Is a college education necessary for success in today's world? The class investigates the question, along with others at the end of the sixth workshop in a 15-part series. The lesson has four parts with multiple activities and...

What do a cheetah, Audi commercial, and air have in common? They're all topics of an engaging inquiry-based, hands-on workshop for educators about background knowledge, reading strategies, the CER model, and argumentative writing. The...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will be taking a look at how authors of informational texts, such as expository texts, organize their writing and the effects that organization can have...

Want to improve your students' reading skills? This is a good place to find the types of directed activities, using a definition text, reconstruction/analysis activities, and advantages of using DARTs.

This slideshow focuses on text structures for informational texts including how the author's purpose helps determine the organizational pattern to use and how the reader can use clues to identify the text structure used. Five...

This resource focuses on text structure by defining the types of organizational patterns and providing examples of each. These are followed by a list of links to practice activities on text structure and main idea, as well as some videos.

Two slideshows and a screencast on organizational patterns used when writing essays and speeches. The first is a 20-slide presentation explaining the seven most common organizational patterns used in writing: time sequence, spatial,...

A list of six different ways to organize a text with links to more information for each.

This is a PDF worksheet that provides six reading passages related to smart phones to help your students master text structure (patterns of organization) in informational text. RI.9-10.3 author unfolds

This site provides a nonfiction graphic organizer that will help students organize an argument.

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Use different organizational patterns as guides for summarizing and forming an overview of different kinds of expository text while distinguishing factual claims from...

Tips on organizing ideas in an essay.

Links to 12 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.1a: Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.

Contains plans for three lessons that use science textbooks to teach about the organizational features of nonfiction such as labels, captions, headings, and fonts. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] By using different organizational patterns as guides, learn how to make subtle inferences and draw complex conclusions while distinguishing factual claims.

In this text structure reading test, students read passages and select the pattern of organization used; they sometimes have to explain their reasons using evidence from the text.

In this text structure test, students read passages and select the correct text structure; they are sometimes asked to explain how the evidence to prove their selections.

Slideshow examines the five most common text structures used by authors to organize nonfiction writing.

This instructional activity focuses on the organization of your paper including how to write a thesis statement, the elements of an effective paragraph, patterns of organization, transitions, and conclusions. It also provides a video of...

This strategy helps students prepare and organize thoughts about text, develop a written response in the form of a short or extended response, and use standard English grammar, usage, and conventions in writing.

This graphic organizer can be use with students when they read an informational text. Using a Venn diagram to organize content, students will write important similarities and differences after reading an informational text and analyzing...

This learning module focuses on comparing organizational patterns in informational texts including chronological order, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solutions. Click on each text structure for an explanation.

This interactive test features six matching and six multiple choice questions having to do with text structure and organizational patterns.

This interactive set of flashcards helps students to learn the terms and definitions for types of text structure, organizational patterns, and keywords and graphic organizers for the types of text structures.