4.10.B

ELA4th 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 a text is organized and determine the author's purpose. They explain how that organization helps the author inform, explain, persuade, or entertain readers.

What Mastery Looks Like

Students correctly identify structures such as sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, or problem and solution. They cite details and explain how the organization supports the author's purpose.

Common Misconceptions

Students may confuse the topic with the author's purpose. They may name a structure but fail to explain how it helps the author, or rely only on signal words.

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: Name the structure of today's article, then complete, “The author uses this structure to help readers understand ___ because ___.”

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

  1. Give pairs paragraph strips to arrange, then have them label the structure and explain why the author chose it.

  2. Ask students to write: How would the author's purpose be harder to understand if this article used a different structure?

  3. Play Structure Match by having teams pair short passages with structure cards and defend each match in one sentence.

  4. Compare a recipe, a product review, and a safety poster to see how each structure fits its real-world purpose.

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