Informational text, according to the Common Core Standards, "Includes the subgenres of exposition, argument, and functional text in the form of personal essays, speeches, opinion pieces, essays about art or literature, biographies, memoirs, journalism, and historical, scientific, technical, or economic accounts (including digital sources) written for a broad audience." You may be reading any or all types of these texts when studying informational text. The big three, however, are:
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Newsela
To practice working with Informational Text, we will be asking you to read articles from Newsela, a specially designed current events site for students. In most cases, you will read the article of your choice, but occasionally you will be assigned an article. This will be an assignment for most weeks of the school calendar. You may investigate the site by clicking the button below.
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Central Idea and Supporting Detail
Identifying the central idea of any text is definitely one of the most important skills in reading. The central idea is the POINT of the entire work, and the main idea that the writer was trying to get across to you. However, be aware there are two types of central ideas:
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Text Structures
As there are many ways of thinking, there are many ways to organize text. We will concentrate on the MAJOR types of text organization, but be aware, each writer will organize their own words in their own way.
The major types of text structure are:
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