Informative Writing 3
for
Volcanoes
This unit on informative, expository writing has a science theme to it. It goes with things we learn in science, like the geosphere and rock cycle and volcanos. If you want to do the hands on activities first, sure. Cool. Click here to be redirected to that page. However, this writing unit can also be a stand-alone informative writing unit. It teaches students how to research, how to write informative and the science part is just icing on the cake!
Week One
Day One:
First, we start off with Pixar. Who doesn't love a good Pixar short? Click here for Pixar's Short Film Lava. Then, we have a little discussion about what is real in the video and what is fictional: Can volcanoes be under the ocean? Can volcanoes go extinct? How close can volcanoes really be to each other? Are all volcanoes in tropical areas? How many volcanoes are in Polynesia? We just brainstorm everything we know about volcanoes and every question we have.
Second, we take out our writer's notebook and watch this video about life under the sea, near the active volcanoes. I pause the video here and there and say "Write down what you notice" and "Write down what you are wondering about." If there is time, we watch this second video.
IN SHORT:
Harry Belafonte sings "Island in the Sun"
Descriptive Writing
To get the ball rolling, you can play this video and give the kids a blank sheet of paper or their writing notebooks. They just describe what they see. There are two other videos at the end of this unit to push writing fluency but but this is a good one to get the ball rolling!
Day Two:
We read some hard copy books on volcanoes. I grabbed about 50 books from the library about volcanoes and earth processes and printed some articles. I have kids pick one book and hand them five-ten post-it notes. The rule is that kids MUST write the entire fact on the sticky note and then stick it on the page that they found the fact . It should be like a bookmark, sticking out, so anyone can find it. Students start reading for 10 minutes and write an interesting fact they found in their post-it notes and stick it right on the page. After 10 minutes, we can switch books someone at our teams and then we read for another ten. You can repeat this cycle. I supply kids with as many post-its as they want. At the end, each kid brings one book to the carpet and we go around and share one fact each.
Day Three:
Now, we repeat this same format except with articles I have printed. Each team has five different articles. (In my class, we sit in teams of five.) I print articles from readworks.org, newsela.com, Ducksters, our science curriculum and some library books... but kids have a photocopy of it so we can practice highlighting. Here is the process:
(1) Students choose one article from the pile of five. (Scroll to the bottom for some articles to download.) They read it silently to themselves and highlight the main idea. I say something like "Class, with your highlighters, I want you to highlight the main thing the author wants you to know. It should be in the first paragraph, but some authors like to repeat it in each paragraph and some authors wait until the last paragraph. I want you to highlight no less than one sentence but no more than five sentences."
(2) Then, students stand up and find another student who read the same article. (Each team had the same articles. In my class, I have six teams of five.) Students compare with each other which sentences were highlighted. Students can then highlight more sentences, if need be.
(3) Finally, students find a different person with the same articles again and compare again.
(4) Students return to their original desks. Students can be provided with a large chart paper at this point. Students can then go around take turns filling the chart with the main ideas from the article. I don't recommended one student doing all the writing. The point is to get each kid to practice spelling.
These activities serve a few purposes: practice reading, practicing spoken language with partners, and then practice the spelling as they write on the chart. Now these charts can be displayed around the room!
Day Four: This day is a bit more relaxing. We color a diagram of a volcano, and maybe do a guided drawing of a volcano. Once again, display it!
Day Five: To end the week, we watch this Documentary on Mega Eruptions (50:46)
Week Two
Now, each student gets to pick a real volcano. During science time, students will be making a real model of it, but this page is just dedicated to the writing portion. I use this sheet to assign students to group and assign them a volcano. Once everyone has their volcano and group, students will be writing about that volcano, but the writing part is an individual assignment and must be done independent of their group.
Day Six:
Students are gathering information, using this note-taking sheet. The first thing we do is go over the worksheet and students complete the information they already know. No books, no internet, no partner sharing: Just fill out what they know already. Then, we highlight the ones that NO ONE in class knows the answer to. I play this Ted Ed Volcano Talk for kids (5:33) as students have the worksheet in front of them. We watch it once through and then I go back and rewind it and watch it a second time. On this second viewing, I rewind and pause so students can answer more questions. At the end, I show them how to properly cite the video and we write that information on their worksheets. I repeat with this video about the different types of Volcanoes
Day Seven:
Taking the same worksheet from yesterday, students are allowed some time to Google the rest of the answers. Again, I warn them that "Google" is not a source, it's a search engine. (The analogy I give is the school bus. Google is like the school bus that takes you home. When I ask you, where do you live, you don't say "Through the window of the school bus!" Google is the school bus that takes you to your house. Even if you can see your house while in the school bus, does not mean you live in the school bus!) With this worksheet, done, students are ready to start composing paragraphs.
