Informational

Our Goals

  • I will elaborate information on a topic of my choice with relevant supporting details.

  • I will include precise or interesting words, descriptive words, technical language, varied verb choices or creative phrases.

  • I will organize my writing with a logical structure that demonstrates an awareness of my audience.

  • I will gather ideas from a variety of sources and use an organizational framework to sort and classify information.
  • I will establish the purpose in the introduction and use a title or heading where appropriate.
  • I will provide an obvious conclusion.
  • I will include different kinds of sentences with a variety of sentence lengths.
  • I will revise my writing to add to, delete from or reorganize the texts to strengthen the content.
  • I will use appropriate tools (2 minute edit, dictionary, thesaurus, grammar checker, etc.) as I reread my writing for conventions.
  • I will provide peer feedback based on success criteria.
  • I will use a variety of informational text features to help the reader understand my topic.

Most of what people read every day is non-fiction.

It is how we give new information to others.


  • signs and informational posters

  • instructions for new products

  • user agreements on apps and games

  • how-to wikis

  • books on how to play games more effectively

  • nutrition information on boxes and cans

  • recipes

  • instructions for crafts and games

  • text books (math, science, history, health)

  • informational books (insects, cars, etc.)

  • news websites

Generate Ideas

Think of topics that are close to your heart!

  1. Places you know: Taketomi in Okinawa, Japan; Kelowna, BC

  2. Things you know about: training a cat, apples, body image

  3. People you know: my grandfather (immigrated from Italy)

*Remember:

  • Keep your topics small.

  • This will not be a story, you are giving information.

  • Think about what might interest others.

Mine Mentor Texts for Topics

Look through books in our library for gems (topics that excite you.)

You might think, "Hey, I know a lot about this!"

Or you might think, "This reminds me of a topic I do know about!"

Or you might think the topic of one book is too big but you could write about part of it.

Or you might think, "I disagree with how the author wrote this. I know I could write it differently."


Word Mapping

  1. Pick a topic and put it in a circle on your page.

  2. Think of words or phrases that connect to the topic.

  3. Let your mind wander and keep thinking of connections to add to different bubbles as you explore the topic.

Look at your bubbles.

  • Could some of them be their own topics?

  • Could some of them be different sections of your text?

  • What do you need to research to make it great?

Research

Search for Your Angle

You can't write about everything about your topic in one essay.

There are bookshelves filled with long books on your topic.

You need to find YOUR angle.

It is something that will interest you and your reader.

Angles I found:

  • building a positive body image

  • ways to get help if you have a negative body image

  • self esteem and how it relates to body image

  • eating disorders

  • plastic surgery

  • make-up and skin care advertising

  • fashion and body image

  • media and body image

  • superheroes and body image


What was surprising to me?

Eating disorders are becoming a bigger problem for boys.

What was interesting to me?

Superhero characters have much different bodies than before.

My Angle:

Movies are negatively affecting the body image of boys.

Divide your Notebook into Sections


  1. Put category headings on different pages of your notebook. These will be sections of your writing.

  2. Find interesting facts.

  3. Think about each fact. Which section does it go in?

  4. Sometimes you may have to make a new section if a fact is really important or interesting but it doesn't fit anywhere.

*Use point form, don't copy whole sections from your book or website!

Ask Yourself Questions

When you are looking for a new topic, remember that you have to get to the heart of your topic. It can't be too big because you don't have time to write a text book in class! We want to narrow it down. Look at the example below of a narrowing down a topic.

Ask yourself...

  • What interests me the most about this topic?

  • What do I wonder about this topic?

  • What is important about this topic?

What interests me about the ocean?

  • shipwrecks

  • orca

  • jellyfish

What do I wonder?

  • Are the jellyfish on the beach in PEI dangerous?

My more narrowed-down topic:

Lion's Mane Jellyfish: What You Need to Know Before Going on a Beach this Summer

Think of your Reader's Questions

One style of writing is called Q&A. The author thinks of questions that most people might have about the topic. Then he or she gives short answers. Have you read books like this? They can be very interesting.


When they publish their writing, sometimes the questions are subheadings with a paragraph long answer (5 sentences or so.) But if there are some questions with very short answers, they might be together in a sidebar.


  • Start with questions you have. Make sure they are things you can answer because you know it or you can find it with a little research.

