Experience Nonfiction

When students have opportunities to think deeply about the content in informational sources, their worlds expand. This type of learning is wondrous to observe and vital to support. Explore this site to learn more about instruction that supports this kind of learning and to learn more about Dr. Sunday Cummins and her work as an educational consultant, author and researcher.

What, Why & How: A Sample Text Structure Lesson (Part 3)

April 7, 2025

In Part 3 of this series, I describe a three-phase lesson I gave on identifying text structures. I share lots instructional artifact photos!

What, Why & How: A Useful Analogy for Introducing Text Structure(s) (Part 2)

March 24, 2025

Ever hunt for the perfect texts to teach “text structure” and end up just banging your head against the wall? It’s because texts are more complex than five simple structures, right? In this blog entry I describe an analogy I’ve started using with students to move us beyond this problem.

What, Why & How: Easy Steps for Teaching Text Structure in a Powerful Way (Part 1)

March 17, 2025

Identifying a text’s structure(s) can play a powerful role in comprehension. Knowing the five types of structures is not enough, though. Over several lessons and across time, we have to continually weave in discussions about the what, the why, the how. In part 1 of this series, I share the tools for teaching students to identify a text’s structure in a way that leads to understanding the main ideas in a source.

District Instructional Coordinator, North Kansas City Schools

Nuturing Informed Thinking book by Sunday Cummins

Practical help for teaching students in grades 3-8 to read, talk, and write across informational sources.

Close Reading of Informational Sources book by Sunday Cummins

Introduces a three-phase plan for teaching and provides guidance for planning and assessing students’ comprehension of informational sources.

Unpacking Complexity in Informational Texts book by Sunday Cummins

Explains the ways in which a text’s purpose, structure, details, connective language and construction of themes combine to create meaning.

Experience Nonfiction

Recent Blog Posts from Sunday

What, Why & How: A Sample Text Structure Lesson (Part 3)

What, Why & How: A Useful Analogy for Introducing Text Structure(s) (Part 2)

What, Why & How: Easy Steps for Teaching Text Structure in a Powerful Way (Part 1)

What Others Are Saying About Sunday and Her Work

Dr. Lisa Friesen

District Instructional Coordinator, North Kansas City Schools

Professional Books Authored by Sunday