5 ways to practice text structure, one download. In this post, we’re giving you 5 different game options you can play with our FREE Text Structure Mini-Game.
I don’t know about you, but I love to get a lot of bang for my buck when it comes to educational printables. I hate when I can only use activities one time. It makes me feel wasteful.
That is why I love finding creative, clever ways to reuse resources I’ve downloaded and taken the time to print.
This Text Structure Mini-Game is so easy to use over and over. I strongly recommend printing the game and laminating the pieces, as well as several copies of the recording sheet.
Grab your FREE Text Structure Mini-Game below!
5 Ways to Practice Text Structure
Once you’ve made a plan to practice text structure using the game and you’ve printed and laminated your Text Structure Mini-Game pieces, pick 5 times throughout the year that you will revisit this game. Each time you revisit it, pick a different one of the options below to keep the structure fresh, even though the content is a review!
#1| Use the Game As Written
We’ve included instructions for the Text Structure Mini-Game in the resource itself. The first time you use it, simply play the game as written. This works really well for a pre-assessment.
#2 | Full Class Game
Break students into 5 groups. Project the game board onto the front board, and use some kind of token or magnet to keep track of where students are on the board.
Call on a student from each group to roll a large dice. Move their token that many spaces and read the corresponding passage. The students from that group can work together to figure out what type of text structure is represented in the passage. Once they have an answer, they will present it. If they are correct, they will stay where they are on the board; if they’re wrong, they will go back to their previous position.
Continue going from group to group until a group reaches the end.
#3 | Around the World (or Classroom)
Give each student a passage and a recording sheet. Put 1 minute on the clock.
Students have 1 minute to read their passage and write down the type of text structure represented by the passage on their recording sheet. After the minute is up, they will pass their passage to the person on their right and receive a new one from the person on their left. Set the timer and repeat until each student has worked with every passage!
This is a great activity for a summative assessment of this skill.
#4 | Line-by-Line Text Structure Mastery Game
This game is simple. Reveal one line of one passage to the class. From that line, students will guess the type of text structure. On their recording sheet, they will write down the type of text structure and the # of lines they need to figure it out. No matter what, continue to read the other lines of the passage. Students can change their answers as they hear more lines.
After the entire passage is read, ask students to reveal their answers. Then ask the students who figured it out in the fewest number of lines to explain what they saw that made them think their answer was correct.
This activity will help students look for identifying terms, types of writing, and hints that help them to identify the text structure as soon as possible upon reading a text.
#5 | Snow Ball Fight
Important: This works better if the passages are on regular paper rather than laminated.
First, set a game clock. This clock will be about 10-15 minutes. Start the game clock when students begin reading their first passage.
Give every student a passage. Students will read the passage and write down what kind of text structure it is on their recording sheet. Then, they will flip their board over and stand up. Once they’re standing, they should crumple up their papers into “snowballs.”
At the count of 3, all students should throw their snowballs. They will continue to pick up and throw their snowballs until the teacher tells them to stop. At that point, they will need to pick up the nearest snowball to them.
After finding their new snowball, students will open up the passage and record the text structure on their recording sheet.
Here’s the catch. If students get a passage they’ve already had previously, they are out of the game. You’ll keep playing the game until your game clock runs out, and the students left standing will get a prize of some kind.
This Text Structure Mini-Game Freebie offers so many different ways to practice text structure, and hopefully, these 5 games you can use to practice text structure will give you plenty of motivation to download this free resource and start using it right away. The sooner you play your first game with it, the sooner you can play the next one.
We hope you love all of these fun game variations. Let us know which one is your favorite!
Check out even more text structure review games in this post!