  • Write them on your page and leave spaces for your answers.

  • When you have 8-10 questions, start answering them.

Ask a Reader

Having a conversation can help give you ideas and it can help you expand the ideas you have. You might want to take notes while you are talking so you can remember details.

  • Tell your partner what you were writing about.

  • Show them some of your ideas for subtopics. What do they think?

  • Ask them questions about what they already know about the topic.

  • What do they think is interesting about the topic?

  • What questions do they have about the topic?

Support your Information

Look at the facts you have gathered. Remember, your reader is not in your head.

Which facts need more explaining? Is something else you can do to help the reader understand or be more interested?


  1. Should I give a definition?

  • locomotive engineer: the person who drives the train and is responsible for the safety of the train


  1. Should I give an example?

  • Although his mother would not let him speak Italian once they moved to Canada, my grandfather's family kept some of their Italian traditions. For example, at Christmas time, Santa did not come to their house. Instead, La Befana (a witch) put presents in their shoes)


  1. Should I add a short story?

  • Just like today, immigrants had to be healthy when they arrived in a new country. My grandfather's sister caught a bad fever on the ship from Italy to the US. When they landed at Ellis Island, the immigration officials said she could not enter the US because she was sick. They had to wait and hope that she would get well. Luckily, she got better but she lost her sight in one eye and her hearing in one ear.


  1. Do I need a diagram, map, or picture?

Ask How?

Look through all of your information.

  1. Is there any fact that is left by itself, with no support?

  2. Ask yourself: How?

  3. Then write partner sentences to give more information.

Example:

Fact: Some cats are nervous to go through a flap. This is because they don't know what is on the other side. But, with practice, they will lose their fear.

How: You can show it a treat and then put it just inside the flap. The cat will sniff the air and poke its nose through to see if the treat is there. Then it will want to go in to get the treat.

Organize Your Information

Start with a Table of Contents

A table of contents will help to keep you organized. It will help you group facts that belong together. You can decide what will go in your writing and what you should leave out. For example, if you have one fact that doesn't fit anywhere, you might want to either leave it out or get some supporting information.


  1. Look at your subtopics and the facts underneath, do they really belong together?

  2. Can some subtopics be put together? Can others be divided in two?

  3. Decide on a good order for your subtopics.

*Don't forget that you will need an introduction and conclusion!

Write Your Lead (Introduction)

What is the most important information or idea in your writing? You want to use this to introduce your topic to the reader. You want to draw your reader in with something interesting or exciting. Try all three strategies. Then choose which one works best.

Example Important Idea: varieties of apples

  1. Narrative Lead: start with a short story

When I was a child, my dentist used to tell me about his ancestor, John McIntosh, who discovered the Red McIntosh apples that grew in almost every orchard in my hometown. As I sat in the chair, I thought about how delicious they tasted and wondered how someone could "discover" an apple. What did that mean?


  1. Scene Painting: start with a description

The sunlight shines through the small green leaves onto the long grasses below. There are round, red fruit festooning every tree like decorations and the air smells sweet. It seems like a good place to take a summer nap, but it is a working apple orchard. How did these trees, all growing the same apples, come to be?


  1. Personalized Lead: speak directly to the reader

You are hungry and looking through the fridge for something to eat. In the fruit drawer there are some apples, but you aren't sure if they are still good. Don't worry. Apples actually last a lot longer than other fruit. There is actually a type of apple that lasts for a year in your fridge.

Design Your Layout

An Editorial Designer is a person who thinks of the layout of a text.

  1. Think about where to put blocks of text on a page to make it look interesting to read and easy to understand and find information.

  2. Think about what text features to use (headings, captions, text boxes, timelines, etc.)

  • How many headings will you use?

  • Will you have a text box where you have definitions of key words?

  • Will you have a sidebar with related information?

  • Will you include a table of stats?

  1. Think about fonts and type size to attract the reader.

  2. Make decisions about photos, illustrations, diagrams, and maps.

Writing

It's a Big Deal!

You want to make sure your reader knows that your topic is important. Instead of just writing "This is important!" you have to show them. We do this at the beginning of sections to introduce the topic of that section and make the reader want to keep reading.

Example from Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee:

Amelia set many records. She was the first woman to fly solo across the United States. She was the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to California.

