Compare Informational Text Structures

Recognize and compare chronology, comparison, cause/effect, and problem/solution structures across texts.

How the lesson starts: Compare Informational Text Structures

Bea's blueprints
Bea the beaver is an architect. Before she builds a dam, she draws a blueprint. Writers do the same! Every nonfiction text has a hidden blueprint, called its structure.
Four blueprints
Bea keeps four blueprints. Chronology tells events in time order. Comparison shows how two things are alike and different. Cause and effect explains why things happen. Problem and solution names a problem and ways to fix it.
Let's name one
First, farmers tap maple trees. Next, sap drips into buckets. Then they boil it. Finally, syrup goes into jars. What's the whole paragraph doing? Telling steps in time order. That's chronology!