Narrative or Not? Identifying Text Types Activity is an engaging and hands-on resource designed to help students differentiate between a range of text types. With a focus on identifying narratives in contrast with other forms—including persuasive, informative and recount texts—this resource builds students’ confidence in analysing and classifying written content.

Featuring a fun animal theme and cut-and-paste format, this resource encourages students to read short text samples and determine their text type before sorting them into the correct category. Each worksheet presents a mix of examples so students can practise distinguishing narratives from one other specific form—perfect for guided reading sessions, literacy groups or whole-class explicit instruction.

Students will complete a sorting table by reading each passage and deciding whether it is a narrative or not. Each worksheet focuses on comparing narrative texts with one other type (persuasive, informative or recount), helping students deepen their understanding of structure, purpose and language features unique to each form. This clear and repetitive structure makes it easier for students to recognise patterns in texts, while building important comprehension and reasoning skills.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Identify and classify narrative texts compared to other text types
• ✅ Practise close reading and comprehension of short passages
• ✅ Understand key features and purposes of persuasive, informative and recount texts
• ✅ Develop reasoning and sorting skills through cut-and-paste activities

What’s Included:

• 3 animal-themed cut-and-paste worksheets comparing:
• Narrative vs. Persuasive
• Narrative vs. Informative
• Narrative vs. Recount
• Answer sheets for all three worksheets
• Available in Basic Fun Font and all Australian state fonts

Materials Needed:

• Printed worksheets
• Scissors and glue sticks
• Pencils or highlighters for annotation (optional)

How to Use:

• Introduce the four key text types: narrative, persuasive, informative and recount.
• Model how to identify features such as structure, language and purpose within short texts.
• Provide students with one worksheet at a time, depending on which comparison you are focusing on.
• Students read each short passage, decide on the text type, and paste it into the correct column.
• Use the provided answer sheets for peer marking or whole-class discussion.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during your writing unit as a foundation for genre exploration
• 💡 Incorporate into guided reading or literacy rotations
• 💡 Use as an assessment or pre-assessment of text type understanding
• 💡 Add to portfolios as evidence of comprehension and genre identification

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Discuss the ‘clues’ students can look for, such as language features or the purpose of each text
• 💛 Have students highlight or underline words that helped them make their decision
• 💛 Invite students to write their own short samples of each text type after sorting

Narrative or Not? Identifying Text Types Activity is a simple yet effective way to deepen students’ understanding of narrative and non-narrative forms. With a fun format and clear structure, this resource supports text type recognition in a meaningful and memorable way.