Day Eight & Nine:
I print this rubric, one copy for every kid. We go through the first draft, paragraph-by-paragraph following this. Maybe you will lead your class, or maybe you will just simply hand them the directions and they can do it. I like printing it out for students, so they can physically cross off each part as they complete it. It's takes the entire class period (and sometimes the next day) to get the first draft done.
Day Ten:
These kids are ten and eleven-year-olds so that means their first draft is most likely horrible. That's okay! We spend one day, re-reading our work. I give them about ten minutes and then I randomly choose someone's work to read aloud. I read it EXACTLY as they wrote it. I repeat this with randomly chosen students and then kids who are very, very confident that their paper is perfect. This is also a good day to analyze some mentor texts on volcanoes.
Supplementary Help
Now, let's be honest, some kids need more help. That's life in education. So I have some tools here to help with the writing.
Sentence Frames for the lowest level writer
You can use this digitally or in print. Students complete the sentence in the other half of the box and then read it across. When done, students can use this to compose paragraphs. If needed, you can have them dictate the sentences on the frames and then have them copy later on their writing.
Sentences to sort into paragraphs
These are the same sentences from the modeled writing but kids have to put them in the right order to form a paragraph.
Modeled Writing on Mount Pinatubo
You can use this to compare to the rubric (It should meet all thew requirements of the rubric except there is one whole paragraph missing!)
Modeled Writing of Fuji, Cotopaxi, Pinatubo, St. Helens, Eyjafjallajökull
Modeled Writing Examples
Sequential Text about Mount Pinatubo
Sequential Text About Magma Rising
Descriptive Text about Volcanoes
General Information on Volcanoes
Primary Source about Mount Vesuvius
Modeled Writing with Errors for students to edit
These are just sampler articles from two really great websites: Newsela and Readworks. You can go to the website and print the same article in a lower reading level or in Spanish. It is definitely worth a subscription if you want lots of articles or have a wide range of readers in your class.
Fluency Writing
These three videos are to help students improve their writing fluency. Get a piece of paper and turn on the video! DONE! The purpose here is to practice fluency and to also review the things they should have already learned.
Compare & Contrast
In this video, students are shown two images of the same volcano, thirty years apart. Students are to write what they see in the first image, then the second. Finally, students will write a short paragraph comparing and contrasting. It's easy for the teacher: Give kids a sheet of paper and push play!
Vocabulary
In this video, students are shown vocabulary words associated with volcanoes, like "ash cloud" and "Eruption." Students are to build writing fluency by writing on the image they see. Students see words, see images, and hear sounds that all ignite the imagination!
Descriptive Writing
In this video, students are shown very detailed images in order to encourage more descriptive writing. This video can also be used as and introduction to the unit. (If you did this video in the beginning of the unit, you can repeat it and have kids compare to the first thing they wrote!)
Week Four
We take our first draft of writing through the entire writing process.
Day Eleven:
I like to print everyone's work so there is hard copy, and give them a hard copy of the rubric (Click on the image to the left). They look their own writing and then put checkmarks on the rubric when they completed that part. I often model this first with the modeled text or choose a student volunteer's work.
Day Twelve:
We then take the same printed writings from yesterday and have our team members give us some feedback. Kids read at least two papers (We sit in groups of five) They have to write one nice thing, one question where they are confused, and one criticism. Mostly, my class' comments goes like this: "I like your first paragraph" and "What do you mean here?" and "You need to spell better." So if your class needs some help critiquing others papers, just bring them to the carpet with some chart paper and say "How can we help our friends be better writers?"
Day Thirteen:
I show students how to take this feedback and the rubric and let them work independent while I do some writing conferences and small groups. This is mostly an independent writing and editing day.
Day Fourteen:
Now, we are adding the text features, such as those listed in the rubric and others, such as a graphics, multiple citations, captions on the images, etc.
AND DONE! Turn in for a grade! :)
Finalization
The very, very last thing we do is handwrite each paragraph on a piece of card stock fold it over. It will be displayed next to our completed volcanoes when we present to the projects. Hopefully, it will look like a museum display. I insist that this part be done by hand, so it looks more authentic. ....but really I just want them to practice their handwriting... I will post some photos of what I mean as soon as my class is done building their volcanoes!
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