Workshop: map how your text is built
Ākonga identify the structure of their own text and explain what that structure lets the writer do.
- Reading Workshop move: Structure map of a self-selected text
- Evidence it produces: A named structure plus what it achieves for that writer
Route status: the learning intentions and mini-lesson scaffold are shared with the seminar route; the Do Now, activities, conferences, evidence and exit below are this route’s own. The difference is how ākonga work — their own chosen texts, individual evidence, and one-to-one conferencing — not which strategies are taught.
Lesson 5: Analysing Text Structures: Cause/Effect & Compare/Contrast
Building confident, active readers through Te Ao Māori perspectives, comprehension strategies, and rich Aotearoa texts.
🎯 Ngā Whāinga Akoranga | Learning Intentions
Common non-fiction text structures (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological order) and signal transition words (however, as a result, similarly, consequently).
Identify non-fiction text structure types using signal words, construct cause-and-effect flowcharts, and fill Venn diagrams comparing two perspectives.
⚡ Whakaoho | Do Now: Signal hunt in your own pages (8 mins)
Skim the last few pages of your own text (if your book is a story, take one of the non-fiction texts from the class stack instead — structure work needs structured text). Find and copy one signal word or phrase — however, as a result, similarly, consequently, before, because — with its full sentence.
🗺️ Activity 1: Choose the organiser that fits your text (22 mins)
Decide what structure your chosen text is actually built on — cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, or chronological order — and pick the matching organiser: flowchart, Venn diagram, problem–solution table, or timeline. The choice is the thinking. Fill it from your text, then answer underneath: which signal words earned your choice, and where does the structure break down or switch?
Texts are rarely pure; noting where your text changes structure mid-stream is stronger work than forcing it all into one diagram.
🪑 While they work: reading conferences (run through Activity 1 mins)
Confer one-to-one with four or five ākonga — bring anyone who chose their organiser before reading rather than from evidence. Keep each conference under four minutes and record one line per learner on your conference sheet: text, strategy seen, next move. Everyone else keeps working — the conference is a conversation about their book, not a test.
Conference questions for this lesson:
- Which structure did you pick, and which signal words earned it?
- Show me where the structure breaks down or switches. What is the author doing there?
- Knowing the structure, where would you look for the author’s next key point?
📝 Activity 2: Journal — structure map (15 mins)
Complete Section 5 of your Reading Journal: your completed organiser, the signal-word evidence that earned it, and one sentence on how knowing the structure told you where information would be. Name the text.
🚪 Exit (5 mins)
Your text’s dominant structure, claimed in one line with two signal words as evidence.
🏫 Kaiako Planning & Pedagogy Notes
Curriculum alignment: Te Mātaiaho, English, Phase 3 (Years 7–8). This lesson builds comprehension, critical literacy and cultural connectedness through Aotearoa literature and pūrākau. The unit's one verified Te Mātaiaho anchor is recorded on the curriculum companion; no further statement is claimed for this lesson until one is verified.