Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Writer's Workshop: Informational Reports

Each nine weeks, our district requires a piece of writing to be completed as an assessment and placed in our students' permanent record. The first 9 weeks was a self portrait with name and date, the second 9 weeks was a journal entry (small moment), the third 9 weeks was a book review, and this nine weeks we are working on informational reports. I just began teaching this skill within the past week and students have helped me write a report based on a book we read together. 
My kinders expressed an interest in ocean animals and specifically sharks...so this is the book we went with. I talked to students about writing informational reports and the steps to take. We referenced this anchor chart, which can be found in my mini unit on TpT
After we discussed the steps, I began a whole group writing and modeled each step - - from the illustrations and coloring....all the way to stretching out of sounds and recalling facts. Here is what we came up with and what my students wrote when they were turned loose. 
For those of you who don't speak Kindergarten...my example says:
Sharks
Topic Sentence: There are many kinds of sharks.
Fact 1: They have sharp teeth. 
Fact 2: If they stop swimming, they will sink.
Fact 3: Some are flat and some are round.

My little buddy (whose writing I am sharing with you) says:
Sharks
Sharks are not mammals.
Sharks have sharp teeth.
Sharks have gills.
There are many kinds of sharks. <--this was his topic sentence and we discussed putting it at the beginning of his writing during our conference time :) 

I'm very pleased with what I've gotten so far from my students, although we've got more work to do. I have several friends who rush through their work and think they are done, so I cracked out this anchor chart.
When I'm done, I can...add to my picture, label my pictures, write more words, reread my writing, start a new piece. This has helped tremendously in knowing that a writer's job is never done! ;-) If you're interested in doing something like this with your students. All of this, and MORE, can be found in this unit {here}. 
Leave a note about what you're working on in Writer's Workshop and an email and I'll pick two winners to receive this pack for FREE. Happy hump day!

13 comments:

Unknown said...

We're working on How To writing right now, but we'll be doing Informational writing in a couple of weeks! :)

Breanne
breannesimons@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

We are also working on animal research reports. Today, my littles wrote true/false statements about their topic. They discovered it is great fun to quiz a classmate and explain why a statement is false.
Debbie
dbejune@comcast.net

Unknown said...

We are working on informational writing right now as well!
Kris
krishankins09@gmail.com

Tonia said...

I am working on informational writing as well. We are making a frog and toad burrito. It is a tri- folded paper with one section on frogs, one section on toads and the last section on frogs and toads. I will be sharing more on my blog.
Mrsvento.blogspot
Tonia
Tvento1313@msn.com

Sharon said...

We are working on informational writing too!
Sharon
sbown17@gmail.com

Robinegg said...

We are working on writing about connections to text as well as endurance!

robinegg13@gmail.com

Lori R said...

We are currently working on opinion writing and will be getting ready to work on informational writing.

lraines78@gmail.com

Ashley said...

We are currently working on "how to writing." I will be transitioning into informational writing next week!

Ashley.baker@usd453.org

Dina said...

We are working on narrative writing. They have to tell about an event and the order that things occurred. Lots of whole group practicing at this point!

dnhabc123@comcast.net

Kim said...

We just finished informational text this week. We are now moving onto another round of narrative writing. I would love to win your unit to use next year.

Unknown said...

We have started the small moments section. Getting ready to do a day in the life of a kindergartener. Cant wait to see what they write!

Sue said...

I teach JK so we are still working on narrative writing. We will move to How To type stories after our spring break in April. I did a prompted writing assessment with them the other day on the topic of farm animals and asked them to do as informative piece. It was a difficult transition for them but they actually did pretty good with their pictures and labels and some wrote one informative type of 'sentence' ie. Pigs like mud. or Horses eat hay. Not bad for 4 year olds :)

Anonymous said...

We are working on informational writing too!
Missriches@yahoo.com