(Soft music and ambient ocean waves play throughout)
Image description: The title “Analyzing Text Structure” appears over an illustration of a beach scene.
Narration: Text structure is the organization of ideas and details and the relationship between ideas.
Image description: The term “Text Structure” appears with two bullet points stating “organization of ideas and details” and “relationship between ideas.”
Narration: When you read the text, did you recognize any clues that could help you identify the text structure?
Image description: The question, “Did you recognize any clues?” appears on screen.
Narration: Let's examine the text closely to identify the organizational pattern and relationship between ideas.
Image description: A graphic organizer appears showing the term “Text Structure” in a bubble at the top with arrows pointing to bubbles that include the terms “organizational pattern” and “relationship between ideas.” Next, a passage appears and then fades out except for the first sentence, "Surfers consult tide tables as often as they consult weather and wave predictions."
Narration: The first sentence reads, "Surfers consult tide tables as often as they consult weather and wave predictions."
Image description: The sentence slides off the screen as the scene changes to an animation of a person surfing. The term “tide tables” appears on screen.
Narration: Why would tide tables be important to surfers? Let's examine the next sentence to see how this idea develops.
Image description: The scene changes as the previous passage appears and then fades out as the term “tide tables” and the sentence "While predicting tides may be more systematic than predicting wave heights, knowing the tide's effect on the waves is another matter” are highlighted.
Narration: The second sentence reads, "While predicting tides may be more systematic than predicting wave heights, knowing the tide's effect on the waves is another matter." So, surfers must look to tides tables because tides affect waves.
Image description: An arrow points from the term “tide tables” to the phrase “the tides effect on the waves” in the highlighted sentence.
Narration: Let's think about how this sentence also reveals a clue about the text structure. The word "effect" is a signal word for cause- and-effect relationships.
Image description: The word “effect” is highlighted in the sentence, and the words “cause-and-effect relationship” appear onscreen.
Narration: The third sentence reads, "There are no rules, except one: You have to know something about your beach to know how it will be affected by the tides."
Image description: The previous sentences fades out except the words “tide tables” and “the tides effect on the waves” remain highlighted onscreen as a new sentence fades in. The new sentence reads, "There are no rules, except one: You have to know something about your beach to know how it will be affected by the tides."
Narration: Again the author is using a cause-and-effect structure to reinforce the idea that waves are affected by the tides. He also introduces the idea that there is another variable that affects tides when he writes, "you have to know something about your beach."
Image description: The phrase “affected by the tides” is highlighted in the sentence. Then the phrase “you have to know something about your beach” is highlighted.
Narration: Let's see how this idea develops.
Image description: The previous sentence fades out, except for the highlighted text, and the next paragraph in the passage appears. The paragraph fades out except for the sentence that reads,
“The depth of the water over the break changes with the tides: The water is deeper when the tide is high, shallower when it's low.”
Narration: The next paragraph discusses the "break" of a beach. The author writes, "The depth of the water over the break changes with the tides: The water is deeper when the tide is high, shallower when it's low." This sentence indicates that the depth of the water is also affected by the tides. The higher the tide, the deeper the water.
Image description: The phrases “the tide is high” and “the water is deeper” are highlighted in the sentence.
Narration: The cause-and-effect structure continues to develop here.
Image description: The words “cause-and-effect structure” appear on screen as the sentences fades out, except for the highlighted phrases. The next sentence appears onscreen and reads, "At some point in the tide cycle, the water will be at its best depth for making good surfing waves."
Narration: The next sentence reads, "At some point in the tide cycle, the water will be at its best depth for making good surfing waves." So, deep water, caused by high tides over the beach's break, creates good surfing waves.
Image description: The words “best depth” and “good surfing waves” are highlighted in the sentence. The sentence then fades out except for the highlighted words and phrases. The next sentence in the paragraph appears and reads, "The bottom line is that tide affects surf, but in order to make the most of it, you need to know your beach."
Narration: The final sentence reads, "The bottom line is that tide affects surf, but in order to make the most of it, you need to know your beach." Again, the author uses a signal word, "affects," to reinforce the cause-and-effect relationship.
Image description: The word “affects” is highlighted, followed by the words “tide” and “surf.” Then the full passage reappears with all of the previously highlighted sentences and highlighted words and phrases.
Narration: As you have seen, each key idea in the excerpt builds on the previous idea by illustrating a cause-and-effect relationship to help readers understand the effects of tides.
Image description: The passage fades out and the beach scene from the opening screen reappears.
Narration: Recognizing text structure will help you to understand the author's purpose and analyze the relationship among the key ideas and details in the text.
Image description: The words “Cause: tides” and “Effect: waves” appear on screen in a box. Next, an arrow pointing from this box to another box that includes the words “Cause: Higher Tides” and “Effect: Deeper Water” appears. Finally, an arrow from the second box points to a third box that includes the words “Cause: Deep Water” and “Effect: Good Surfing Waves” appears. These boxes disappear to reveal the beach scene.