Teaching nonfiction text structures doesn’t have to be boring. Try this jigsaw + anchor chart sequence centered on sweets to boost engagement and comprehension.
If you’re getting ready to teach nonfiction text structures, you already know the challenge: the skill matters, but the lessons can feel dry. That’s why I started using a jigsaw routine that pairs text structure work with candy-themed informational passages – something middle schoolers are always crazy about! If you’re about to teach nonfiction text structures, here’s how you can run it in your classroom and spark engagement with your students, too!
Step #1: Briefly Review the Purpose of Nonfiction Text Structures
Start with a quick mini-lesson where you introduce students to the purpose of nonfiction text structures and why they matter.
I like to teach Author’s Purpose before teaching text structures, because structure usually follows purpose. I tell my students:
“Nonfiction writers organize their ideas in a logical way that best communicates their purpose for writing.“
As readers, our job is to figure out the big ideas and pay attention to how the author develops them.
Then we go over five of the most common nonfiction text structures and note signal words for each:
- Description/List: The text resembles an outline. It opens with the main idea and then elaborates on it.
- Cause/Effect: The author tells what happened and reasons why it may have happened.
- Compare/Contrast: The author tells the similarities and differences between multiple things.
- Chronological: The text follows the order in which events occurred or the steps in a process.
- Problem/Solution: The author brings to light an issue that needs awareness and proposes some possible solutions.
Once students have the basics, I place them in groups of 4-5 for a multi-sensory jigsaw activity—my favorite way to teach this skill.
Step #2: Make it Sweet with a Jigsaw Read
Here’s where it gets fun. When you’re teaching a skill that can feel a little dry on its own, it helps to lean into a theme students already care about.
For me, teaching nonfiction typically lands in the calendar stretch between Halloween and Christmas. You know what middle schoolers are already thinking about during that time? Candy. And lots of it.
So instead of fighting that energy, you can use it. Pairing candy-themed informational texts with a jigsaw routine gives students something familiar to connect to while still keeping the focus on the skill. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?
Here’s how it works:
Split students into groups of five, and assign each student in the group a different article:
- The History of Candy
- How Gummy Candy is Made
- Candy: Sweet and Sour
- How Much Sugar is Too Much?
- Expensive Taste
Next, students meet in “expert groups” with classmates who have the same article. Their job is to read the text, determine the text structure, and complete the matching graphic organizer.
And, because multisensory learning has such a positive impact on neural activity in the brain, you might provide each group with a couple of sugary items mentioned in the passage (i.e., chocolates, licorice, gummy worms, Nerds, Warheads, Starbursts, and sugar cubes). A small amount is enough to create novelty and build engagement without sending them into a sugar overload!
After expert groups finish their article + graphic organizer, students reassemble into their original groups. Each student shares their graphic organizer and teaches their assigned text: Which structure is it? How do you know? What clues in the organization (and signal words) give it away?
By the end, every group has worked through all five structures, without you having to lead five separate whole-class lessons.
Step #3: Create Nonfiction Text Structure Anchor Charts
To wrap it up, have each group combine their completed graphic organizers into one “all-in-one” anchor chart. This step is quick but packs a punch because it helps students see all five nonfiction text structures side by side and reinforces what makes each one distinct.
Give each group a large piece of butcher paper. Have students glue down their organizers, label each structure, and add or highlight one a few signal words.
As a bonus, choose a few to display in the room or hallway. That turns these student-created anchor charts into an ongoing reference students can use throughout your nonfiction unit!
If you’d like to grab the articles, graphic organizers, and the targeted question sets for text structures mentioned above, check them out here.
Other Ways to Run This Lesson
Not a fan of jigsaw reading? No problem. You can stretch this lesson out over five days. Each day, feature one article/text structure and work together to identify and analyze how the author organized the information.
Another option is to set up all five articles as stations and let students move through them at their own pace. If you go that route, it helps to place quick reminders at each station (the different text structures + a few common signal words) so students stay focused on the skill.
Whether you’re teaching near Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, or Easter, there are plenty of natural opportunities to connect the reading to sweet treats in a simple way. And if food isn’t an option (or you’d rather not spend the money), the mini-unit’s topic is enough to engage most learners!
This was such a fun way to increase student excitement and participation in my classroom, and I hope it does the same for you.
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