Grade 4 Text Structure Reading Unit - 10 Lessons plus 4 Structures RI.4.5

Help your Grade 4 students master text structure the way RI.4.5 actually asks for it: not just labeling a text, but describing its overall structure and explaining why the author chose it. This complete unit teaches students to spot the four main nonfiction structures, use signal words as proof, and explain the author’s purpose.

Students learn the four structures - chronology, comparison, cause and effect, and problem and solution - use signal words to identify each, judge the overall structure of a whole passage, and explain why an author picked that structure. The keystone Structure + Purpose Statement brings the structure, the signal-word proof, and the author’s purpose into one reusable sentence students can use with any nonfiction text.

WHAT IS INCLUDED

• 52-slide Google Slides / PowerPoint deck, 10 lessons, with full speaker notes
• Worksheet 1: structure vocabulary, signal-word matching, name the structure, quick check (2 pages)
• Worksheet 2: which structure, structure and purpose (2 pages)
• Worksheet 3: independent structure and purpose, Structure + Purpose Statement, self-check (2 pages)
• Exit ticket with an original unseen passage and a four-task assessment
• 4-point assessment rubric with teaching notes and differentiation guidance

CCSS STANDARDS

RI.4.5 - Describe the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text

All passages are original - not recycled public-domain filler.