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Strategies to Teach Informative Writing

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Develop a Yearlong Vision

Analyze mother-lode v. mini-units

Print additional copies of the K-12 Informative & Research Writing Standards | Common Core | Indiana | Ohio

Plan Essential Skills

Focus on the “trump” traits

Scaffold Writing Experiences

Redefine what counts as a writing product

Execute Dynamic Mini-Lessons

Introduce the writing modes

Tie the three major writing standards to the author’s purposes.

Communicate details in pictures

Picture writing provides opportunities for students to learn about communicating with details. Kids who draw with details will become kids who write with details.

Cultivate a questioning spirit

Generate questions on sticky notes.

A version of Tony Stead’s R.A.N Chart PDF | Word

Narrow the focus

Read from relevant sources

Track sources

Navigate the internet

List facts from visuals

Identify items in
a setting or habitat.

Note information learned
from nonfiction texts.

List observable facts from experiences

List observable details during an event or experience (e.g., visiting the outdoor science lab).

Recall information after an event or experience (e.g., photos from a guest speaker or field trip).

List facts measured by all the senses—sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste.

Provide multiple topics for students to list information based on observations and experiences.

Collect brief notes

Collect the important information and the interesting, too.

Use Boxes & Bullets to identify the key idea and its smaller facts and details.

List details in words and pictures.

Focus just on collecting information in a list.
Poster PDF| Google Slide | JamboardWord Smartboard

Express ideas in early sentences

Students customize their understandings by completing an Information Pyramid with no one right answer.

Define developed writing

Develop a single facet of a topic using color-coordinated sticky dots. See the “Spring” anchor papers.

Roz Linder’s book provides 46 different types of “leg” details to elaborate on “table top” topic sentences.

Quote it and note it

Lifting information, and especially expert opinions, requires explicit instruction.

Organize related information

Introduce consistent and flexible graphic organizers to use in all grade levels and all content areas.

3-Box:  PDF  | Jamboard
5-Box:  PDF  | Jamboard
9-Box:  PDF  | Jamboard

Web | PDF
Dissected Web | PDF
JamboardExample  |  Google Slide

T-Chart: PDF | Jamboard

Practice sorting details

Connect ideas with transitions

Review with students the function of a transition—to merge the reader from one idea to the next.

Craft strong introductions and conclusions

Purchase dry-erase puzzle pieces to introduce the ingredients in different mini-lessons.

Teach the reader with definition details

Whenever including a specific term or vocabulary word, insert an explanation or synonym for the reader.

Provide students with various phrases to include definition details in their writing.

A variety of punctuation marks can accompany definition details within a sentence.

Include descriptive comparisons.

Study Writing Samples

Informative

Informative

Informative

Informative

Informative

Informative

Redefine Research Products

1-Sentence-equivalent formats

List-equivalent formats

Paragraph-equivalent formats

1-Page-equivalent formats

Multi-Page equivalent formats

  • Consider a nontraditional research paper—the multigenre-research project.
  • Oral presentations of three or more minutes are an alternative to writing a long paper. For a biography unit, this might culminate with a Wax Museum.