Text Structure
Passage: "First, Captain Arsenio sketched his blueprint. Next, he collected old cloth and wood. Finally, he tied the pieces together to assemble his flying wings."
Question: What text structure is the author using in THIS example to show how the invention was built?
Chronological / Sequence
Clue words: First, Next, Finally
Passage: "Thomas Edison spent over 14 hours straight inside his laboratory, ignoring his dinner tray and refusing to go to sleep until the lightbulb filament finally stayed lit."
Question: What can you infer about Thomas Edison’s character traits based on his actions?
He is determined, hardworking, focused, or resilient
Passage: "If the workshop lightbulb is too dim to illuminate, or light up, the work table, it needs to be replaced immediately."
Question: What does the word illuminate mean based on the context clues in the sentence?
To light up.
Passage: "Because the heavy canvas wings added too much weight to the frame, the fragile contraption tipped forward and crashed straight into the mud."
Question: What text structure is used here, and what was the effect of the heavy canvas wings?
Cause and Effect; the effect was that the contraption tipped forward and crashed.
Passage: "As the crowd gathered around the newly invented flying machine, many people covered their mouths, stepped backward, and shook their heads doubtingly."
Question: What can you infer about how the crowd feels about the invention's chances of working?
They are skeptical, worried, or do not believe it will fly successfully
Passage: "The inventor's notebook was marked confidential, so it was locked in a private safe where no competitors could sneak a look at the secret designs."
Question: What does the word confidential mean? What clue words helped you?
Secret or private
Clue words: locked, private safe, no one could look
Passage: "Early pilots struggled to control their gliders in strong winds. To fix this, inventors created moveable flaps on the wings to help balance the aircraft."
Question: What specific text structure does an author use when they present an obstacle followed by a way it was resolved?
Problem and Solution
Passage: "After his machine plummeted from the cliff into the trees, the inventor climbed out of the wreckage, brushed the leaves off his coat, grinned, and immediately grabbed his pencil to change the wing design."
Question: Based on this passage, what inference can you make about how the inventor handles failure?
He doesn't give up easily / he views failure as a lesson to help improve his work.
Passage: "Instead of building the expensive full-sized machine right away, she constructed a small prototype to safely test whether her concepts worked in the real world."
Question: Using the sentence clues, what is a prototype?
A trial model, sample, or early test version of an invention.