“A bottle of red, a bottle of white…..” Okay, so it wasn’t exxxxaaaactly like Billy Joel’s Scenes from an Italian Restaurant song. But it was still one of those really magical days in my classroom! I always do a unit on genre at the beginning of the year. I love books and reading and have always enjoyed sharing that love with my students. But, I’ve got to admit that it’s gotten harder and harder to accomplish this. Over more recent years, I’ve sadly watched as my gently worn books get replaced by audio books and the other distractions in my young students’ lives greatly outweigh the pull of a good story. So, I decided to make reading fun again! I transformed my room into a “Book Genre Café” for an hour in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Tablecloths, soft music, and candle (electric) lit tables beckoned students to enter and wonder. Boxes of carefully selected books along with a book-rating menu greeted students at each table as their waiters (teachers, aides, even our school treasurer!) wondered from group to group, sharing some dramatic reading from the back covers of new genres.

The hour seemed to fly by. It was one of those special times when true engagement was occurring. Students were looking at books from unfamiliar genres with eager eyes, frantically writing down titles of those interesting-sounding books that they wanted to read on their “must read” bookmarks. As they moved from science fiction to fantasy to historical fiction, my students were immersed in sampling the best literature I could find. As the students went to recess, my teaching partner and I exchanged tired but genuine smiles as we quickly cleaned up our café. It had been a good day!

TEXT STRUCTURE: The very title of this topic can make the most seasoned teacher cringe a little. I’m not sure what it is exactly about this topic that makes so many teachers-present company included-shudder just a little, but it does every year!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s like 5 mini topics that the students have to be aware of in order to distinguish between them? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it’s another one of those more “inferred” skills that is often hidden in complex text? Or maybe that there’s often more than one structure imbedded in a story? Nevertheless, it remains a pretty big standard in upper elementary that must be covered. 

In order to tackle this challenging topic, I decided to take all of my material and organize it into a 3 week period of time using the “I do, We do, You do” model of instruction. 

The "I do, We do, You do" instructional model is a teaching approach that follows a structured progression of learning activities. In the "I do" phase, the teacher demonstrates a new concept or skill, providing a clear example for students to observe. This is followed by the "We do" phase, where students participate in guided practice with the teacher, receiving support and feedback as they apply the newly introduced information. Finally, in the "You do" phase, students independently practice and apply the knowledge or skills they have acquired. This model aims to gradually shift responsibility from the teacher to the students, fostering a progressive and interactive learning experience.

Week 1: (I do) 

1. I introduce the idea of text structure through a Khan Academy video. Link HERE! 
2. I spend each day this week going over a specific structure focusing on key words, purpose, and  examples as a whole group. There are some great flip books available on TPT that provide great background information on each structure and can provide a great point of reference moving forward.

Week 2: (we do)

After students have a good grasp of each text structure, it’s time to start identifying them within actual texts. We accomplish this through repeated practice in the following ways: 

•         Text Structure Jeopardy
•         Text Structure 4 Corners Game
•         Text Structure Match it game 

Week 3: (you do) 

1. By this week, we want to assess, both informally and formally, how students are progressing. To get an individual measure on each student’s progress, we have them complete the following independently:  *Text Structure task cards (digital or paper/pencil)
2. After looking at their scores, I continue to either extend their learning through following:             *Text Structure BOOM Cards set or pull back individual small groups to re-do some of the “practice” activities found in week 
3. Finally, we have them take a final assessment.  (Digital or paper/pencil)

I hope this gives you some ideas about how to go about structuring your text structure unit! (see what I did there??) As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or comments regarding this topic or anything in general!

:) Jennifer