Leesha St.

Clair
Assignment 1

How to teach Expository Text Structure

Expository text structure help students analyze expository text structures to uncover main ideas
and supporting details, as it can be challenging for young readers due to unfamiliar concepts and
vocabulary. Over the past 60 years, reading comprehension has shifted from rote learning to
adaptable, flexible strategies. Text structure knowledge training is an efficient strategy for
improving comprehension of expository texts.

Text structures are essential for readers of all ages to be successful, as they organize ideas and
relationships. Text structure refers to the arrangement and relationships of ideas, impacting
readers' approach to reading. Familiarity with text structures ensures predictable information
unfolding. Unaware of text structures face disadvantages as they lack a reading plan, while
familiar readers anticipate specific information unfolding. Students initially learn narrative text
structures, which help with their reading. As they transition from casual text to information-rich
texts, their awareness of these structures increases, with a noticeable shift towards dense, long
passages in third and fourth grade.

Expository texts are structured to aid students in their reading process, using structural elements
to arrange and connect ideas. Understanding text structure and analyzing it improves reading
comprehension skills, according to research literature. Text features like headings aid in
organizing and locating information, enabling students to hold each piece in their short-term
memory, process it, and connect it to background knowledge, thereby enhancing their learning
experience. Introducing students to various text components throughout the school year and
teaching them properly at the beginning is crucial for comprehension and retention, with students
expected to recognize expository text structures as early as third grade. These text structures can
be classified as description, sequence, compare & contrast, cause & effect, problem & solution.
Identifying and analyzing text structures in expository texts enhances comprehension and
retention, and it's recommended to work on these structures in the prescribed order. Three steps
were suggested when teaching expository text structure; introduce an organizational pattern, give
students opportunities to work on text, and invite students to write paragraphs using each text
structure.
Leesha St. Clair
Assignment 1

As a teacher, it's crucial to be knowledgeable about different text structures, signal words,
phrases, and the appropriate graphic organizer for each text structure. To prepare an instructional
plan for students, model procedures and watch them focus on signal words and phrases. After
practicing and students have gathered background, use the recommended procedure:

 Introduce the text structures in order, starting with description and finishing with
compare/contrast. This order is followed in most textbook readings.

 Introduce and work on a single text structure in each lesson. Do not combine them. Work
on one text structure for three or four sessions, then proceed to the next one.

 Prepare short passages (about six to eight lines) for the text structure you are going to
work on in that session. As the texts are short, you can work on at least four texts
according to the time allocated for each session.

 Try to highlight and emphasize the signal words and phrases in each text and elaborate on
a series of signal words for each text structure (see Figure 1). Tell students that authors of
informational texts use specific signal words and phrases for each rhetorical structure.

 After students are familiar with signal words and phrases, ask them to find these clues in
structure of each text through signal words and phrases. Then, invite them to write some
short paragraphs and use some of the signal words and phrases appropriate to each text
structure.

 Working with graphic organizers is the next step after teaching signal words and phrases.
For the first few sessions of working with graphic organizers, prepare for your students a
completed graphic organizer before they start working on the text. This will help them
create a better image of the hierarchy of ideas and their interrelationships discussed in the
passage. Graphic organizers help students list major ideas under the main idea of the text
and put the supporting details under the related major idea. Having a graphic
representation of the text's ideas helps readers comprehend and retain the content.

 Once students are comfortable with different kinds of graphic organizers, you can give
them an incomplete graphic organizer after they have finished reading the passage. Let
them complete it on their own.
Leesha St. Clair
Assignment 1

 At this stage, the students would be able to work on a blank graphic organizer
independently, elicit the ideas from the text, and demonstrate the hierarchy of the ideas in
a graphic organizer. These activities may vary from partially blank graphic organizers to
totally blank schematic representations. Variables like the text length and text difficulty
will determine how much of the text may appear in this schematic diagram.

Essentials to Teaching Writing

Years of research confirm that children need these essential features of a quality writing
programme:

1. Children need time to write. Research indicates that children require a daily writing block of
45-60 minutes, allowing them to develop ideas for topics and text construction.

2.Children need regular responses to their writing. Children require regular feedback from
teachers, peers, and others to improve their writing skills. They want to share their work, ask for
help, and seek guidance from a teacher who listens, responds honestly, and supports them in their
writing.

3. Children need to publish their writings. Children develop self-esteem as authors by writing for
real audiences, publishing their work through bulletin boards, folding books, or creating
newsletters with others.

4. Children need to choose most of the topics they write about. Teachers help children write
about everyday experiences and build background knowledge on topics they choose, enabling
them to write fiction, informative texts, poetry, and persuasive pieces.

5. Children need to hear their teachers talk through what they are doing as they write. Teachers
need to model writing by aloud discussing their thoughts, engaging students in the process,
discussing ideas, changes, revising, spelling, and punctuation, while also demonstrating the
invisible thinking involved in writing.
Leesha St. Clair
Assignment 1

Writing & Small Group Collaboration/Work