Austin ISD Language Arts © 2014

Writing Unit:

Expository Article

Students Choose Their Topic (including research skills)

Austin ISD Language Arts © 2014

Suggested Resources:

Mentor Texts for the Expository Article (Suggested): [Many of these can be borrowed from other campus libraries through interlibrary loans… if you’ve never heard of this, check with your librarian.]

Pop! The Invention of Bubblegum by Megan McCarthy Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin, by Gene Barretta Mad Margaret Experiments with the Scientific Method by Eric Braun The Dreadful, Smelly Colonies by Elizabeth Raum City by the Bay: A Magical Journey Around San Francisco by Tricia Brown

Suggested Articles from the Comprehension Toolkit, Source Book of Short Text: (This text, by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, is available at every campus through your campus reading specialist.) “Girl’s Education” (pg. 12) “Summer of the Shark” (pg. 18) “Can Kids Stop Kids from Smoking?” (pg. 54) “Turn it Off!” (pg. 56)

“Influential Advertising” (p. 101) “A Pet Iguana?” (p. 110) “The Power of Niagara Falls” (p. 117)

Professional Resources:

Guiding Readers and Writers, Grades 3-6, by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell (Ch. 25-26)

Breathing Life into Essays, from Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5, by Lucy Calkins & Corey Gillette

Genre Study, by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell (Ch. 10-11)

No-Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing, by Judy Davis and Sharon Hill

Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K-8, by Joann Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher

Thinking Through Genre, by Heather Lattimer (p. 75-101)

Writing Extraordinary Essays, David Lee Finkle

Finding the Heart of Nonfiction, by Georgia Heard

Treasures Phonics/ Spelling Practice Book (Resource CD), Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

Texas Write Source, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing (for general writing process support)

You can also refer to previous expository writing units from this year for instruction ideas.

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Suggested Sequence of Writing Process:

Prewrite & Organize – 8 days

Draft – 9 days

Revise & Confer – 8 days

Edit, Publish, & Share – 7 days This sequence is only a suggestion! Your students’ needs and abilities should drive your instruction. Dedicate time to the areas in which your students need support. Don’t force them all to stick to the same schedule as some may be ready to move more quickly through the process.

Curriculum

“Real writers write for real reasons about things that are

important to them. They write because they want to change

things, influence people, or express themselves. If we are

constantly flooding our students with writing prompts…, we are

not teaching them to do what real writers do. Many of the

standardized topics we throw at students aren’t bad, but when it

is all we give them, they often give up on generating their own

topics. Worse yet, they may forget how to come up with their

own topics. Worst of all, they may disassociate writing from real-

life relevance altogether.” (David Lee Finkle, Writing

Extraordinary Essays)

A great resource for well-planned lessons is available online, through NCTE. For a series

of lessons on research skills, go to read/write/think.org and search:

Research Building Blocks: Notes, Quotes and Fact Fragments

Research Building Blocks: Skim, Scan and Scroll

Research Building Blocks: Examining Electronic Sources

Research Building Blocks: Hints About Print

Research Building Blocks: Organize This!

Research Building Blocks: Cite Those Sources

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Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): This unit walks writers through the basics of writing an expository article with a central idea, supporting sentences which include facts, details, and explanations, and a concluding statement. Transitions are a key element to help the writer explain the organization of the ideas within the essay.

It will be important to model every step of the process for students using a ‘shared topic’, a shared experience that every student in the class knows well. Some examples of shared topics could be ways to improve their community (or campus), fun family summer activities, playground rules, parks in Austin, etc. The TEKS covered include the following. (Be sure to check the CRM for the specific SEs (Student Expectations) 5.15 Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text.

5.23 Research/ Research Plan. Students ask open-ended research questions and develop a plan for answering them. Students are expected to: (A) brainstorm, consult with others, decide upon a topic, and formulate open-ended questions to address the major research topic.

5.24 Research/ Gathering Sources. Students determine, locate, and explore the full range of relevant sources addressing a research question and systematically record the information they gather. Students are expected to: (D) identify the source of notes (e.g., author, title, page number) and record bibliographic information concerning those sources according to a standard format; (E) differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism and identify the importance of citing valid and reliable sources.

5.25 Research/ Synthesizing Information. Students clarify research questions and evaluate and synthesize collected information.

5.26 Research/ Organizing and Presenting Ideas. Students organize and present their ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and their audience. Students are expected to synthesize the research into a written or an oral presentation that: (B) develops a topic sentence, summarizes findings, and uses evidence to support conclusions; (D) uses quotations to support ideas and an appropriate form of documentation to acknowledge sources (e.g., bibliography, works cited).

