Before Thanksgiving, students finished up their small moment narrative writing. Students have made a shift from story telling to writing about an informational topic. Children are thinking about what they are experts in and using a teaching voice to teach all about a variety of topics. Each child is coming up with a variety of topics to use when writing a new teaching book. Topics include but are not limited to: ballet, bunnies, dinosaurs, Keith Haring, football, lockers, cheetahs, yoga, etc. Using their fingers, each teaching book is carefully planned. Separating topic subjects is helpful to do in the planning stages for young children. A lot of time is spent orally telling the words that will be included in the book. After writing a draft, students are now going back and thinking about elaboration. INQUIRE with your child how they imagine someone reading their book who knows nothing about the subject. Students are thinking about the questions they may have (who, what, where, when, why, how) when they read the book. They then go back and add this new information to their work. Sometimes, children work with their writing partner to help expand on there ideas. This shift to nonfiction writing has been exciting and kids have jumped right into it with an open and enthusiastic mind!
THE STEPS TO WRITING A TEACHING BOOK:
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| Step 1: Thinking of a topic. |
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| Step 2: Planning across fingers. |
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| Step 3: Sketching the plan |
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| Step 4: Writing the words. |
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| Step 5: Collaborating with a partner to expand on ideas. |
