Teaching Text Structure: Help Students Identify Signal Words

Text structure refers to the ways that authors organize information in a text.  For example, some texts are organized as a chronological sequence of events, while others compare two or more things.  Teaching students to recognize the underlying structure of content-area texts can help students focus attention on key concepts and relationships, anticipate what’s to come, and monitor their comprehension as they read.

Students can learn to identify a text’s structure by paying attention to signal words. Signal words link ideas together, show relationships, and indicate transitions from one idea to the next.  Each text structure is associated with different signal words (see graphic below).  Text structure can also be taught using graphic organizers, which visually represent the relationship among key ideas.  Graphic organizers can be particularly helpful for English language learners and struggling readers who can use these visual tools to help understand and organize information.

Guidelines for Teaching Text Structure

• Select an appropriate text.  Note that some texts may utilize more than one text structure.  When introducing text structure, select a text (or portion of a text) that has one easily identifiable text structure.

Free Workshops at the 2013 NSTA Area Conferences

Join our free workshops to learn how Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading® can make a difference in student learning!

This is a great program for an inclusion class and/or functioning students.  These students learned! The hands-on learning was exciting and the learners ended this unit with the desire to continue expanding their scientific knowledge and applying literacy skills daily.
– 5^th Grade Teacher

Below are the details of the workshops.  We hope to see you there.

Charlotte, NC | Thursday, November 7, 2013

33 Strategies for Integrating Disciplinary Literacy

8:00 – 9:15 AM in Workshop Room 217 B/C

Discover how to increase reading comprehension, disciplinary literacy skills, and science knowledge simultaneously for ALL students.