The description text structure is all about helping readers visualize a topic. Descriptive texts focus on what something is like, with details that highlight features, characteristics, traits, or qualities. This structure is used in nonfiction topics like animals, locations, historical figures, and scientific concepts. It helps kids pay attention to key details, specific vocabulary, and how information is grouped.
Description is a foundational structure. It’s used when kids take notes and sort details under a central topic. When they summarize a passage, they’re deciding which characteristics matter most and which can be left out. When they write long reports or short responses, or give oral explanations (from animal adaptations to historical figures to math concepts), they’re usually organizing information by what something is like. This improves comprehension by helping kids notice details, recognize how information is grouped, and connect those details back to a clear main idea.
Free Resources for Description Text Structure
Below you’ll find a collection of free description text structure resources, including:
- Overviews that explain description in plain language
- Worksheets and activities for identifying descriptive details, keywords, and main ideas
- Free passages and readers that clearly show the description structure in action
Use them to introduce the structure, reinforce it, or simply give learners more exposure to well-written descriptive text.
Description Online Lesson: Starts with a slideshow that outlines the steps to determining the text structure being used, and how to use a graphic organizer to write a brief summary of a text. After reading the slideshow, scroll down and click “next” through the pages to access the informational paragraphs and texts used for this lesson, as well as instructions on finding the topic, details, and writing a summary. The topics of the informational texts used include sharks, Amelia Earhart, the Wright Brothers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jackie Robinson.
Scholastic News Articles: These free resources include a lesson plan, slideshow or video, and printable worksheets with comprehension questions and writing activity. A printable answer key is also provided. For the description text structure, check out these articles on the Colosseum, and the Great Pyramid.
Here are some books and graphic organizers for studying the Description text structure.
| Free Readers | Graphic Organizers | Books on Amazon (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) |
|---|---|---|
| Blizzard Erie Canal | Descriptive Text Organizer: with examples Informational Text Analysis Worksheet: can be used with any text structure | Moon! Earth’s Best Friend: uses vivid details and fun illustrations to describe the moon’s characteristics and its place in the solar system National Parks of the USA: provides vivid descriptive text about different parks, highlighting their unique features and ecosystems |
For free resources that support all text structures, head back to the main text structure post, which serves as the hub for this series.
