Ignite a Passion for Learning: Informative Writing: How To

So last week was a beautiful introduction to "How To" informative writing. Since we were official pancake chefs (compound words anchor lesson), writing an informative on how to make their favorite meal/snack seemed like a perfect piece. I used this writing piece as a diagnostic tool. I looked them over and made notes for myself about what skills the students were showing in their writing as well as what areas seemed to be lacking. I used all of this to begin planning for this week's informative writing lesson.

In first grade, the common core standards have us writing three types of pieces: narrative, opinion, and informative. I break the informative into two types: "how to" and "all about." We also do daily journal writing as well as writing in small group in response to the text we are working with. We are also working on incorporating writing into all content areas, and I'm specifically making an effort to do more of this in math. (This is a new district wide goal I'm trying to get a jump start on. A bit of a challenge for first graders, but I have been surprised with how well they are doing with it.) Since this is our first experience this year with one of the big 3 as I call them (informative, opinion, narrative), I wanted to create a memorable anchor experience. And now that autumn is upon us and I get obsessed with all things apple, I thought writing an informative piece on how to make applesauce would be a fitting first lesson.

I wanted to make sure I did some direct instruction and modeling with a different topic first (still an apple theme of course though.) I read aloud a Curious George story. In this story George gets into some mischief at an apple orchard, but in the process makes apple cider. As we read this story we focused on two comprehension strategies: making predictions and summarizing. As we summarized the story, we focused on the steps that George took when making the apple cider. I then modeled writing a "How To Make Apple Cider" piece for the students. Whenever I model writing, I take the time to act like a first grader focusing on starting each sentence with a capital letter, correctly forming my letters, using finger spaces, sounding out words, and adding end punctuation.

The next day, they were ready to tackle their own informative writing. I wanted this to be their writing. Not my writing in their handwriting. It is so tempting to want to keep control and "over model" writing with these young first graders. Although this has it's place, it's not what I wanted for this lesson. Sometimes they just need the freedom to try! That's why I wanted to ensure they all had an authentic experience that would provide a solid starting point from which they would be able to write. We created an anchor chart that displayed transition words (first, then, next, finally, etc) that I wanted them to include in their writing. As we went through the process of creating the applesauce, I posted a picture of the step (rather than us writing the sentence on the anchor chart.) This way, when they went to write, they would still need to create their own complete sentences and could refer to the pictures for the content.

I was so happy with the level of enthusiasm they had about creating their own applesauce. Many of them had never peeled apples with a super fancy apple peeler like I brought in:) So of course I had to give them each a turn. They thought the corkscrew peeled apple was the "coolest thing ever!" After the applesauce had been cooking for a couple of hours, they were begging to take a peek. I couldn't believe how they formed a line to each have a turn to glance and take in the aroma. I honestly thought they would lose interest after the peeling was done. They kept getting back in line to have another turn. Sweetest thing. Yes, it was fun. Yes, it smelled amazing all day. Yes, it was delicious. But more importantly, is provided a strong anchor for our very first informative writing.