The National Education Association describes four main types of text structure: description, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and order, or sequence. Problem solution is another text structure authors use. Using description, an author provides an overview of a topic. An example of a description text structure would be an encyclopedia article. In the compare-and-contrast structure, an author takes two or more topics, ideas or characters and finds the similarities and differences between them. Authors use cause-and-effect structures to show how one event has led to others, while problem solution writing allows an author to illustrate a problem and offer a way out of that problem, or to show how the problem has been fixed. Lab reports are examples of both of these types of writing. Lastly, sequence writing shows chronology of events or tasks, but is often structured in a how-to format. Recipes are an excellent example of sequence text structure.
It is important for middle school instructors and students to understand how the identification of text structures helps with reading comprehension. Understanding text structure helps students by highlighting why the author wrote a text and what tone the author is using to approach it. Authors often write descriptive texts, for example, with the intent to inform the reader, while compare-and-contrast articles could be argumentative and written with a persuasive tone. Chefs write recipes with the goal of teaching the reader. Each structure has its own purpose.
A teacher should start with an explicit lesson on the different types of text structures. Once students have an understanding of the text structure types and definitions, they can practice using small passages and interactive technologies to test their understanding of what words and phrases authors use when writing in different structures. Teachers can also use graphic organizers and practice the identification and analysis of each text structure throughout other units.
According to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, 45 out of 50 states have adopted the Common Core. The Common Core Reading Standards for grades six through eight include standards for teaching text structure at each grade level, leading up to detailed analysis of the role of particular sentences in a text. Analysis is a higher order thinking skill, going beyond mere identification to breaking down the structure while considering how the author uses it and why. For an even higher level of thinking, teachers can ask the students if the information is presented in the most effective text structure, or if there is another, better way for the author to present the same information using a different structure.