Understanding Organization of Text Supporting Details Understanding Organization of Text

Support Details: Organizational Patterns Good reading comprehension skills depend on accurate identification of the text’s topic, the main idea, and the supporting details. Additionally, comprehension of the unfamiliar words and technical terms and new concepts introduced in textbooks is necessary to understand the author’s information. Another factor that helps students create meaning from their reading tasks is a good understanding of text structure. Writers of textbooks, and articles or any text written to inform readers, introduce their information in several basic patterns and use transitions signals to guide readers through the passages on the page.

One very common PATTERN OF ORGANIZATION used by textbook authors is the PROCESS pattern. For example, if we have a science text that is explaining how tornadoes are formed, the author will begin with a description of large warm air masses colliding with large cold air masses. This collision will produce a series of weather events that result in a tornado. The text describes a sequence, or a process, that ends with some final result. If the student recognizes that the text is organized in a process pattern, she can more easily take notes and remember the steps in the process that end with a result, in this case a tornado.

The topic sentence does not generally indicate what pattern of organization the author has selected for the information. The pattern of organization is revealed in the supporting details. In this case, the supporting details were arranged in a process format. Students again can recognize the process pattern and organize their notes and recall of the information. Reading comprehension is improved. Similarly, a history text might be organized by the author in a TIME SEQUENCE following a time line. For example, the ending of the American Revolutionary War was followed by the organization of the colonies into a nation; a constitution was drafted; George Washington was elected the first president, and so on.

When the student reads the supporting details and identifies the pattern of organization as time sequence, she can grasp the information and arrangement of the information, take better notes on the information, and recall the information using the same pattern of organization. Still another type of pattern of organization is CLASSIFICATION. For example our sociology text might discuss the development of identity among adolescents in a typical high school. All adolescents want to belong to some sort of social group commonly found on a high school campus.

Our sociology text classifies the students into groups such as the athletes (the jocks), musicians (ear buds!), gear heads (hood open on car in lot), the party animals (droopy eyes), and so on. The text may discuss each group in additional support details, major and minor. But the organizational pattern, which is the basis for all the support for the author’s main idea, is classification of the large group (high school adolescents) in to a number of smaller groups. Recognition of the pattern of organization helps the student reading the text understand the concept, note the information accurately, and recall the information when needed.

There are many patterns of organization commonly used in college textbooks in addition to PROCESS, TIME SEQUENCE , and CLASSIFICATION. Several additional patterns to watch for are these. Definition and Example Description Comparison and Contrast Cause and Effects Problem and Solutions Listing of points

Support Details: Transitions So recognition of Patterns of Organization can aid student reading comprehension. Using TRANSITION WORDS and TRANSITION PHRASES are a second method used by textbook authors to guide readers through the support details. Transition words and transition phrases are used by authors to show relationships among ideas in the support details or between the main idea and the supporting details.

For example, let’s return to the science textbook about tornado formation and note how the support details are separated into ideas by transition words, which are indicated in red letters. Tornadoes have a recognizable pattern of formation. First, a thunderstorm develops in the upper atmosphere. Next, rainfall in the storm drags with it a descending air mass. Third, the descending air mass approaches the ground and starts to rotate between warm updrafts and cold downdrafts, forming a funnel shape. Finally, as the funnel touches down to the ground, the funnel becomes a violent tornado.

Each major support detail is signaled to the reader with a transition word that alerts the student to a sequence relationship or a process. Often authors use phrases, rather than single words, as the transition between ideas. The phrase “on the other hand” lets the reader know the author is going to introduce a contrasting idea. The phrase “in the meantime” lets the reader know that while something is going on, something else is also taking place. The transition clarifies timing. Paying close attention to the transitions, like signs on the highway, will help the reader see the connections and relationships between support details and the topic sentences.

Several categories of transitions are these. Transitions that add one or more idea Transitions that indicate time Transitions that show examples or illustrations Transitions that show similarities Transitions that show differences or contrasts Transitions that show causes and their effects