Frame

Parallel-bar frames match compare-contrast passages. Staircase frames match sequence passages. Funnel frames match cause-effect passages. Broken-fixed frames match problem-solution passages. Expanding frames match description passages. Frame demonstrates by building the appropriate frame for each passage and holding it up to show the structural shape.

Frame grew up in a beaver-family of dam-builders. Her parents had built actual dams in the kingdom's small rivers. Frame had learned, by age six, that dams have specific structures. Some are straight-bar dams (a single long structure across a narrow river). Some are staircase dams (multiple small stepped dams down a slope). Some are V-shaped dams (focused flow toward a central spillway). The structure of a dam determined how it worked. Frame had grown up thinking of structures as having intrinsic shapes.

She had applied this to passages at thirteen. Her village schoolteacher had said: "Some passages are organized as compare-contrast. Some as sequence. Some as cause-effect. Some as problem-solution. Some as description. Knowing the structure helps you read." Frame had said: "Like dams. Each dam has a shape. Each shape does something specific. Passages must work the same way." The teacher had been delighted.

Frame had walked to the ReadQuest academy at nineteen. She has been the academy's text-structure teacher for eleven years.

In her classroom, she begins every first-day lesson the same way. She has, on her workbench, one of each kind of frame. She says: "I am Frame. I build wooden frames in different shapes. Each shape matches a text structure. Watch."

She picks up the parallel-bar frame. She says: "Compare-contrast structure. Two things are placed side by side. Their similarities and differences are listed in parallel. The parallel-bar frame matches this structure visually — two parallel pieces with cross-supports between."

She picks up the staircase frame. She says: "Sequence structure. Events are listed in order — first, then, next, finally. Each event builds on the previous. The staircase frame matches — stepped rising pieces."

She picks up the funnel frame. She says: "Cause-effect structure. Multiple causes converge toward a single effect (or a single cause produces multiple effects). The funnel matches — wide at the input, narrow at the output."

She picks up the broken-fixed frame. She says: "Problem-solution structure. A problem is presented. A solution is then proposed. The broken-fixed frame matches — a damaged piece visibly repaired."

She picks up the expanding frame. She says: "Description structure. A central subject is presented and then described from multiple angles. The expanding frame matches — a small center growing outward in all directions."

The students always — always — find the frame-and-structure pairing clarifying. They had often read passages without recognizing their structural pattern. Frame makes the patterns visible. They learn to identify the frame-shape of each passage they read. The identification helps them anticipate the passage's content and integrate it.