Blueprint Readers: Text Structures Unit (Grades 3–5)

Unit · Grades 3–5 · PDF, 45 pages · $6

Most kids can learn to say "it's cause and effect." The hard part, and the part tests ask about, is explaining how the author used that structure to organize the information. Blueprint Readers teaches a simple routine for every paragraph: Name it, Prove it, Explain it.

Students learn description, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution with bold anchor posters, then move and talk in a Five Corners game with 30 sentences. A signal word sort builds the clue-word habit.

Six original informational passages (octopuses, honeybees, volcanoes, monarch butterflies, the Moon and hurricanes) use a different structure in every paragraph. Each comes with a text structure organizer and a short constructed response page with RACE planning boxes. Exit tickets and full answer keys, including color-coded sample SCR answers, are included.

What's included

• "Name it, Prove it, Explain it" routine poster
• 5 color anchor posters with signal words, organizers and "explain how" sentence frames
• Student cheat sheet for notebooks
• 5 Five Corners signs + 30-sentence game bank and recording sheet
• 40-card signal word sort with mat
• 6 original passages with every structure in each one
• 6 text structure organizers
• 6 SCR pages with RACE planning
• 8 exit tickets
• Answer keys and sample SCR answers

How teachers use it

• Whole-group text structure lessons
• STAAR and test prep for SCR
• Small groups and reading centers
• Quick checks and review