Teaching Explanatory/Informative Writing

School is just around the corner! I'm experimenting with some new explanatory/informative charts. I'm going to color code the necessary parts of the Intro Paragraph to help my 4th graders write their own explanatory intro paragraphs. 

I'm starting with this chart and labeling the Hook, Background Information, and Topic Sentence. I'll be doing a mini-lesson on all 3 of these components.

Next, I'll model how to write a hook, relevant background info about my topic, and a topic sentence. I'll spend the majority of my time discussing the topic sentence since this will guide me with my body paragraphs (and research!). Kids need to understand what a crucial element of the essay the topic sentence will be. My Intro poster will look something like this: 

I'll hang up both posters side-by-side for a nice visual to help my students out.
Note: The Hook is underlined in pink! The Background Information is underlined in yellow! Lastly, the Topic Sentence is underlined in green. I will have my own students do this to their rough draft intro paragraphs as well.

At this point in the process, I plan to do writing conferences with my students. I want to personally approve each topic BEFORE kids try to do any research... sometimes, students have unrealistic expectations of topics they can research or they lack focus. I talk a lot about having 3 key ideas they want to focus their research on and turn into their 3 body paragraphs.

If you're looking for a good FREEBIE lesson, check out my Hook Lesson on TpT

If you need a good Common Core Explanatory/Informative lesson, I sell a monument lesson on TpT.

I also have a bunch of grade-specific Common Core Writing Bundles for all 3 writing genres. You can click here to see my 5th grade writing bundle. 

It's summer! Time to revamp my lessons for the upcoming year! I love feeling refreshed with some time off because it gives me some clarity to get the creative ideas flowing. 

In August, I cannot wait to try this with my new group of students:

As soon as we begin our read-aloud (Day One), I want my students to be critically thinking about what we read. I hope to turn my 4th graders into curious thinkers who question everything. For instance, I want them to question the main character in the book. What are your motives? Why did you do (x, y, or z)? Why did you respond to the antagonist by saying that? How are you feeling about the conflict in the story? 

First, I want my students to generate 1 good question for the protagonist. They will write these on sticky notes. I'll have them come up one by one and put them onto my chart. I'll have the class gather on the carpet to share aloud some of their great questions.  

Next, students will pretend to be the protagonist as they respond. They will respond to the same question they each asked, using the POV of the character. I love that this encourages students to infer as they're reading by making educated guesses. 

Here is a sample question a student wrote to Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins. Below, you can see Karana's response. 

 

Keeping Kids Awake while Teaching Math... My Latest Trick Works!!!

How do you keep your kids engaged when doing Common Core math review? I like to turn their problems into a walking and learning activity... 

On a chart paper, I write the review problems (fairly large, for viewing purposes).

Next, I cut the problems up into individual questions. Then, I walk around the room and tape them in various locations. Sometimes I post them on the inside of the door, windows, the white board, on my teacher desk, etc! 

Kids get to walk around the room with clipboards and solve each problem individually (or in pairs). During this activity, I pull a small group of struggling students so they get the hands-on review they need. I ask kids to spread around the room and start at number 4 or whatever so everyone is not congregating around the same problem.

My class LOVES it and begs for "Clipboard Math" now...

Try it out! :) 

I've been teaching the Common Core Explanatory/Informative Writing Genre... and learning about the art of teaching students to write good research reports without PLAGIARIZING!!

How are you teaching explanatory/informative writing?

Have you noticed students struggle to take notes from their various sources? My 4th graders are using many great websites, books, and encyclopedias for their reports. However, some students are borrowing more than 3 words in a row... I keep reminding them this is not allowed (unless they're using a direct qutoe).

We did the following activity: Each group of 4 students had to rewrite 2 sentences I pulled directly from our science textbook. They could use a thesaurus to help them! All my kids were SO engaged during the lesson and many even came to realize they had accidentally been plagiarizing their reports.

This next week, we'll be revising our research reports by taking out any plagiarized sections!

If you need a Common Core informative/explanatory lesson, check out my monument lesson from TpT.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/InformativeExplanatory-Common-Core-Writing-Lesson-1125643

Back Up and Running... Here Are Some Fraction Word Problem Strategies

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile since I blogged. It's time to get back at it! I've learned so much about the Common Core standards in the past year or two. It's been a really rich learning experience for me. My fourth graders have become quite proficient mathematicians with the CCSS standards. I just LOVE how their number sense has improved drastically...

Check out some of my student work below. Here they are showing off multiple strategies for solving fraction word problems.

The problem asked them,"If a boy ate 3/4 cups of blueberries each day for 2 days in a row, how much did he have total?" As you can see, my student rounded 3/4 down to 2/4 to solve it (he used relational thinking). Then he rounded up to 4/4 to solve it. He then added or subtracted by the correct amount to get his answer. This was a very unique method to solving the problem. Most kids did 3/4 x 2 or they did 3/4 + 3/4. I was impressed with Zach's critical thinking.

Another problem asked kids, "If he enjoyed 3/4 cups of blueberries for 9 days total, how much did he have in all?" As you can see, the first child did both multiplication and a number line strategy to solve this. The second student multiplied 3/4 by 8 and then added on the extra 3/4s. He also did repeated of addition of 3/4 for 9 times until he found his solution. I love the variety of strategies!

Here is what my bulletin board looks like now! We're showing off a variety of strategies for the 2 problems from above. The kids enjoy learning from one another. They know they're allowed to go up and un-pin another student's work for the day (as long as they replace it later) and try using another student's method to solving a fraction word problem. It's a very neat interactive bulletin board.