5.28 Listening and Speaking/ Speaking. Students speak clearly and to the point, using the conventions of language. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity.

5.29 Listening and Speaking/ Teamwork. Students work productively with others in teams. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity.

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Purpose and Audience: In this unit, teachers will teach the genre of “article writing” by discussing where article ideas come from and how to gather and develop convincing supporting material. Students will observe the items and events that surround their lives every day, and push their thinking about these observations, to develop insights that can be shaped into an expository article.

They will develop a central idea that states exactly what they want to say about their topic and develop categories of information to prove that their central idea is true and important. They will write several facts, details, explanations, and examples, so they have many ideas from which to choose when organizing their supporting ideas. And finally, students will frame their article with a short introduction and concluding sentences that strive to influence the reader’s thinking.

In addition to sharing general information with the reader, students will share what they learn through researching their topic. Because of this, you will need to be sure to include basic research skills as you work through the process. This is, however, an article with a bit of research- not a complete research paper. The idea is for them to include enough supporting information to defend their central idea. In addition to editing their writing for publishing it in print, they will prepare a short presentation of their research, building both presentation and audience skills (in addition to further building their community of writers.)

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The Writing Process: (Brown text in the remainder of this unit indicates documents within these Expository

Article Writing Unit folders. English / Spanish

Prewriting: Review the characteristics of expository writing by sharing a few well-written research-based articles from the newspaper, children’s magazines, or online sources like Scholastic. Sources for examples of expository articles include local newspapers and magazines, National Geographic for Kids, Discovery Kids, Time for Kids, and Scholastic News.

Expert List and Gallery Walk: This prewriting activity will guide your writers to think about their interests, hobbies, and things they enjoy doing outside of school. Students will share their ideas with a small group, then with the whole group to find a ‘unique angle’ for their topic.

Write What You Know: Students commit to one topic and begin a rough draft about that topic. This rough draft is considered a prewriting because it will undergo many revisions and reorganizations. (Expository Flash Nonfiction)

Define an “expository article” as a nonfiction piece of writing that reports facts, realistic ideas, or real events. It often quotes what an expert says about the topic, and it may also include the thoughts, ideas and opinions of the writer.

While it may be tempting to guide your students toward researching more “academic” topics, writing experts agree that, when writers choose their own topics, they see their work as more fun and meaningful. Writers want to put time and effort into pieces that are important to them. Janet Angelilo, author of The Struggling Writer (2010), outlines these reasons for allowing students to choose their own topic for writing.

When students choose their topics, the writing focus moves from the teacher to the students.

They know more about topics they choose to write about.

They tend to care about their writing when the topic has meaning to them.

We can teach them more about writing itself when we are not “pulling teeth” to get them to write.

Other ways to generate ideas: Collecting Ideas For an Expository Article Enthusiasm Map Frustration Map Expert Map / Expert Map Teacher Directions We make them better writers – and thinkers – in the long run when we teach them to think deeply about an idea of their own.

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Organizing: Texas Write Source says, “The thesis statement tells what the report is all about. A good thesis statement starts with an interesting topic and then focuses on a controlling idea about the topic.” (p. 341)

“Tell me more…” Peer Conferencing: Writers give feedback to a peer to help them add more ideas to their writing.

Discuss “audience,” and who the students think will be interested in reading their article. The audience should guide the style and content of their essay.

What Do I Want My Audience to Learn from My Article: Open your writers’ minds to think outside the box of ‘writing to inform.’

Develop a Thesis Statement: A strong thesis statement will give the students the backbone of their article. It is on this backbone that they will build the body of their piece.

Once students have developed a draft of a thesis statement, place them in groups of 3-4 students. One at a time, students read their thesis statement to the group. On sticky notes, their listeners write down what they think the controlling idea is. They each share their thoughts with the writer and give the writer their sticky note.

After everyone has done this, writers consider what their listeners (readers) understood to be the controlling idea. They use this information to guide the revising of their thesis in order to clarify their message for readers. Repeat the process with completely different groups.

Key Word Searches: Finding Information on the Internet: Students use key words to search the Internet for reliable and readable sources of information about their topic. Use either of these Website Evaluation forms to facilitate a discussion about finding reliable resources on the Internet:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson149/ElectronicSources.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson328/evalform.pdf

Some Ways to Order the Information: Use the information from your research topic (or a student’s topic) to “think aloud” about how to decide which organizational structure will work best for the thesis, supporting statements, and the type of evidence collected.

