1. Informational Writing Unit Grade 7-Looking at Grade 6/year 1
Common core
Informational Writing Unit
Grade 7-Looking at
Grade 6/year 1
The approach to studying these units will be focused on the informational writing concepts across the grade band rather than a grade-level unit. As students ramp into the CCSS and these units, teachers might want to begin by teaching a lower grade-level unit.

2. Thinking Routine
Compass Points

3. Sort the objects in a way that makes sense to the group at your table.
Object Sort activity
Sort the objects in a way that makes sense to the group at your table.
Debrief: Notice and share the different ways tables sorted information. Make point the that informational writing requires writer to sort and sift then organize info into meaningful relationships.

4. Pre-Unit Assessment
PROMPT: Choose a topic of interest to you that involves a cause and effect relationship. Write a well-organized piece explaining the cause and effect relationship.
Debrief: How did having to choose a topic and be constrained to a particular organizational structure challenge the writing?

5. Debrief
How did having to choose a topic and be constrained to a particular organizational structure challenge the writing?

6. Rubric for Self-assessment
Have writers look at the 6th grade unit rubric and self-assess.
Debrief: What are the major notices and struggles writers had in doing this task?

7. Debrief
What are the major notices and struggles you had in doing this task?

8. Informational Unit Progression
6th grade
Cause & Effect
Prescribed Research
7th grade
Chronological
(summary + description)
Bounded Research
8th grade
Compare & Contrast
Scaffolded Research
Outline of the organizational pattern for each grade level unit and the research approach (further explained on the next slide).

9. Informational Unit Progression
Year 1
Cause & Effect
Prescribed Research
Year 2
Chronological
(summary + description)
Bounded Research
Year 3
Compare & Contrast
Scaffolded Research
Outline of the organizational pattern for each grade level unit and the research approach (further explained on the next slide).

10. RESEARCH Writing PROGRESSion
Prescribed Research
teacher provides highly structured directions
extensive modeling by the teacher
research question & sources pre-determined & pre-selected
students focus on selecting & organizing information for a particular text structure
Bounded Research
teacher sets boundaries & provides directions to channel research
modeling by teacher as needed
student develops research question & selects sources within prescribed boundaries
organizational pattern selected from provided option(s)
Scaffolded Research
teacher shapes & scaffolds independent research
student develops research question & selects sources
organizational pattern selected from multiple options
Note the gradual release of teacher control in this progression as the student takes on more responsibility for developing research questions, locating sources, and determining the organizational pattern. Teachers may choose to use a more teacher-scaffolded approach than put forth in a unit depending on their students’ needs and the resources available (computers for internet searching, media center etc.).

11. Concept #1: Identify & Research a topic

12. Teaching points – Mentor Text Study
1. Informational Writing Strategies: Cause and Effect
Writers of informational essays use many different strategies to convey information to the reader, including cause and effect, definition, compare and contrast, and classification. Cause and effect explores how and why something happened and what occurred as a result of an event. Cause and effect links situations and events together in time, with causes coming before effects.
2. Informational Text Models: Cause and Effect Writers examine pieces by other writers to learn about informational essay strategies. Writers use cause and effect in informational essays to show the relationship between related events, people, and issues.
Note that the text in orange is specific to the 6th grade unit. This portion of the teaching point varies depending on the unit’s organizational pattern.

13. Mentor Text Structure
Hurricane Katrina Annotate for the three organizational structures the Middle School units address

14. Debrief
What did you notice about the presence and interaction/intertwining of the 3 organizational patters?
Informational texts tend to employ multiple patterns rather than just one, though one may predominate.
What could this mean when teaching a unit that focuses on a single pattern?

15. Researching & Organizing Information
TEACHING POINT #4: Writers perform research to increase their knowledge of the chosen topic. They sort through their prior knowledge and research information, categorizing facts, details, quotations, and examples into categories and sub-categories.

16. Developing A Research QuesTion
Consider:
What is the organizational pattern?
What is the topic?
Example: The Sinking of the Titanic
Using the Hurricane Katrina article as the topic to work from, create a research question based on one of the organizational patters.
6th/Year 1 - Cause & Effect
What were the causes and effects of the Titanic sinking?
7th/ Year 2 - Chronological
What were the key events leading up to and following the Titanic sinking?
8th/ Year 3 - Compare/Contrast
What were the similarities and differences between 1st and 3rd class passengers' experience on the sinking Titanic?
Note that research question development corresponds in each unit to how scaffolded the research process is. In 6th grade students are provided with a research question.
Typically when writing an informational piece, the research drives the organizational pattern. But for this writing task, that’s reversed.

