Literacy Corner
Your monthly guide to literacy at Creekland
Reading: Why Text Structure Matters
The type of reading associated with the content areas reflects not only the concepts and ideas important to these subjects, but also the text structures used by those practicing the field.
One of the best strategies to help students with reading is to help them identify and understand the text structure. The structure in which a text is organized helps to guide the reader through the text.
Text Structure Analysis
Help your students understand how different texts may be organized through an examination of it’s structure and key features.
Text features such as illustrations, captions, bold print, footnotes and text boxes should be explored and discussed. This can part of a pre-reading or during reading strategy. What do they notice about the features? How do these features contribute to the concept, idea, historical period, process, system, or vocabulary?
Students should be able to skim and scan a text to determine the structure. Each structure has unique signal words to guide the reader through the text. For example, a text using the sequencing structure may include words such as first, next, finally, before, after, and following to help the reader follow the sequence or process.
The most common structures in informational texts include description, sequence, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and cause and effect.
Signal Words
FLIRT with the Text
Text Structure and Signal Words
Writing: Realistic Ways to Incorporate Writing Skills
Content area classrooms are fertile ground for extending and sharpening writing skills. Solar system web pages, word bank writing, Civil War newspapers, lab reports, immigrant journals, science fair abstracts, play scripts, GIST summaries, opinion articles, biographies of scientists, interview questions, timeline narratives, personal reading reflections, response-note taking formats, and storyboards for film or slide presentations are just a few of the infinite and realistic ways content area teachers can help students hone the writing skills that language arts teachers have helped them develop.
Read Across America Day
This is a great opportunity to read a short article, children's book, newspaper, blog, or ANYTHING with your students. There are lots of great science and social studies books to support and enrich your AKS.
Wednesday, Mar 2, 2016, 09:30 AM
Creekland Middle School, Russell Road, Lawrenceville, GA, United States
Literacy Resources
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