such as gardening or a recipe. These also include books about life cycles.
Biographies and autobiographies are written chronologically, and therefore in sequence. They work well for teaching how to create a timeline, and sequence boxes work well for mapping out the events from the book.
One other type of sequential books are life cycle books in science. Books that explain how plants grow or how animals develop such as books about frogs and butterflies.
PROBLEM AND SOLUTION text structures:
Books with a problem and solution structure tell about or say why there is a problem, and then go on to give one or more possible solutions to fix the problem.
Germs Make Me Sick is a great choice for demonstrating a problem-solution framework. The problem is getting sick, and the solution is washing hands, coughing into your elbow, and washing things we touch often. Persuasive writing would tie in well with this great mentor text.
Who Eats What? talks about how food webs work and how problems with pollution can disrupt the food web.
CAUSE AND EFFECT text structures:
Books with a cause and effect structure include major issues such as natural disasters, war, and positive things too. They explain what caused the event or issue. Here are a few titles you might use.
War books would be another cause and effect structure. This book about Sarah Edmonds would be an interesting addition to Civil War studies. She disguised herself as a man in order to fight. Hmmm…why? Well, because otherwise, she would have been excluded and because she was passionate about the *cause*.
Reading about a natural disaster such as a tsunami or tornado fits well with cause and effect. Students can see the results of the disaster and what caused it. Depending on the book, some sections may fit problem and solution too in the recovery after the disaster.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST text structures:
One sign your book includes two or more topics. Through the book, the author explains how the topics are alike and different. Here are two books I recommend:
For crocodiles and alligators, I have used this one from Scholastic. In fact, I believe my set ended up being one of the discounted books a few years ago. This one is a level 3, so it’s best for second grade and up.
The final structure is compare and contrast, and of the five, this one is fairly easy for students to identify. For one, compare and contrast requires two topics. Two topics that popped up right away for me are Frogs/Toads and Crocodiles/Alligators. Alan Fowler is such a wonderful nonfiction writer. I have used many of the Rookie Readers through the years, and I love that he stays true to the level of reader with most vocabulary and includes so many nonfiction text features.
I will end with one more. As I mentioned, I do love the National Geographic nonfiction books. This one compares earthquakes and volcanoes.
Nonfiction Text Structure Links and Resources:
If you are a teacher that loves hands-on learning, you might give my text structures paper bag book a try. It includes introduction and modeling pages, practice pages, and application. My students really enjoyed making them, and here’s what a few teachers had to say about it:
“I used this with face to face students and remote. They loved it . Thank you.” Katherine C
“What an enjoyable way to learn about and remember the various text structures. Thank you so much!” Antoinette N.
OTHER LINKS YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL:
- How to Teach the Sequencing Structure with Procedural Texts
- Text Structure Activities from Deb Hanson
- Text Structures Task Cards
Well, I hope this got the ideas flowing for you. I know as I’ve been writing, the wheels have been turning in my head about teaching this next week. The resources shared above are ones I have used and found quite helpful. If you have ideas or suggestions of great book titles, please share them in the comments.
14 Responses
Excellent post! Thanks for the ideas.
What a great post! I really appreciate the book choices & the chart – thanks ๐
Wow…that was fast. I'm so glad you like the information.
Thanks so much for your comment. I really appreciate.
Carla, such a nice comprehensive post with great information!
Sebrina
Burke's Special Kids
Ahh…thanks Sebrina! I appreciate it.
What a thorough post! You have listed so many wonderful nonfiction books in this post. I really like the National Geographic for Kids books for primary readers. Text structures are an huge discussion our teachers are having as we prepare for our state tests.
Wendy-I am going to do a follow up to this post with materials I've used for teaching them. I collected some great freebies last year, but I need to make sure I provide credit for them if I share them, and that was going to take me a little while to look up, so check back. I know some of my materials were from Emily Kissner. You might look at what she has on TPTs.
I love the book ideas for each structure! So helpful. I'll definitely check out Emily Kissner's website too. Thanks for linking up this week. I feel like I'm learning so much from each one of you. ๐
Emily, TRT/OG
I will have to search for the materials again. I downloaded, but I think rather than sharing files, I need to link to them. She has quite a bit in her store on this topic too.
WOW! I love all of the helpful tips, book choices, and printables you added to this post! What a great idea to add that chart into their interactive notebooks as a resource to use all year long. Thanks for all of the suggestions!
Krista Mahan
Teaching Momster
You're welcome, Krista. It's funny…as I was working with my kids this morning on biographies, I wove in discussion about the text structure since I just did this post. I think I'll do a follow up to it with more printables I have soon.
Love, love, love your book selections! I've used a few of these, but am looking forward to checking out the rest!
Theresa @ True Life I'm a Teacher!
Thanks a bunch for dropping by and commenting.