INTRODUCE THE GENRE
Use Cause-and-Effect and Descriptive Text Structures
1. Focus
Explain Using Text Structures
Say: Authors of informational reports usually use more than one text structure
to write about a topic. They use the cause-and-effect text structure to identify
relationships in which one event causes another to happen. They use the
descriptive text structure to provide details about their topics. You can identify
these text structures by their signal words. For example, in cause-and-effect text
structures writers use words such as because, so, and since to help readers
recognize and follow a cause and its effect.
Model Identifying Cause-and-Effect and Descriptive
Text Structures
Mentor Text
Objectives
In this mini-lesson, students will:
• Listen to an informational report
excerpt and analyze causeand-effect and descriptive text
structures.
• Recognize the signal words authors
use when writing with causeand-effect and descriptive text
structures.
Preparation
Materials Needed
• Mentor text: “Keeping Your Brain
Healthy and Strong” from The Brain
• Magazines and catalogs with
photographs showing simple
problems students might face, such
as missing the bus or forgetting
lunch money.
• Chart paper and markers
• Interactive whiteboard resources
Read the last paragraph on page 22 of “Keeping Your Brain Healthy and Strong.”
Note: You may want to display the page from the book using the interactive
whiteboard resources so that students may read along.
Say: This paragraph has many descriptive words telling about a woman during
her lifetime. The word was signals descriptions in the paragraph. It sets up
sentences telling what kind of person the woman was and what kind of a reader
she was. Then, in the fourth sentence, I see the cause-and-effect signal word
cause. The author is explaining what happened when doctors looked for the
reason for the woman’s death. The text structure signal word cause helps me
understand the things that Alzheimer’s disease causes. Begin a text structures
signal words anchor chart, adding words from the modeling text.
Cause-and-Effect Signal Words
Descriptive Signal Words
- cause
- causes
- as a result
- because of
- by doing so
- if
- so
- age of ______
- also
- for instance
- in addition to
- nearly
- such as
- number words (such as in “billions of
‘superhighway’ connections”)
- such as
- three major things are ______
- was ______
Sample Text Structures Signal Words Anchor Chart
Practice Identifying Cause-and-Effect and Descriptive
Text Structures
Say: Now I’ll read another paragraph. Listen for words that show cause-andeffect and descriptive text structures. Read the last paragraph on page 23.
Students should notice the use of the word because and the phrase as a result
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Benchmark Writer’s Workshop • Grade 5 • Informational Reports • ©2012 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
Informational Reports
that signal a cause-and-effect text structure. They should identify the word
billions (a size word) as a description. Add words that students identify to the
chart.
Work with students to brainstorm other cause-and-effect and descriptive signal
words and add them to the chart. Post the chart in your classroom so students
can refer to it throughout the unit. Reread and clarify the meaning of unfamiliar
words and phrases.
2. Rehearse
Practice Using Cause-and-Effect and Descriptive
Text Structures in Oral Conversation
Turn and talk. Ask students to use cause-and-effect words to tell a partner
about a problem they have had recently. Remind students to consult the anchor
chart to remind them of words and phrases they can use.
If your class includes English learners or other students who need support, use
“Strategies to Support ELs.”
3. I ndependent Writing
and Conferring
Say: We learned that both cause-andeffect and descriptive text structures are
useful when writing informational reports.
By using signal words and phrases,
authors help their audiences understand
topics they write about. Remember to use
signal words and phrases when you write
your informational reports.
Ask students to consider possible causeand-effect relationships in one or more of
the report ideas they have brainstormed
and record them in a paragraph or twocolumn cause-and-effect chart.
4. Share
Share Ideas
Bring students together. Invite partners to retell using cause-and-effect and
descriptive signal words.
Bring students together. Invite volunteers
to share the cause-and-effect relationships
they identified in their topics.
Strategies to Support ELs
Beginning
Invite beginning ELs to draw pictures showing a cause-and-effect
relationship—for example, a child with wet hair on a rainy day.
Meet with students one on one during the independent writing and
conferring time and ask them to tell you about their illustration or
photograph. You may help students identify a cause and its effect
by pointing to specifics in their pictures and asking prompting
questions.
Idea Bank
Sentence Frames
- didn’t do homework
- didn’t eat breakfast
- forgot lunch
- had an argument with
sister/brother
- rainy day
- stubbed toe
Because it was ______, I ______.
I______, so ______.
If ______, then ______.
For example ______.
The ______ is very ______.
This shows ______ and also ______.
Intermediate and Advanced
All Levels
Provide the following idea bank and sentence frames on chart
paper to support ELs and struggling writers as they talk about their
problems using descriptive and cause-and-effect signal words.
Display photographs of issues people face daily using the interactive
whiteboard resources (or that you have gathered) to visually
support students’ discussion about their activities.
©2012 Benchmark Education Company, LLC • Benchmark Writer’s Workshop • Grade 5 • Informational Reports 15