Example from The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney:

The clouds are our fluffy friends -- except, perhaps, for one; the Cumulonimbus. When it comes to extreme and destructive weather, you can be sure that a Cumulonimbus will be in the thick of the action. With torrential downpours, hail storms, snowstorms, lightening, gales, tornadoes, and hurricanes the enormous thundercloud can lead to untold loss of life and damage to property.

How do I do this?

  • Ask yourself, what is the big deal about this section of your topic? Why should your reader care about it?

  • Use that reason to introduce your section.


Use Technical or Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Which words are used specifically for your topic? Read what others write. Make sure you are using the correct language. Ask yourself, what words would an expert use?

You may want to write some of those words in bold and give definitions if you think other people may not know what they mean.

Examples:

If I were writing about weather, I would want to sound like a meteorologist.

  • forecast, precipitation, systems, high/low pressure

If I were writing about healthy eating, I would want to sound like a nutritionist.

  • daily intake, percentages, vitamin C, iron, green leafy vegetables

If I were writing about PEI's history, I would want to sound like an historian.

  • Ceramic Period, immigration, Acadian, transportation, scale

Use Imagery to Make a Fact Come Alive!

You can make a fact come alive in your reader's mind by creating a scene. Use some of the language we used for poetry for your fact. You can personify your topic. You can use a simile or metaphor. Be careful though, make sure your facts are still true!

  1. What are the facts?

  2. Picture it.

  3. Describe it! Use imagery, personification or simile/metaphors. Make it realistic!

Example:

Dung Beetle Facts

  • world's strongest animal (can lift 1,141 times its own body-weight)

  • eat dung, which helps clean up waste

  • some mate for life and make a home for their offspring

  • some use the stars to guide them

  • have existed for 115 million years or more

Description words I might use:

  • determined, eco-friendly, family members, ancient

Action words I might use:

  • feasting, rolling, burying, caring, orient

When plant-eating dinosaurs were roaming the earth, 115 million years ago, they left large piles of dung everywhere they went. Hold your nose and take a closer look at those piles. Do you see that shiny black beetle with horns? This eco-friendly male is busily rolling balls of dung more than a thousand times his own body weight and taking them away to a burrow that his mate has made. But they aren't thinking of the environment, they are creating a home in which they can feed and shelter their family. It is as if he went shopping and pushed a ball of food all the way home that was as large as a car! These ancient, hard-working beetles are still found all over the world, determinedly pushing balls of dung up hills and over obstacles. Even at night, they continue their hard work and orient themselves using the stars.

Conclude with the Big Idea


  • Step 1 - You can give a short summary of what you have been talking about.

  • Step 2 - What is the big idea you want to leave your readers with? Tell us!

  • Step 3 - What can the reader do next with that information?

Is there a purpose to learning this?


Example:

[Albert] asked questions never asked before. Found answers never found before. And dreamed up ideas never dreamt before. Albert’s ideas helped build spaceships and satellites that travel to the moon and beyond. His thinking helped us understand our universe as no one ever had before. But still, Albert left us many big questions. Questions that scientists are working on today. Questions that one day you might answer. By wondering, thinking and imagining.

~On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein (p56, Berne 2013)


Revising and Editing

Flaps, Carets, Arrows, and Strike-outs

When we re-read, we often want to make changes. This part of making our writing better! The question is, how do we fit them in? There are a few tricks that authors use.

  1. Use a caret!

  • A caret looks like this ^. You can write in small changes above the caret such as adding a word or correcting the spelling of a word.

  1. Make a flap!

  • If you need to write several lines, you often won't have room. Use a sticky-note or tape a bit of extra paper to the side or bottom of your page. Just fold it in when you put away your book so it won't get ripped away!

  1. Use an arrow!

  • If you want to change the order of your sentences, you can use an arrow to show where they should go. If you want to change the order of paragraphs, it would help to number them in the new order.

  1. A note on strike-outs:

  • If you need to cross something out, just use a single line. Sometimes, you will want to go back and save something you struck-out. You won't be able to do that if you erased it or blacked it out.

*Don't forget to underline words that you want to check the spelling of in the dictionary later.

On the Chromebooks

In Google Docs, highlight your text and use the shortcut keys:

  • Copy - ctrl C

  • Paste - ctrl V

  • Cut - ctrl x

  • If you make a mistake, press the undo arrow at the top of the page!

