Informational Writing III 1

Running head: INFORMATIONAL WRITING III

Instructional Design Project: Report III on Informational Writing

Emily Clark

Georgia Southern University

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Report 3

10.0 Developing Instructional Materials

10.1. For the TO, specify and defend your choice of appropriate pre-instructional

materials.

Students will be exposed to a variety of nonfiction mentor texts through prior reading

instruction so that they can see how the texts are written and how to include text features.

Nonfiction texts include science procedural texts such as Forces and Motion by John

Graham and Move It! Motion, Forces, and You by Adrienne Mason, as well as books

about animals, such as Tigers by Laura Marsh. During previous writing nonfiction

lessons, students will have seen anchor charts for the writing process, writing lab reports,

adding nonfiction text features in nonfiction writing, and steps for writing procedures,

introductions, and conclusions. Since the standard states that students need to be able to

write a variety of types of nonfiction, this will be important background knowledge for

them. For the nonfiction pre-test, the following prompt will be given, and students will

have paper to respond to the prompt so that I can see what skills may need extra

attention:

Think of a topic that you’ve studied or that you know a lot about. Tomorrow, you will

have 45 minutes to write an informational (or all-about) text that teaches others

interesting and important information and ideas about that topic. Please keep in mind that

you’ll have only this one period to complete this, so you’ll need to plan, draft, revise, and

edit in one sitting. Write in a way that shows all that you know about information writing.

In your writing, make sure you:

 Introduce the topic you will teach about.

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 Include lots of information.

 Organize your writing.

 Use transition words.

 Write an ending.

10.2. Select one SO; specify and defend your choice of an appropriate presentation

of materials.

Subordinate Objective: Given use of nonfiction texts and online computer access,

students will research their topic of interest. Satisfactory completion will consist of

reading at least two texts on the selected topic.

For this subordinate objective, I will begin by referring back to our class mentor

text Tigers by Laura Marsh to show students how the text consists of different sections on

the same topic. Using a document camera and my teaching demonstration writing

journal, I will model listing some animals of interest and deciding on one. I will then

model a web-style graphic organizer in which I place the animal in the center and sub-

topics around the outside shapes (such as appearance, habitat, and diet). I will

demonstrate using PebbleGo in Gwinnett County’s Online Research Library to show how

I would find this type of information and take notes. I will also give an example taking

notes using a book from the media center on the same topic. It is important for young

students to see modeling and think alouds so that they will know how to proceed with

their own research process.

10.3. For the same SO, specify and defend your choice of appropriate practice

materials.
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Students practice materials will mirror the ones I used for my modeling and think aloud

in my demonstration. They will also have a web graphic organizer to get them started,

and for students who wish to do so, they may add additional shapes for additional

subtopics, while English Language Learners will only be required to complete two

subtopics due to their limited English proficiency. They will be completing their research

using books they check out from the school media center on their animal of choice, and

they will also be using PebbleGo in the computer lab.

10.4. For the TO, specify and defend your choice of appropriate follow-through

materials.

At the end of the research period, students will be writing in a publishing format their

research piece on an animal to share with the class. This will provide me with insight on

student mastery of the standard. Additionally, students will be required to take an

informational writing post-test identical in format to the pre-test that will show growth in

their skill with informational writing.

11.0. Formative Evaluation

11.1. Throughout the writing process, I will be meeting with individual students to guide

their topic selection, research, and revision. Students will have an Informational Writing

Checklist, and I will be working with them to help them select goals to strengthen their

writing. If several students need help on the same checklist item, I will instruct them in a

small group setting. Below is the standard writing checklist:

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For English Language Learners, they will use an illustrated version, as shown below:
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For students who are advanced, they will have a rubric that also includes third grade skills, as

shown below:
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12.0. Revision

12.1. Through individual conferences with students, I will be able to see if my

instructional strategies were effective in helping students achieve mastery. If students

need additional struggle with a particular area as a whole, I can reteach the lesson in a
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whole group setting through an inquiry of a mentor text in which we would study an

additional published nonfiction text and determine what the author did that students could

apply do their own writing. If a few students need help with a particular area on the

checklist, such as developing a lead or ending, or organization of their writing, I would

group those students together and teach an additional lesson in a small group using

modeling, practice, and mentor texts.

