Craft & Structure Questions and Tasks

1. Close Reading or
Text Dependent Questions
for Craft and Structure
This work by Tracy Watanabe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2. Craft & Structure: Goals
Standard 4: The author uses specific words and phrases in text
to shape the meaning.
Analyze how those specific word choices/phrases shape the
meaning or tone.

3. Craft & Structure: Goals
Standard 5: The author purposefully structures the text to
build meaning -- including sentences, paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza).
Analyze how those structures relate to each other and the
whole.

4. Craft & Structure: Goals
Standard 6: The content and style of the text reveals what the
author’s purpose is or why he/she chose a specific point of
view.
Analyze how point of view or purpose shapes the content and
style of a text.

5. Craft & Structure: Big Idea
What did you notice about the three goals of Craft &
Structure?
What will students need to do in order to fulfill those goals?
(What verb?)

6. Craft & Structure: Analyze
Analyze the word choice
(#4), text features (#5),
point of view (#6), and
purpose (#6) to decide why
the author did it that way,
and what the effects are.

7. What does student analysis
of Craft & Structure look/
sound like?

8. If students need to analyze
Craft & Structure, then what
types of questions and tasks do
we need to give them?

9. In close reading, students answer
text dependent questions on
Craft & Structure, and should
have a culminating writing task.

10. Standard #4
Example ?
Standard 4: The author uses
What is the meaning of the
specific words and phrases
word “______” in the
in text to shape the
second paragraph?
meaning.
Which sentence helps you
Analyze how those specific
understand how Jeff
word choices/phrases
looked?
shape the meaning or tone.
Which word means it’s
visible from the earth’s
surface?

11. Standard #5
Standard 5: The author
purposefully structures the
text to build meaning -including sentences,
paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a
section, chapter, scene, or stanza).
Analyze how those structures
relate to each other and the
whole.
Example ?
Which best describes how
the third paragraph was
organized?
(a) problem and solution
(b) cause and effect
(c) definition and description
(d) compare and contrast
What is the purpose of the
first paragraph?
Where would you place the
sentence on the story map?
Beginning
Middle
Ending

12. Standard #6
Standard 6: The content
and style of the text reveals
what the author’s purpose is
or why he/she chose a
specific point of view.
Analyze how point of view
or purpose shapes the
content and style of a text.
Example ?
What point of view is the
story written? Why?
Which quotation shows
that the narrator is deeply
affected by his decision?
Why does the author use
the word “______” to
describe the issue?
Why did the author write
the text?

13. Culminating Writing Task
The text dependent questions should scaffold the students
toward successfully completing the culminating writing task.
This task should relate to the key ideas of the text.
Example: “Officer Buckle’s final safety tip is ‘Always stick with
your buddy.’ How did he and Gloria each learn this lesson for
themselves throughout the story?
Scaffold Option: T-chart for each point of view and
evidence from the text.
achievethecore.org

14. Other Culminating Tasks:
Digital Storytelling
Note: The writing task can be “outside the box” (eg digital storytelling)
Sample Task: Be a literary or historical character sharing a
defining moment when you made a choice that changed the
story or world forever.
Standards involved in this task:
Several reading standards, including Craft and Structure
Several writing standards to write the storyboard
Several speaking and listening standards

15. Your turn:
Create Craft & Structure
questions and tasks for an
upcoming reading lesson.

16. What can we do in the future
to make sure students engage
in Craft & Structure questions
and tasks?