You can put sections you are thinking of deleting near the end of your document instead of deleting them right away.

Creating Complex Sentences


When you want to add more information to a sentence, you will want to add a dependent clause. A dependent clause couldn’t be a sentence on its own but it can add details to your sentence.


  • You add it using words such as: although, as, because, if, or since.

  • You separate your clause from the rest of the sentence using a comma.

  • Reread your sentence to be sure it makes sense.


There are three different places a dependent clause can go.


  1. Opener, blah blah bah.

Because they have few defenses, these fish swim in a school to confuse predators.


  1. Blah blah, interrupter, blah blah.

Bats use echolocation, as do some marine mammals, to find their prey.


  1. Blah blah blah, closer.

This attraction is open to visitors from 8 am to 6 pm daily, although you need to book ahead if you want to ride in the carriage.

Praise, Question, Polish

Your job as a writing partner has three important parts:

  • help the author understand what they are doing really well

  • help the author understand which parts are unclear

  • help the author to make the finished piece fantastic

You want to encourage your writing partner so you want to be positive, but saying things like, "That's great!" doesn't actually give the author any useful information. It is important to be specific.

In your conferencing time, you should:

  1. Praise - What did they do well? Which parts read smoothly? Which parts are interesting?

  2. Question - What did you not understand? What did you want more information about?

  3. Polish - What tips do you have to help them polish their piece? Think about our writing goals.

  • I will give relevant supporting details.

  • I will include precise words, descriptive words, technical language, and varied verbs.

  • I will organize my writing with a logical structure that is good for my reader.

Re-read, Re-read, Re-read with a Checklist!

Revising and editing checklists help us to remember all the things we need to look for in our work. By grade six, there are a lot of things to think about. You can't find them all in one read!

Pick something from your list that you think you did pretty well. Read through, just looking for this one thing. Did you find and places you need to fix or that you could make a bit better?

Next, pick something you think you really need to spend some time working on. Re-read your work, looking for this thing. If you need help with it, ask the teacher.

Every time you re-read, you will make your writing a little bit better!

Rewrite your Title

You probably wrote a title down when you were first deciding what to write. This is called a "placeholder" title. Now that you have focused your big ideas and written your piece, you will want to change your title to match your finished work.

Write a list of titles that might work. Choose the best one.

Your title should be:

  • honest (don't try to trick the reader)

  • short (if it is too long, people might not read it)

  • interesting (catch your reader's attention)

  • pointed (let your reader know your angle)

  • energetic

Examples:

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Publish Your Work on Your Own Website!

Look at this example that I have started. It is about my grandfather.

What text features have I used?

  • Headings and subheadings

  • Photos and captions

  • Map

  • List with bullets

You can also add other features like a glossary or a chart.

Part 1 - How do I start?

  1. Go to Google Sites.

  2. Click on "start a new site."

  3. Pick a theme from the right-hand column (you can change this later.)

  4. In the top right, click on the person with a plus sign icon (this is the share icon.)

  5. Click on "Links."

  6. Make sure the settings look like the picture below.

Part 2 - Now get a name and put your link into the Google Doc.

  1. Go to the top left of your screen and put in a name for your website.

  2. In the top left corner of the bar of your website, put your name.

  3. Then go to the link icon on the top right of your screen.*

  4. Press "copy link."

  5. Go to the Google Spreadsheet in your classroom.

  6. Paste (ctrl V) your link & type your information.

*Do NOT copy the link from your browser bar. That link will let people edit your website.

Part 3 - Start Adding Your Writing

  1. On the right hand column, go to "Insert" and pick "text box" or choose from one of the layouts.

  2. When you type, a bar will appear above your text box that allows you to change the font typeface, size, and colour. It also lets you add bullets.

  3. On the left of your text box, you can choose to add a colour or shading to your background. There are not a lot of choices here. If you press the garbage can, it will delete your text box. If you make a mistake, go to the undo button on the top left.

  4. You can copy text (ctrl c) from your document and paste it into your text box (ctrl v).

  5. You can change the size and position of your text box by using the blue circles on the sides of the text box.

  6. If you want to add a picture, map, or chart, you can drop it in and change the size using the blue circles. If you add a text box and drag it (using the little dots in the top middle of the box) underneath photo, you can make a place for a caption.

  7. Add as many text boxes as you want.