Complete lesson plans and instructional resources for ELA.8.R.2.1
Benchmark: Analyze how individual text sections and text features convey meaning and contribute to the text as a whole.
Clarification: Students should understand how authors strategically organize texts to achieve purpose and create specific effects. This includes analyzing both informational structures (chronological, cause/effect, problem/solution, compare/contrast) and literary structures (flashback, flash-forward, frame narrative, parallel plots).
Students will identify organizational patterns in informational and literary texts and explain how text features contribute to meaning.
Students will analyze how structural choices support author's purpose and explain the effects of non-linear narrative structures.
Students will evaluate whether structural choices effectively support meaning and purpose in complex texts.
Students will answer questions about how specific structural elements function within the text as a whole.
Give students paragraph cards. Have them sort into groups based on organizational pattern (cause/effect, compare/contrast, chronological, problem/solution). Discuss how they identified each structure.
Introduce concept worksheet. Focus on how organizational patterns serve different purposes. Use the "Signal Words" chart to help students identify structures. Emphasize that authors CHOOSE structures strategically.
Work through first example together, identifying structure AND explaining HOW it supports the author's purpose. Model think-aloud: "The author uses cause/effect structure because they want readers to understand WHY this happened, not just THAT it happened."
Students identify structure in a short paragraph and explain one way the structure supports the author's purpose.
Discuss movies students know that use flashbacks or non-linear storytelling (Pixar's "Up," Marvel films, etc.). Why do filmmakers make these choices? What effects do they create?
Introduce non-linear structures: flashback, flash-forward, frame narrative, parallel plots. Use concept worksheet section on literary structures. Emphasize EFFECT of each technique on reader experience.
Read short story excerpt with flashback. Students identify: Where does the flashback occur? What information does it provide? How does it affect our understanding of the present-day events? Why did the author place it HERE in the story?
Quick write: How would the story be different if told in strict chronological order? What would be lost?
Give groups different informational texts (textbook pages, articles, infographics). Race to identify all text features. Create class list: headings, subheadings, bolded words, graphics, captions, sidebars, etc.
For each feature identified, discuss: What does this feature DO? How does it help the reader? What would be harder to understand without it? Complete graphic organizer: Feature → Function → Effect on Reader.
Students complete questions 1-5 on informational text structure and features. Circulate to address misconceptions.
Quick review of key concepts: organizational patterns, non-linear structures, text features. Address any lingering questions from previous days.
Students complete remaining practice questions independently. For struggling students, provide structure identification checklist. For advanced students, have them also identify secondary structures within texts.
Partners compare answers for constructed response questions. Discuss: Did you notice the same structural elements? Did you explain the effects similarly?
Administer quiz individually. Remind students to read the ENTIRE text before answering, look for signal words, and explain HOW structural choices create effects in their constructed responses.
Distribute Parent Activity Guide. Preview: When you read articles, books, or watch movies, notice how information is organized. Ask yourself WHY the creator made those structural choices.
| Skill Level | Modifications |
|---|---|
| Approaching |
• Provide signal word reference card for each structure • Use color-coding: highlight signal words in one color, key information in another • Offer sentence starters for constructed responses: "The author uses [structure] because..." • Pre-teach vocabulary: flashback, flash-forward, chronological |
| On-Level |
• Complete all activities as designed • Encourage identifying multiple structural elements within single texts • Have students explain structural effects in their own words |
| Advanced |
• Analyze how structure choices affect TONE and STYLE, not just meaning • Compare two texts on same topic with different structures - evaluate which is more effective • Have students rewrite a passage using a different structure and explain effects • Introduce nested structures (flashback within flashback) |
| ELL Support |
• Create visual anchor chart with structure diagrams • Provide bilingual signal word lists • Use graphic organizers that show structure visually (timelines, Venn diagrams) • Allow discussion in native language before English responses |
Students often confuse WHAT a text says with HOW it's organized. Consistently model the distinction: "Yes, this paragraph tells us about the effects of pollution - that's the CONTENT. But HOW is that information organized? Through cause and effect - that's the STRUCTURE." Use visual diagrams to separate content from structure.
1. "Flashback" means any past event: Clarify that flashback is a structural technique where the narrative INTERRUPTS present-time events to show past events, then returns to the present. Simply mentioning something that happened before isn't automatically a flashback.
2. Texts only have one structure: Complex texts often use multiple structures. An article might be primarily problem/solution but include a cause/effect section explaining why the problem exists.
3. Structure and genre are the same: A biography (genre) could be organized chronologically, thematically, or use flashbacks. Genre doesn't determine structure.
Analyze how history textbooks organize events (chronological vs. thematic). Compare primary source documents organized differently. Evaluate which structures make historical causes/effects clearer.
Examine lab report structure: Why this specific order? How do science articles use cause/effect to explain phenomena? Analyze how graphics and data visualizations support text comprehension.
Analyze how news articles are structured (inverted pyramid). Compare how the same story is organized on different platforms. Examine how structure affects reader engagement and understanding.
Students apply structural analysis to their own writing. Before drafting, choose a structure that best supports purpose. Experiment with non-linear structures in narratives.
| Term | Student-Friendly Definition |
|---|---|
| Text Structure | How an author organizes information and ideas in a text |
| Chronological Order | Events told in time order, from first to last |
| Cause and Effect | Structure showing why something happened (cause) and what resulted (effect) |
| Compare and Contrast | Structure showing similarities and differences between two or more things |
| Problem and Solution | Structure presenting a problem and one or more ways to solve it |
| Flashback | When a story interrupts the present to show events from the past |
| Flash-Forward | When a story jumps ahead to show events that will happen in the future |
| Frame Narrative | A story within a story - an outer story "frames" or contains an inner story |
| Parallel Plots | Multiple storylines that run alongside each other, often connecting later |
| Text Features | Elements like headings, graphics, and bold text that help organize and present information |