Chronological order Strongest evidence first and leave a strong memory last Make categories Support one side, then the other

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Revising:

Understanding the Structure of Expository Articles and Applying Organizational Structures to the Expository Article: The author’s purpose is directly related to the organizational structure of the writing. An appropriate structure will help the author communicate his/her idea more effectively.

Building a Criteria Chart: Working with the students to analyze the criteria of a particular genre helps them to understand the challenge of writing in that genre. Once they analyze several texts, they work together to build a criteria chart for their work, highlighting the specific characteristics of that genre. Students use this criteria chart as they begin to revise their articles – they read their current draft and mark places that need revision (according to the class criteria chart).

Revision – Clarity of Central Idea Revision – Leads and Conclusions Revision – Coherence and Transitions Revision – Eliminating the Bad Words in Our Writing (and Really Bad Words): Create a class list of overused words found in writing, for example, really, like and very. Ken Macrorie calls these types of words, The Really Bad Words. Notice he uses the word “really” in the title and it is one of the words on his list.

Drafting:

Show students how to assemble their notes for each paragraph in an order that makes sense. Explicitly show how each main idea and its supporting sentences form a category of information that makes a new paragraph and how each paragraph is indented. Model how to use their notes to write a draft of their article.

Models of Expository Articles: You will need to prepare by collecting a variety of expository articles. These will provide an opportunity for students to analyze the ways writers embed research into an article.

Adding Research: Using your own expository article, show students how you might add research to your writing through direct quotes or paraphrasing. Research to Support the Central Idea Citing Your Sources Creating a Bibliography: Use the resources you found to support your own expository article and model how to create a bibliography.

See these links for support in doing online research: Anatomy of a Search, Better Searches. Better Results. Finding Reliable Sources AISD Online Resources Searching with Google (This one is a 12-page teacher resource book on using Google K-12)

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Writing Conferences:

Hold “research conferences” to ensure that students are finding adequate and reliable resources. Ask students to explain to you how they plan to use the information they have found. How will the new information add to what they already know about the topic?

As writers begin adding research to their drafts, confer with each writer to make sure they are connecting their research to a main point they are making in their writing.

Confer with writers whose central idea or perspective is not clear. Ask, “What do you want to say about this topic? How do you feel about this topic?” Then use their writing and show them how to add statements to clarify their central idea and perspective.

You can save time by reading your students’ writing in advance of your conference with them. Make note of only 1-2 revisions you will recommend that the writer make to their writing. Which 1-2 changes will make the biggest impact on this writing?

Teacher Conferences: Focus on What Has Been Taught in this Unit Teacher Conference - Read your students’ compositions ahead of time, so you can

decide on the one change you will advise them to make that will make the biggest difference in this piece of writing.

Writers use this Kid-Friendly Expository Rubric to give feedback on each other’s expository essays.

Editing:

Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing: Be sure to only include concepts and rules that have already been taught. Students should work on one element at a time.

Check the Conventions Checklist to ensure that you address the parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling SEs for this grading period. 5th Grade Conventions Checklist (Spanish)

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Assessment: ‘Research writing’ is not tested in the secondary grades. However, the

report structure (including a thesis statement, supporting sentences, facts, details, and examples, introductory and concluding paragraphs, and transitions) is used to structure an expository essay, a persuasive essay, and a literary response, all of which are expository genres tested in secondary grades.

Students will be expected to use this structure for College Entrance Exams, Advanced Placement Exams, and in their coursework beyond public school. We are doing a disservice to our students if we do not begin their work with research reports in the elementary grades.

Final Draft/Publishing: Adding Text Features to the Expository Article: After discussing the different types and purposes of text features in mentor texts, students add text features to enhance the message in their expository article.

In order for your students to present their expository articles to an audience effectively, they will need to practice their Oral Presentation Skills. You may decide to omit #3 because the whole purpose of this unit was to write a well-organized expository article. Reading it aloud to the audience is a perfectly acceptable way to present the written work.

Use a rubric like this one, Oral Presentation Rubric, or modify it to fit your expectations. Students should practice their oral presentations, using the guidelines or rubric you created.

Experts Present their Articles CELEBRATE!!! The greatest motivation for students to strive to become better writers, and to do their very best writing, is when they have the opportunity to share their writing with someone outside of the classroom. Publishing Suggestions:

Published pieces placed in the library for circulation…

Students read their writing to another class who is doing the same type of writing...

Create an anthology of articles to display in the library or near a visitors’ chair in the school office… (or even better, a local pediatrician’s office.)

Invite parents/family members to the child’s research presentation.