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Skill Explainer

1. An Overview of Informational Text

Informational Text Skill Explainer

What is informational text?

Student with informational text book

Whether you’re trying to understand photosynthesis or find out the rules for the board game “Ticket to Ride,” learning something new often requires turning to an informational text.

Informational text, also called expository text, is a type of nonfiction writing designed to convey factual information about a specific topic. History and science books, newspapers, magazines, biographies, and instructional manuals are all examples of informational texts. The purpose of these texts is to inform, describe, explain, and report information.

As students move through the grades, more and more of their content knowledge and vocabulary will be gleaned from informational text.

Informational text has five agreed-on text structures (Meyer, 1985 (opens in new window)): description; sequence; compare and contrast; cause and effect; and problem and solution. Authors use these structures to organize the information they're presenting in a way that's clear for readers.

Students should receive explicit instruction about each informational text structure, its characteristics, its purpose, and the words often used to signal it.

Informational Text Structures

Compiled from The Reading Comprehension Blueprint (Hennessy, 2021) and Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension: A Handbook (Oakhill et al., 2014)

Structure Purpose Words That Signal This Text Structure
Description Describes the characteristics and features of a topic, including examples for example, to illustrate, for instance, in addition
Sequence or chronology Tells the order or timing of events first, before, finally, initially, at that point
Compare and contrast Examines the similarities and differences between two or more people, events, concepts, and/or ideas similarly, in common, either/or, different than, on the other hand
Cause and effect Gives how or why (cause) and the result (effect) because, since, as a result of, reasons why
Problem and solution A problem and solution are presented because, result, answer
Teaching informational text about corn
Graphic organizers for reading comprehension r

Graphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension

These graphic organizers provide a scaffold for teaching narrative and informational text structures.

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Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.