Text Structures Teaching Resources
Bring text structures to life in the classroom with text structure posters for your classroom walls, printable worksheets and downloadable Google Slides templates that easily break down the way authors organize information in a text.
Familiarity with different text structures is crucial for helping our students develop reading comprehension skills and become more confident readers. So how do you teach students all about text structures? We're so glad you asked!
Our teacher team has created hundreds of resources with this concept at the heart. With editable resources at the ready, you can save time on your lesson planning, so you have more time with your family!
Each resource in this ELA collection is curriculum-aligned to help students meet Common Core and state-level standards for understanding text structures. Each has undergone a thorough review by our teacher team to ensure it's ready for your students.
New to teaching text structure, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a handy definition you can use to explain the meaning of text structure to your students.
What Is a Text Structure? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Whether you've been teaching students who've already passed this stage of literacy instruction or teaching classes for younger learners, you may need a quick refresher! Don't worry — the ELA teachers on the Teach Starter team are here to back you up with a simple definition you can use to explain text structures.
Text structures are thee different ways that an author has organized information within the text. These types of organization appear in both fiction and nonfiction texts.
Text structures help us use many of our reading comprehension strategies like visualizing, inferencing and monitoring comprehension.
6 Text Structure Examples to Share With Students
Looking for text structure examples to share with your students during your lessons? Here are some of the more common — and more helpful— text structures students may encounter in their reading:
- Problem and solution
- Chronological
- Cause and effect
- Inductive and deductive
- Description
- Sequence/process
How to Teach About Text Structures — Fun Ideas for Teachers
Looking for fun ideas for teaching text structures in the classroom? Try these tips from our teacher team!
- Practice sequencing stories with cards that map out a familiar task — but only if students can put them in the right order!
- Before reading a text featuring "cause and effect" out loud to the class, supply students with cause and effect graphic organizers. Students can be instructed to make notes of the different cause and effect examples they hear throughout your read-aloud.
- Create a text structures anchor chart with your class to help break down the different ways authors organize information.
- Add a text structures sorting activity to your reading center!
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Fact and Opinion Board Game
Practice differentiating between fact and opinion with a fun and engaging board game.
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Timelines Worksheet for First Grade
Use this worksheet with the Timelines Teaching Presentation to assess students' knowledge of timelines.
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Marshall vs. Tubman Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Combine reading and history content with differentiated reading comprehension worksheets.
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Primary Weekly Poetry Guide - Weeks 4 and 5
Use this weekly poetry guide to celebrate National Poetry Month in your primary classroom.
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Primary Weekly Poetry Guide - Week 1
Use this weekly poetry guide to celebrate National Poetry Month in your primary classroom.
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Fishbone/Herringbone Diagram Graphic Organizer
A blank fishbone and herringbone diagram to use in any subject area.
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Narrative Text Structure - PowerPoint
A 20-slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the text structure and language features of narrative texts.
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Writing A Narrative Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a narrative.
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Writing Checklists - Various Genres
Use these Writing Checklists to ensure that your students have everything they need in their pieces of writing.
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Advertising Resource Pack
An educational resource pack with opinion writing tasks and worksheets about advertising.
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Writing A Review Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a review.
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Opinion Letter Writing Task - Lower Grades
A five page assessment task for the lower grades, covering opinion writing.
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Writing An Opinion Text Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of an opinion text.
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Writing A Report Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a report.
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Writing An Information Report Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of an information report.
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Writing An Explanation Text Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of an explanation text.
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Writing A Response Text Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a response text.
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Writing A Discussion Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a discussion text.
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Writing A Description Text Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a description text.
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Writing A Biography Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a biography.
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Descriptive Writing Poster
A poster outlining the main points and structure of a descriptive text.
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Sequencing Activity - Dogs Make the Best Pets (Opinion Text) - Simplified Version
A sequencing task using a simple opinion text.
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Sequencing Activity - Homework is Unnecessary (Opinion Text) - Simplified Version
A sequencing task using a simple opinion text.
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Writing a... Writing Styles Poster Pack
A set of 14 posters which describe different writing styles in clear steps.
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Analyzing Poetry PowerPoint
A 19 slide editable PowerPoint template the use when teaching students how to analyze poetry.
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Opinion Sentence Worksheet
Some opinion sentence starters to be completed with evidence.
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Writing An Informational Text Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of an informational text.
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How to Wash Your Hands - Sequencing Cards
A set of 8 cards showing the steps for how to wash your hands properly
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How to Make a PB and J Sandwich - Sequencing Cards
A set of 6 cards showing the steps to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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Exploring Informative Texts PowerPoint
A 23 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of informative texts.
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Opinion Writing Checklist - Structure, Language and Features
A checklist for students to use when proofreading and editing their opinion writing.
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Opinion Text Structure Anchor Chart With Annotations
A poster about the opinion text structure, including an annotated example.