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Common Core ELA4th GradeReading: Informational

RI.4.5: Describe How a Text Is Organized

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.5 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

All 43 4th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.4.5 Means in Plain English

Fourth graders step back from the facts and say how a whole text, or one section, is built: time order, comparison, cause and effect, or problem and solution. An article on Dutch flood walls is problem and solution, even with a date in the middle.

Third grade (RI.3.5) used text features and search tools, like key words and sidebars, to find information fast. Fourth grade looks at how the whole text is organized. Fifth grade (RI.5.5) compares the structures of two or more texts on one topic.

RI.4.5 I Can Statements

  • I can tell how a whole text is organized.
  • I can find the signal words that show a text’s structure.
  • I can tell the overall structure from a smaller part inside it.

RI.4.5 Worked Example

The passage holds a date and a cause, but its overall structure is a problem and its solutions, and the weak answer stops at the date.

Read the Story
About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level. Without protection, the North Sea would pour over much of the country during big storms.For hundreds of years, the Dutch have held back the sea with dikes, long walls of packed earth and stone built along the coast and the rivers.Even behind the dikes, rain and seeping water collect on the low land. Windmills once pumped that water up into canals that carried it away to the sea. Today, electric pumps do the same job.In 1953, a huge storm broke through the dikes and flooded the southwest of the country. To keep it from happening again, the Dutch built the Delta Works, a chain of dams and giant gates that close when a storm pushes the sea too high.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How is this passage organized as a whole? Which words show it?
Not Yet“It’s in time order, because it has hundreds of years ago, today and 1953.”The passage does have dates, but they are not even in order, and they are not what holds it together. The answer names a feature of one paragraph, not the shape of the whole text.
Meets the Standard“It is a problem and its solutions. The first paragraph gives the problem: much of the land is below sea level, so the sea would flood it. Each paragraph after that gives a solution: dikes, then pumps for the water that collects behind them, then the Delta Works. Even the 1953 storm is there to show why one more solution was needed: ‘To keep it from happening again.’”The student names one structure for the whole passage, checks it against every paragraph and shows how the date fits inside it instead of running it.
Question Stems to Use
What problem does the first paragraph set up?Does every paragraph fit the structure you named?Which words signal that structure? Circle them.Is that the structure of the whole text, or of one part?If you drew this text as a diagram, what would it look like?

Common Mistakes with RI.4.5

Naming the structure of one part

“Cause and effect, because the storm broke the dikes.”

Try this: Have students write one word in the margin beside every paragraph, then choose the structure that fits all of them.

Calling any text with dates time order

“It’s chronological because it says 1953.”

Try this: Ask students to put the events on a timeline. If they are out of order, or not the point, look for another structure.

Naming the structure without proof

“Problem and solution.” and nothing else

Try this: Require two pieces of proof with every structure: the paragraph that sets it up and the signal words that carry it.

Where RI.4.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.3.5Use text features and search tools, such as key words and sidebars, to find information quickly.RI.3.8Describe how particular sentences and paragraphs connect, such as by comparison or cause and effect.
AlongsideRI.4.3Explain events and procedures in a history or science text, including what happened and why.W.4.2Write to inform, grouping related information in paragraphs and sections.
Comes NextRI.5.5Compare and contrast the overall structures of two or more texts on the same topic.

Practice RI.4.5

Quick Check

  1. What problem does the first paragraph describe?
  2. Name two solutions the passage describes.
  3. Why is the 1953 storm in the passage if the text is not in time order?

RI.4.5: Other Names

RI.4.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.5

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.