1. Text Structures  Text features can affect our understanding of texts.  Text structures can also affect our understanding. Different structures present information in different ways.  The structure an author uses depends on the information that the author wants to present.

2. Text Structures

3. Think…  Have we used these structures before?  Where might we see these text structures?

4. Example  Kyle's perfect vacation becomes a nightmare while he's babysitting his sister, BeeBee. An earthquake hits the coast and starts a fire in their hotel. While fighting their way through smoke and flame, Kyle remembers seeing a sign at the beach that said after an earthquake everyone should go uphill and inland, as far from the ocean as possible. Tsunamis, giant waves that often follow earthquakes, can ride in from the sea and engulf anyone who doesn't escape fast enough. Which text structure is used in the bolded sentences? What is the purpose of this text structure in the paragraph? What if the author had NOT used this structure? How would it affect the overall text?

5.  Text structures are also used in nonfiction!  Let’s look an authentic (real) news article.

7. Your task  In groups: analyze your assigned text structure.  Person 1: find where the structure is.  Person 2: explain the purpose of the structure (why did the author use it?)  Person 3: explain what would happen to the text if the author had NOT used this structure. (would the text still make sense?)  All group members: does this structure make sense to use in your own writing? (would the text still make sense?)  Example 

8.  The structure is compare-and-contrast in paragraph 5: “…..”  The author used compare-and-contrast to show the difference between the two accounts of the snowboarder’s disappearance.  If the author had not used compare-and- contrast, then the audience would not understand the full story…  This structure makes sense for my own writing. I would use it to show the similarities/differences between 2 types of information.