Academic Reading for Students with Learning Disorders, SPUAJ001
Academic Reading for Students with Learning Disorders Unit 4: Structure of texts, paragraphs and their
arrangement, study skills. Teiresiás MU 2017. Supported by Fond rozvoje MU 2016. Intended solely for
classroom use and self-study.
Unit 4: Structure of texts
Structure of texts, paragraphs and their arrangement,
study skills
Structure of texts
The structure of a text is the way how the author organizes the
information in the text – text organization.
It helps readers understand texts, look for important topics and ideas, the
text structure also helps readers summarize the text – it can guide their
summarizing.
http://thisreadingmama.com/teaching-text-structure-to-readers/
1) Look at the structures of two texts (A and B). Respond to the tasks.
A) Which of them is more convenient to you if you think of the
structure or organization of the text? How did authors organize the
information?
B) Look at the poster where you can see most frequent text
structures used in not only academic texts.
Poster Informational Text Structures
2) Look at the poster, identify the differences in five text structures.
Remember the basic ways of reading (Unit 2)?
Skimming and scanning are two specific reading techniques.
Skimming is reading very quickly to get the general idea from a text (a
book, an article, a chapter, or a paragraph).
Scanning is reading quickly to find a piece of information – a specific
name, date, fact, or statistic without reading the entire article.
3) Text A
A) Skim the text A and try to express the key information of the
text.
What is it about? What should you remember? If you do not
understand some words or sentences what can help you?
Academic Reading for Students with Learning Disorders, SPUAJ001
Academic Reading for Students with Learning Disorders Unit 4: Structure of texts, paragraphs and their
arrangement, study skills. Teiresiás MU 2017. Supported by Fond rozvoje MU 2016. Intended solely for
classroom use and self-study.
B) Scan the text A and find the words below and underline them.
The first word has been underlined for you.
word reversals – presence - reading disability – poverty - by sight
- attempts to identify – deficit – comprehending
Do you understand them, do you know Czech equivalents?
Discuss them with other students. Read the parts of
statements where you found the words.
C) Read sentences 1 – 5 and complete them with appropriate
information from the text A.
1. Most people think that dyslexia is ____________________ .
2. In the early stages of learning, writing and reading letters and words
backwards are _____________________ .
3. The origin of dyslexia is ____________________ .
4. Two difficulties are shown by children with dyslexia
____________________ .
5. Readers with dyslexia have problems with word recognition because
____________________ .
4) Text B
1 Choose one part of the text and find out what kind of a text structure
(see above) is used. What words can help you decide?
2 Read your part again and find the key words in the part. After that use
those words in a short summary (one sentence is possible).