1. Expository Text Structure
Mini Lesson #3

2. Connection
We have learned how to analyze a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas in a story, drama, and/or poem to explain how they fit together to provide the overall structure of the text.
Understanding this structure helped us to interpret a theme in the text.
Non-fiction literature always contains a theme, which is essentially a lesson or moral explained and expanded upon by the plot.
The theme conveys a message about social life in general, the nature of human beings or the nature of one of the components of society. On of the most common literary themes is the struggle of man against nature, where human beings battle the natural elements or occurrences, such as death, storms or diseases.

3. Several very common themes, such as "crime does not pay," how to overcome adversity and how sacrifices bring reward, lean heavily upon the moral, just and good in human nature.
Such themes tend to teach lessons of a positive nature and emphasize that through difficult decision-making and perseverance, one may experience rewarding outcomes.
Themes focusing upon friendship, family and life's journey, such as the sacrifice one must endure to maintain true friendship, the importance of family and the Ying-Yang theory reinforce love and respect and the difficult path that is life itself.
These types of themes also convey lessons, teaching the "Golden Rule," the importance and strength of family and the delicate balance of life itself.

4. Stories of the worthiness of true love, or "love conquers all," appeal to the romantic side that is in all of us and signals the importance of love in human existence.
In contrast, the death theme as an inherent ending to life, conveys the inevitable and unavoidable conclusion to life that one wishes to neglect.
The final common theme, that all human beings have the same basic needs, is one that challenges societal mores, explaining that all people need similar basic emotional connections to survive.
In literature, as in life, there are many common themes, some of which teach and some of which explain the nuances of humanity and human society.

5. Teaching Point
Today we will read a section from a narrative-nonfiction text and identify the text structure used to organize the information.
Then we will think about what themes we can identify based on the ideas presented.
Before we begin reading today, let’s review the different types of text structure: chronology/sequential, cause/effect, problem/solution, comparison, description.

6. Today we are going to read a section from the book A True Patriot by Barry Denenberg to learn about how William Thomas Emerson copes with the loss of his family.
As I read think about what type of text structure the author used to organize the ideas presented.
It may be helpful to use the questions on the Text Structure Organizer Chart as a guide for thinking about what type of information the text provides.

8. What structure did Barry Denenberg use to organize the information in this text?
How did you determine this?
Cause and Effect: Cause: Storm had been brewing all day, thunder was rolling in and rattling the roof, lightning crackled so loud and hard, plates melted to the table. Effect: The family was gone.
Description: I was ten, birthday, Mr. Heath took me for awhile, brought up right, Marshes took me, take care of me, they didn’t have any children of their own.
Problem/Solution: Problem: Mr. Marsh wasn’t a kind person towards Mrs. Marsh/William. Solution: William ran away.

9. What’s the Theme?
The author devoted this section to explaining/describing what happened to William before and after his family perished in a fire.
Based on this knowledge, what do you think the author wants us to learn?
What theme is prevalent?
Theme: Among the loss of death and the destruction of death, we always find some support/comfort.
We can use the structure of a text as a means to help us identify themes and lessons in texts.

10. Link
As you read expository texts, think about the structure of the text.
How did the author organize the information?
What was the author’s purpose for doing so?
What did he/she want me to learn or understand?