How do you teach informational writing to your third grade students? This post is full of information and tips to help teach your students about this sometimes intimidating (for teachers and students) form of writing.
What types of informational (expository) writing do you teach to your third grade students? There are several types and they are all important for your students to be familiar with. Here is a quick run down…
Types of Informational Writing
- All About Writing
- How To Writing (Procedural)
- Biographies
- Articles
- Explanatory Pieces
You will want your students to understand that the purpose of expository writing is to share information with the reader. The information is factual.
There are many text structures that we can teach our students to help them be more successful with informational writing.
Introduce the topic with a great hook! Writers can ask a question, state an interesting fact, or give an engaging description. Students will want the introduction to capture the reader’s attention.
While it may not be necessary to teach third grade students all of these text structures for the body of their writing… teaching a few can help them to be more confident and successful with this informational writing.
- description: we describe a topic, idea, person, place, or thing by listing its characteristics or features
- compare and contrast: the text describes how two things are alike or different
- cause and effect: the text describes an event (cause) and then the events that follow (effect)
- problem and solution: a problem is explained and the text explains one or more solutions to solve the problem
- order and sequence: the text is written as steps in a process or as a chronological timeline
End with a conclusion that wraps it all up. Writers can conclude with a question, a call to action, or a summary. Students will want to think about what they want readers to remember from their writing.
The Key to Engaging Students in Informational Writing
Informational writing can be so fun for students! The key to engaging students in informational writing is the TOPIC! Find topics (or let students self select topics) that are interesting. What are they interested in? What is trending in current events? Are there topics that have come up in class read alouds that your students have had questions about or shown special interest in?
Another way to get students excited about informational writing is to give them an audience. If you have another classroom that you already buddy with, or a class that you can pair with to share your writing tell your students that up front.
By giving them an audience you can really talk up the fact that they will be sharing their writing with other students and explain that they will be teaching someone else all about _______ . Your students will be excited and want to give it their all!
Also, you might want to consider letting your students illustrate their work in some format- this is also motivational!
I hope this post has given you some ideas for teaching informational writing! If you are excited about it, your students will be excited about it!
Here are a few resources you might find helpful to teach and engage your students with these skills…
