Short On Time (And Energy) To Plan an Informational Report Writing Unit for Your Class?
When it comes to teaching informational writing, there is so much we want (and need) to teach our students. However, we cannot focus on all of it all at once or we will cause our students to hate writing.
I have broken these units down into easy to implement lesson plans and have included all of the materials you need.
Each Informational Report Writing Unit (Grades 2-5) has 12 lessons. The lessons can be implemented at an easy pace—spread out over four weeks, or can be condensed to be taught in a shorter time period.
Since there are twelve informational writing lessons, you have time to build in any of your own mini lessons you feel your class needs. (For instance, if you see your students are struggling with a particular skill, such as capitalizing proper nouns, you can spend a day practicing that skill without falling behind with the unit.)
These lessons are included to help you guide your students as they write informational reports:
1. What’s an Informational Report?
2. Choosing a Topic and Finding Sources
3. Finding Facts (Researching)
4. In My Own Words
5. Informational Report Outline
6. Write an Introduction
7. Writing as Paragraphs
8. Writing an Ending
9. Editing to Add Text Features
10. Editing With a Partner
11. Revising & Revisiting the Rubric
12. Publishing
The units include a student friendly rubric as well as a checklist they can use as they write. They help keep students focused on the skills taught during the unit, without overwhelming them.
Posters are provided to help teach certain skills. You can print them and put them in students’ writing notebooks. This allows them to reference them at any time.
Here’s The Best Part
If you choose to have your whole class write on the same topic, these informational unit even includes 2 non-fiction texts that can be used for student research! One text is a ten page mini book. The other text is a passage.
(However, you can also use this unit with your own topic or by letting students choose topics if you prefer. It’s up to you! But, if you are short on time, use the research texts I included!)
The topics included for each grade level are:
- 2nd Grade: Monarch Butterflies
- 3rd Grade: Surviving in the Desert
- 4th Grade: Severe Weather
- 5th Grade: The Solar System
FAQ:
I teach multiple grade levels. Are the units different?
The units are mostly similar, but include different mentor texts, and have different examples in the centers. There are a few other minor differences throughout the units that reflect grade level expectations. Each grade level includes different topics for the non-fiction texts. (See breakdown above)
Click the images below to see more & preview the informational report units.
- Fictional Narrative Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Personal Narrative Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Opinion Piece Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Biography Writing (Grades 2-5)
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