2.9.D.iii

ELA2nd Graderecognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including:

The Standard

organizational patterns such as chronological order and cause and effect stated explicitly

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do

Students decide whether an informational text presents events in time order or links a cause to a result. They use signal words and stated details to explain their choice.

What Mastery Looks Like

Students correctly name how an informational paragraph is organized. They point to signal words and details that show time order or explain why something happened.

Common Misconceptions

Students may confuse the order ideas appear on the page with the order events happened. They may also treat any two nearby events as cause and effect, even when one did not make the other happen.

How to Assess It

Give students a short paragraph about a seed growing. Ask them to label it time order or cause and effect, then underline two details that prove their answer.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

  1. Give pairs event cards from a simple process, then have them arrange the cards and explain the order using first, next, and last.

  2. Read two short paragraphs and ask, “Is the author showing when events happened or why something happened?” Students cite one clue.

  3. Play a sorting game where students place paragraph cards under Time Order or Cause and Effect, then check answers with a partner.

  4. Examine a weather report and a simple recipe, then identify which one explains causes and which one presents steps in order.

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