Polar Bear Non-Fiction Writing

After a lot of work on personal narrative and opinion writing, we started to work on non-fiction writing. I really love Hope King's style and purchased her Polar Bear unit. Check out her Winter Writing Bundle on TeachersPayTeachers by clicking here. It is really cute and my examples here use her product.

First, we filled out the K and W in a KWL about polar bears. Using the "want to know" section, we brainstormed different topics that the kids could research. I wanted it to be VERY specific so students could manage the research independently. Once students chose their topic, either habitat, diet, or body (physical attributes), we went to the computer lab.

If your students have access to the Internet, National Geographic for kids has a great website for non-fiction research. I gave students the direct link to the polar bear page and asked them to find three facts about their topic, using a simple tree chart to take notes. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of Hope's super cute sheet).

This is a screenshot of National Geographic Kids website for polar bear. Click here to access the NatGeo Kids animal site.

Next, we used the stoplight paragraph strategy to organize their writing. (Click here to check out how I taught this concept to my students.) They first took the facts that found and wrote them in the supporting details section, highlighting them in yellow. Next, after another class discussion about what a topic sentence is and looking back to our cookies example, I asked students to develop their green topic sentence. The main idea I kept going back to with them was, "what do your facts tell you about the polar bear's (habitat, diet, or physical characteristics). With that in mind, many students were able to do this independently. Many other needed conferences, but that makes sense! Isn't the topic sentence the hardest part for all writers?

Once the had their topic sentence, students were asked to write their red closing sentence. Most of them were able to do this once their topic sentence was written.

After mapping out their writing, the traditional 1st, 2nd, final draft process began. I asked students to write their first draft using the colors to help them practice visualizing their writing, but by the time they were on the 2nd draft they were writing in normal pencil. I used my usual writing conference strategy I wrote about here and discovered one other handy trick.

Students who are rewriting another draft often skip lines accidentally. I've found that using an extra piece of paper to stay on the correct line helps kids stay on track.

I felt that the kids wrote really well and I was very proud of their work! Anyone else have some great writing they would like to share?


P.S. Hope King did not ask for any sort of endorsement, I just loved her product and wanted to share how I used in my classroom. Please feel free to use any of my strategies, but if you want to finished product to look as cute as hers, I recommend purchasing the unit. I've loved it and it is totally worth it :)

Stoplight Paragraphs: Helping Structure Writing

 My students spent a long time on narrative and fiction writing, ad it was time to move on to non-fiction. While my students are working on non-fiction writing, I wanted to really zone in on structure.  I used to edit papers in college and graduate school and I cannot tell you how many people do not know how to structure writing! If I can begin the process of good structure, I am a happy teacher.

To teach the concept I used the Stoplight Paragraph method. 

I found this great image on Greenville Unified's Website.

The basic gist is:

Green= Topic Sentence, go

Yellow= Supporting Details, slow down

Red= Closing Sentence, stop

In order to introduce this concept to my students, we did a shared writing activity about cookies. I wanted to topic to be simple and engaging. Who doesn't love cookies?

First we made a quick bubble map of all the things that we knew about cookies. 

After we filled out our thinking map, I asked students to vote on the three things we wanted to put in our paragraph. I then took out our shared writing paper, and wrote the three sentences under "supporting details." At this point I explained to the students to concept of a stoplight paragraph: In every there is a topic sentence telling you what the paragraph is about, supporting details that add details about the topic, and a closing sentence that retells what the paragraph was about. 

The cookie facts that we had voted on were our supporting details: Chocolate chip cookies are chocolaty, they're delicious, and they're sweet.  I highlighted them in yellow. Now came the tough part: figuring out a topic sentence that covered all of our details. At first they offered ideas that covered only one detail, like, "Cookies are made of sugar" or "There are chocolate chips in cookies." I asked them to think: "What do all of these facts tell you about cookies?"

They thought for a while and then the hands shot up. I got several more accurate ideas, "Cookies taste sweet," but we decided as a class that "Cookies are fantastic to eat" was the most appropriate.

Once we wrote that in green for the topic sentence, I asked them to think of another way to say our topic sentence. One of my funnier students raised his hand and said, "Cookies are yummy in my tummy?" The whole class loved it, so we wrote it in red for the closing sentence. Now that they were exposed to the concept, they were ready for their own non-fiction writing next week.

Does anyone else use stoplight paragraphs? How do you introduce it?

Writing Conference Strategy

Recently we've been working on non-fiction writing in my classroom. (More to come on that). During my last few writing projects, students waited in line to have a conference with me at my desk. This caused a lot of behavioral issues. Kids were getting restless and loud, causing students who were still working to be distracted.

I came up with an easy idea to keep track of who I need to conference with. When students are done with a draft, they write their name up on the board, then go back to their desk, wait for me, and do a quiet "may do." I walk around to the students who signed up for "appointments" on the board. When I finish with one student I check off their name and go to the next student. This is a much quieter way than I had before, students always have a task to do, and it allows the slower workers to focus on their writing.

Do you have a strategy you use during writing that you would like to share?

Penpals!

Recently I hooked up with a second grade teacher at a school across town to develop a penpal program. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, particularly since my students have been really struggling with letter writing, but they have been LOVING it! When they got their first letter I gave them almost a half an hour to read them, share them with others, and generally be excited. I am so glad I did. They were so hyped up about the letters there is no way they would have been productive.

The next day the students responded to their penpals. I've never heard my classroom so quiet. They wrote pages upon pages to their penpals, which blew me away. (Getting many of my students to extend their writing in like pulling teeth). One of my students even wrote, "You are the greatest penpal ever. I think we can be best friends, don't you?" So adorable.

If any teachers out there are struggling with letter writing, I highly recommend a penpal program. If you can't do it with another second grade teacher in a different school, maybe talk to an upper-grade teacher about it. I can't rave any more about the motivation I saw with my students.

Look at how focused they are!