Informational Text Structures

There are many different types of informational texts that we will be exploring. When reading informational text, the Common Core Standards have us do close reading of the text to analyze and gain understanding. One important part of reading informational text is to remember to keep our feelings, judgments and personal thoughts out of it; however, sometimes this can be very difficult to do, but the basic purpose of informational text is to gain meaning and understand what the author is telling us.

Reading informational texts differs from narrative texts (stories) in the way they are organized and require different ways of thinking about the text. We will be learning about the internal structures of informational texts which include: description, sequence, cause/effect and compare/contrast. I have attached an informational sheet with these structures, which identifies the signal words and type of information, as well as a graphic organizer that helps organize and understand the information we gain when reading these types of texts. As we learn about the internal structures, we will also be discussing how the other uses the surface features to help organize and provide information (photographs, table of contents, tables, graphs, subtitles, etc.).

Informational texts are everywhere and is the majority of what we read as adults.

Some things to do when reading informational text at home:

* preview the book, looking at the cover, title, table of contents, etc.

* activate background knowledge on the topic

*while reading investigate new vocabulary and use context clues to gain meaning

*discuss how tables, graphs, photographs, diagrams, subtitles, etc. give us additional

information to understand the text

* ask what they learned and give details to support it

We will begin by reading closely to gain the meaning of the text and focusing on the internal structures of the text. Eventually, we will be reading additional texts that are related to the first text. We will be comparing the texts and using them to help our understanding, because sometimes the author assumes we know more information than we do on a topic. This will include reading fictional texts on the same topic and using an informational text to support our understanding.

Informational texts are great for shared reading with your child. Take turns reading aloud to them, as well as them reading to you.