Your Literacy Standards Companion, Grades 6-8. Jim Burke

       6 Gist: Break down the text’s structure to see how one component—a sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section—helps develop the ideas in that text.Which component—a sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section—contributes most to the development of ideas in the text?How does this specific component help to develop the author’s ideas?

       7 Gist: Break down a text’s design, showing how the major sections (e.g., chapters, subsections) add to the text as a whole and develop its ideas.Which organizational approach (e.g., chapters, subsections) does the author use in this text?How does the author’s use of this structure contribute to the text as a whole and the development of its ideas?

       8 Gist: Break down the structure of a particular paragraph, examining in depth its design and how specific sentences enhance and clarify a main idea within that paragraph.What are the key structural elements in this paragraph that develop its ideas?Which sentence in this paragraph does most to develop and refine a key idea—and how does it do that?

       6 Gist: Break down the organizational approach to the text, examining how the main sections add to the meaning of the text as a whole and help the reader understand the subject discussed in the text.What organizational techniques or patterns does the author use in this text?How do this organizational approach and the main sections improve the text and the reader’s understanding of it?

       7 Gist: Break down the organizational approach to the text, examining how the main sections add to the meaning of the text as a whole and help the reader understand the subject discussed in the text.What organizational techniques or patterns does the author use in this text?How do this organizational approach and the main sections improve the text and the reader’s understanding of it?

       8 Gist: Break down the organizational approach to the text, examining how the main sections add to the meaning of the text as a whole and help the reader understand the subject discussed in the text.What organizational techniques or patterns does the author use in this text?How do this organizational approach and the main sections improve the text and the reader’s understanding of it?

       Have students determine the author’s purpose, audience, and occasion for a text; then ask them to identify how these factors influence the choices the author made about the text’s structure.

       Identify the organizational pattern or rhetorical mode of this text—compare–contrast, problem–solution, cause–effect, chronological, and so on—and then examine what additional choices the author makes and how these choices shape the meaning.

       Model for students how you determine the structure of a complex text and use that knowledge to better understand and analyze the text through close reading.