17. Sift & sort Activity The information (research) corresponds to your
organizational pattern by grade level / year.
6th Grade / Year 1: Cause and Effect
7th Grade/Year 2: Chronological (summary and description)
8th Grade / Year 3: Compare and Contrast
Read each slip of paper. Sift and sort into categories, headings, etc.
Extension: In a whole group debrief, ask tables to choose a category and consider possible sub-categories to use in performing further research.
Debrief:
How did you determine which set of bulleted info to use?
What ideas does this give you about formatively assessing students in their understanding of what info is most relevant and how to organize it?

18. Debrief How did you determine which set of bulleted info to use?
What ideas does this give you about formatively assessing students in their understanding of what information is most relevant and how to organize it?

19. Information Research & Writing Process
Record prior knowledge on a topic & develop a research question
Research and sort information
Develop a central idea
Select, and analyze key details, facts, examples
Experiment with organization to reflect the text structure & central idea
Revise & edit for clarity of content, strength of analysis, & organization
Share text w/ reader & reflect on writing & research process
At what points in the process might students need to return to revise their research question or central idea, do more research or refine their information categories?
Information Research
& Writing Process
Remind participants about the recursive nature of the research and writing process. Whole group discussion: At what points in the process might students need to return to revise their research question or central idea, do more research or refine their information categories?

20. Concept #2: Synthesize Information & Determine an Organizational Pattern

21. Developing a Central Idea
Central Idea – The overarching idea behind an informational essay that answers a research question. The term central idea can also be used in relation to a paragraph, where the central idea should sit in the topic sentence. In a cause and effect-based essay, a central idea probably looks like this:
Cause(s)  Event/Issue  Effect(s)
Teaching Point #5 (T.P. #6 in 7th grade): Writers determine a central idea to focus the drafting of their essay. In a cause and effect-based essay, the central idea will explain these relationships: Cause(s)  Event/Issue  Effect(s)

22. Developing a central idea
Using the handout, develop a 2-3 sentence central idea about Hurricane Katrina for your given organizational pattern.
Debrief: What did you notice about how you processed their information into a concise statement? What are foreseeable challenges students may have and how might you scaffold?

23. Debrief
What did you notice about how you processed information into a concise statement?
What are foreseeable challenges students may have and how might you scaffold this process?

24. Finding a Structure
Teaching Point #6: Writers of informational essays select a logical structure for their piece as they draft. With the cause and effect strategy, the structure is determined by the nature and number of the causes and effects.
Cause
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
Effect
Cause 1
Cause 2
Cause 3
CAUSE & EFFECT
Cause #1
Effect A
Effect B
Cause #2
Effect C
EFfect D
Note: There is only one graphic for the7th grade/ chronological pattern because there is only one logical way to structure such an essay – chronologically. The challenge comes in determining the order of the summary and the description.
Event #1
Event #2
Event #3
CHRONOLOGICAL

25. Finding a structure COMPARE/CONTRAST Block Point by Point TOPIC A
Perspective #1
Perspective #2
TOPIC B
TOPIC C
Debrief: What were the determining factors in helping you pick a structure? What was challenging about this task?

26. Debrief
What were the determining factors in helping you pick a structure?
What was challenging about this task?

27. Concept #3: Create a product to inform an audience

28. Revision – Reverse outline
Teaching Point #9: When they have completed a draft of their essay, informational essay writers may use a reverse outline to determine the effectiveness of their piece, make a revision plan, then make changes accordingly.
****
Using your pre-unit assessment write, experiment with the reverse outline activity.
Introduce the reverse outline activity – its purpose and process.
Debrief:
How would you turn the outline and your observations from creating it into a revision plan?
What support might your students need in this process?

29. Debrief
How would you turn the outline and your observations from creating it into a revision plan?
What support might your students need in this process?

30. ARGUMENT & INFORMATIONAL WRITING?
WHAT’s the Difference?
Key similarities & differences between
ARGUMENT & INFORMATIONAL WRITING?
Stance of the writer
Research
Claim/Central Idea
Organizational patterns
For more information, see CCSS Appendix A, p. 23.

31. Formative & summative ASSESSMENt

33. Formative assessment
How do we use the unit’s formative rubrics to guide instruction (plan future mini-lessons, glean conferring teaching points, etc.)?
How would we grade the reader’s/writer’s notebook?
What other tools do we find helpful as formative assessments?

34. Would any aspects of the rubrics be more valued than others?
Summative assessment
How do we judge growth?
Would any aspects of the rubrics be more valued than others?
How do we assign grades based on process and product?