3.10.B
ELA3rd Grade
The Standard
explain how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify how an author organizes ideas, such as sequence, cause and effect, comparison, or description. They connect that choice to what the author wants readers to understand or do.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly name the structure of a passage and point to details that show it. They explain how that organization supports the author’s reason for writing.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name a structure without explaining how it helps the author. They may also confuse structure with topic, genre, or a single signal word.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short cause-and-effect paragraph. Ask, “How does the way this paragraph is organized help the author explain the topic?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips from a short article to arrange, then have them name the structure and explain why it fits.
Read two differently organized passages on bees and ask, “Which organization better helps the author inform readers, and why?”
Play Structure Detective: teams identify the structure of paragraph cards and earn a point only when they link it to purpose.
Compare a recipe, weather alert, and animal article, then discuss how each organization helps readers use the information.
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