13.0. Summative Evaluation

13.1. After students have written their research pieces, I will grade them using the second

grade informational writing rubric below. This will determine their grade-level mastery

in the areas of ideas, organization, style, and conventions.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Novice Developing Effective Highly Effective
I Lacks evidence of: Attempts to: ● Writes informative/explanatory Strengthens topic with written
d ● An informative/explanatory ● Write an text facts, definitions, and/or details
e text informative/explanatory text ● Uses facts to support topic
a
● Facts ● Provide facts ● Uses definitions
s
● Definitions ● Use definitions to develop some ● Recalls and gathers information
● Information from experiences points from experiences and/or
and/or provided sources ● Recall and gather information provided sources
from experiences and/or
provided sources
O Lacks evidence of: Attempts to: ● Introduces a topic or text Focuses on topic by grouping facts,
r
g
● A topic ● Introduce a topic ● Focuses on a topic definitions, and details
a ● Focus ● Focus on a topic ● Provides a concluding
n ● A concluding statement or ● Provide a concluding statement statement or section
i section or section
z
a
t
i
o
n
S Lacks Evidence of: Attempts to: ● Uses words acquired through  Adds facts, definitions, and
t ● Words acquired through ● Use words acquired through experiences and/or sources to details to strengthen writing
y experiences and/or sources experiences and/or sources describe topic, facts or throughout text
l
e
● Simple and compound ● Produce, expand, and rearrange definitions  Produces, expands, and
sentences simple and compound ● Produces, expands, and rearranges simple and
sentences rearranges simple and compound sentences
compound sentences throughout text

C Lacks Evidence of: Attempts to: ● Writes legibly

o ● Legible writing ● Write legibly ● Capitalizes holidays, product
n ● Command of grade-level ● Demonstrate a command of names, and geographic names
v
appropriate conventions of grade-level appropriate ● Demonstrates a command of

e English grammar and usage conventions of English
n when writing: grammar and usage when
t o grammar/usage writing:
i
o capitalization o grammar/usage
o
n o punctuation o capitalization
s o spelling o punctuation
o spelling
Errors have a significant effect on Errors have an effect on meaning.
meaning.
For English Language Learners, they will be graded with a modified rubric in the areas of
language complexity, vocabulary usage, and language control. The same rubrics will be
used to grade their informational writing post-tests.
Level Linguistic Complexity
Single words, set phrases or
chunks of simple language;
1 varying amounts of text may
Entering be copied or adapted;
adapted text contains original
language.
Phrases and short sentences;
varying amount of text may
2 Beginning be copied or adapted; some
attempt at organization may
be evidenced.
Simple and expanded
sentences that show
3 Developing
emerging complexity used to
provide detail.
A variety of sentence lengths
of varying linguistic
4 Expanding complexity; emerging
cohesion used to provide
detail and clarity.
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grade-level appropriate
conventions of English grammar
and usage when writing :
o grammar/usage
o capitalization
o punctuation
o spelling
Errors have a minimal effect on
meaning.
Errors have no effect on meaning.
Vocabulary Usage Language Control
Generally comprehensible
when text is copied or
Usage of highest frequency adapted from model or
vocabulary from school source text;
setting and content areas. comprehensibility may be
significantly impeded in
original text.
Generally comprehensible
when text is adapted from
Usage of general language
model or source text, or
related to the content area;
when original text is limited
lack of vocabulary may be
to simple text;
evident.
comprehensibility may be
often impeded by errors.
Generally comprehensible
Usage of general and some
when writing in sentences;
specific language related to
comprehensibility may from
the content area; lack of
time to time be impeded by
needed vocabulary may be
errors when attempting to
evident.
produce more complex text.
Usage of specific and some Generally comprehensible at
technical language related to all times, errors don’t impede
the content area; lack of the overall meaning; such
needed vocabulary may be errors may reflect first
occasionally evident. language interference.

A variety of sentence lengths
of varying linguistic
5 complexity in a single
Bridging organized paragraph or in
extended text; cohesion and
organization
A variety of sentence lengths
of varying linguistic
complexity in a single tightly
6
organized paragraph or in
Reaching
well-organized extended text;
tight cohesion and
organization
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Usage of technical language
related to the content area;
evident facility with needed
vocabulary.
Consistent use of just the
right word in just the right
place; precise Vocabulary
Usage in general, specific or
technical language.
Approaching comparability to
that of English proficient
peers; errors don’t impede
comprehensibility.
Has reached comparability to
that of English proficient
peers functioning at the
“proficient” level in state-
wide assessments.