Texts Are Organized Too! Educational Resources K12 Learning, English / Language Arts, Reading, English / Language Arts Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Who's up for a challenge?

I think you are! Try to complete one, or all, of these challenges!

⇒ Walk backward.
⇒ Hop backward.
⇒ Sing a song backward.
⇒ Read a short book backward.
⇒ Write your name backward.

walking backward

How did those backward challenges go?
Were they easy to complete or difficult?

They were probably tricky because the order in which we do things matters!

Just like with these examples, the order of information in a text matters too because it allows the reader to understand the information in a clearer way.

What does it mean to organize information in a text?

Writers organize their information simply by putting the ideas in a way that makes sense. They think about what information the reader would need to know first, what would be helpful to know after that, and so on.

What exactly does an author organize in writing?

While writing, authors organize the:

events
ideas
concepts
information

However, that does NOT mean that all authors organize all texts in the same way or order! There are different structures that they can use, including:

chronology
comparison
cause and effect
problem and solution

Let's learn a little bit more about these different structures, or types, of organization.

Chronology
	What Does It Mean?
		The information goes in order of what happened first, next, after that, and so on until what happened last.
	Example
		First, I went to the store to buy ingredients. Next, I went into my kitchen and mixed all the ingredients together. Then, I put the mixture into the oven. Finally, I took a cake out of the oven and served it for my friend's birthday.

Comparison
	What Does It Mean?
		The information is presented in a way that compares (similarities) and contrasts (differences) the topics being discussed.
	Example
		The vanilla cake is white inside with white frosting on top. The chocolate cake also has white frosting on top, but it is dark brown on the inside. Both cakes taste sweet.

Cause and Effect
	What Does It Mean?
		The information is written in a way that shows one action caused something else to happen. It also shows the effects (what happened) as a result of what happened first.
	Example
		I added cocoa powder to the flour, butter, and eggs to make a chocolate cake. Adding sugar to it is what made it taste sweet.

Problem and Solution
	What Does It Mean?
		The information is given as a problem (something wrong) and then as a solution (how it was fixed).
	Example
		The chocolate cake was very flat when I took it out of the oven. I did not like how it looked, so I put it on a tall cake stand and added extra frosting.

As a reader, it is your job to notice which type of structure the author used throughout the whole text or even in just a part of it. This will help you understand what is being said.

As a writer, you should use these structures to organize your information as well to help your readers understand!

Let's move FORWARD and not backward to the Got It? section!