Enhance your students’ close reading and analytical writing skills by teaching them key strategies for unraveling the main purpose within nonfiction texts. Filled with complex vocabulary and complex details, nonfiction texts can be difficult for students to understand. Specific text strategies can teach students how to deeply comprehend brief and complex texts and how to reference strategies to support their thoughts and ideas.
Improving close reading and analytical writing skills also helps to prepare students for testing, increases their reading comprehension, and provides a valuable life skill.
There are two main strategies to help students understand and analyze informational texts:
- Elements
- Structures
Strategy 1: Recognizing the Elements of Informational Text
An element is something students can think about or look for in a text and it can help them understand what is in a reading selection. There are five main elements that are typically included in nonfiction texts.
1. Purpose for Reading
These questions help students understand their purpose for reading a text and enable them to identify key information relate to this purpose.
- Why am I reading this text?
- What do I want to learn from the text?
- Does the text match my reason for reading?
- Is the author’s purpose to entertain, inform, argue, or teach?
2. Major Ideas
Identifying the most important messages in a text can help readers understand what the author is trying to tell the reader.
- What is the main idea the author is sharing?
- How is the idea being shared?
3. Supporting details
Identifying details within a text helps students understand the main ideas of a text.
- What are the supporting ideas for each major idea?
- How are the supporting details shared?
4. Visuals and Graphics
Illustrations, photos, graphs, or charts can provide students with important information about the text and should not be ignored.
- What pictures or graphs does the author use to give me information?
- Do the pictures or graphs tell me about major ideas or supporting details?
- Do the pictures or graphs help me understand information from the text?
5. Vocabulary
Identifying key vocabulary within the text is necessary to help students understand what the text is about.
Strategy 2: Identifying Structures of Informational Text
A structure is how a text is organized and how the main ideas are shared. Thinking about the text structure helps students understand what the major idea of the text is. Signal words can also help students identify what kind of structure a text has and help them find details to support major ideas. Typically, informational texts follow five main structures.
1. Main Idea and Details
A major idea is supported by details and examples. Signal words such as for instance, for example, such as, another, also, and in addition are often used.
2. Time Order
This structure has one major idea supported by details that are presented in a specific order so that the text makes sense. Typical signal words that are used with this text structure are: at, first, during, next, last, before, after, while, finally, following, and when.
3. Compare and Contrast
This text structure highlights how two or more things are alike and how they are different. The major idea is supported by details and examples. Signal words that are used to compare and contrast are: but, different, same, however, as well as, both, while, and instead of.
4. Cause and Effect
The main idea within this structure highlights a cause or the reason something happened. Signal words that are used to show this are: because, in order to, effects of, and if . . . then.
5. Question and Answer
This structure identifies a major idea that is written as a question. The supporting details within the text answer the question. Typical words used in this structure are: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Additional Resources:
Reading Comprehension: Nonfiction for grades 1–6 helps students to understand nonfiction texts while developing a rich background knowledge of science and history! Activities include leveled texts and study units that include: academic vocabulary, text analysis, and text-based writing prompts. With guided discussions and interesting topics, these close reading activities keep students engaged and entertained.
Check out these free downloadable close reading units for grades 1–6 here.
Each book targets the five text structures of nonfiction reading and helps students recognize key text features that can assist them in determining the important information in a text.
The complete Reading Informational Text units include ready-to-go lessons that help students learn how to navigate difficult texts. Each unit includes:
Suggested learning path with teaching tips and discussion questions
Leveled reading selection
Dictionary page to identify vocabulary
Close reading hunt that guides students on how to identify important information
Reading comprehension and vocabulary activities
Text-structure activity that asks students to examine how information is organized
Text-based writing activity to evaluate how well students understand and analyze texts
Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.