Chapter 6 Best Practices in Teaching Informative Writing from Sources by Jennifer Williams https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj What informational source materials have you provided students to use and what informational writing tasks have you included in your instruction? Please share the title and author of an informational text you have used and the correlating writing activity. **Don't forget to post your name please!** en-us 2017-10-21 20:45:10 UTC 2025-11-09 12:19:26 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Apple.png Jen Williams jewill13 https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/199299677 Pandas by Anne Schreiber
I use the National Geographic KIDS series as source books for my 2nd graders. The Pandas book has an interesting diagram of the panda's body and many informative chapters and text features. I use this book as my exemplar when 2nd graders write informational paragraphs. I draft paragraphs with topic sentences and descriptive details modeled after the source text. 

]]> 2017-10-21 20:47:55 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/199299677 Dr. Grifenhagen jfgrifen https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201500596 Building on your idea, Jen, I like to use trusted online resources for student research! I direct children to particular, curated sites to find information for their own writing. One of these is National Geographic Kids. Others include NewsELA and Brittanica Kids.]]> 2017-10-29 15:31:14 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201500596 Donna Lehning https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201566620 If my students are researching online I direct them to use sites such as Discovery Education and NC Wise Owl.  Both sites have books, videos, pictures, and many resources available in kid-friendly language in a variety of reading levels. For trade books I like to direct students to books such as From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman.
 ]]> 2017-10-30 01:23:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201566620 https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201569101 Donna Lehning]]> 2017-10-30 01:39:05 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201569101 Kimberly Pilling https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201689304
La Tete d'Henri IV


I usually try to find a current event/interesting article about historical or literary French figures that will interest my students. I give them the article, tell them the definitions of some words with which they are unfamiliar and then I ask them questions pertinent to the article--things explicitly stated and things they can infer. In this way, I know the source is valid and it allows them not just to answer questions about what is explicitly stated, but I also ask them to make inferences or to connect the information in the article about other topics we have already studied. ]]> 2017-10-30 12:54:19 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201689304 Rebekah Craven https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201976799 I never had the chance to teach informative writing in my student teaching, but I think it will be a lot of fun to teach soon and I agree with Graham, MacArthur, and Fitzgerald that "mining" a text can be a great way to develop the tones and format of this kind of writing. Like the book suggest I think I would use sites such as Discover Education and NC Wise Owl for student researching purposes. I agree with Jen that magazines like National Geographic Kids or Time for Kids would be great texts to mime, or have students go through to learn more about a specific topic or current event, or the text features of informative writing pieces. ]]> 2017-10-31 01:06:12 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/201976799 Sandy Bledsoe sdbleds2 https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/202342423 Recently my students were learning about bats.  One of their writing assignments was to use Discovery Ed and to build their own board.  On their board they needed to include two writings and two videos or images.  They really enjoyed looking up the information and writing about it.  However, I see the need to discuss writing in your own words.

]]> 2017-10-31 22:41:54 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/202342423 Donna Drew https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/202754633 My first grade group used Scholastic News as a resource when we were learning about spiders.  This resource also provides online resources.  I supplemented our study by using  you tube videos.  This was a good one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-tZ7-TzSM
It shares fun facts about spiders.
We also used Discovery Channel resources.  Students wrote about spiders using the Scribble my Story app.



]]> 2017-11-02 01:24:17 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/202754633 Brittany McLean https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203031208 Recently, some students at my school did a research project on a historical site of their choice  in North Carolina. They had no trouble finding information, but some of it was not relevant to what they should have been looking for. I believe using something like NC Wise Owl could have sent them in the right direction. I say that to make this point: while research is imporant for students to independently, this situation proved to me that it can be helpful to point students in the right direction to find what they need when completing informational writing tasks.]]> 2017-11-02 17:29:13 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203031208 Stephanie Metcalf slmetca2 https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203168050 My K/1s just finished our bat unit. Each day we would read a new bat book and we put our new information onto our KWHL. When the students had the opportunity to write about bats, they were able to use any of the texts we had about bats. This book was one of their favorites.

 ]]> 2017-11-03 03:07:11 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203168050 Daniel Hencher https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203375122 I have used sites such as NC wise Owl, Discovery Ed and regularly use articles from News ELA  to  help make sure the information is current and relevant to what they are studying. During a reading station my students can work on a Personal Research piece which helps them hone their skills in searching for information.]]> 2017-11-03 16:32:08 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203375122 CNN Student news--(has recently changed it's name to CNN10 shares daily current events. This would be for upper elementary, middle and high school. For younger students I have used Dogo News. These articles have bold words with linked definitions. I think a challenged that we face with doing research is to help our kids understand and analyze the information. Sometimes they will find conflicting information. https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203424683 Holly ]]> 2017-11-03 18:10:24 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203424683 We generally research together through the web, and we visit sites most often that will allow us to take virtual field trips to "mine" information. I really like the Smithsonian and other museum sites, they have interactive features that appeal to my young learners. esgolden https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203484425 2017-11-03 21:55:00 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203484425 Ashley Setser https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203485619 I have used Epic! and Big Universe for my students to search through and find information about historical figures in order to write biographies. I have also used Discovery Education like many others have. I wish that I could have a subscription to Time for Kids or Scholastic News! I think that as the years progress, I might begin to ask my student's to help fund these subscriptions... 

]]> 2017-11-03 22:10:07 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203485619 Marissa Raimondi https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495273 Students in my class have access to current Scholastic News articles, which are really great informational texts. Scholastic News provides information on all different topics. I also use Discovery Ed as a resource for students while they are working on informational writing pieces. Last year, I had my students find information for their biographies on instaGrok, but unfortunately it seems like that search engine no longer works. ]]> 2017-11-04 01:13:26 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495273 Carolina Musawwi https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495438 I really enjoy using magazines such as Zoobooks with my students.  These magazines are entertaining and have a lot information along with really nice pictures.  My kids really enjoy them!  I have gotten quite a few of them by asking parents to donate them back to the school once their kids are through with them.  ]]> 2017-11-04 01:18:17 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495438 Amanda Gary https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495651 I use the weekly Time for Kids magazine to help with real topics that are kid friendly. We are just about to jump into expert writing and will use resources such as Britanica, Discovery Education, and google searches to help answer our "wonder" questions. 

]]> 2017-11-04 01:24:10 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203495651 Andria Hall andria_hall1 https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203582258 I have used Discovery Education and Time for Kids. My students did a research project of a Native American tribe of their choice and then had to determine how the explorers who interacted with them interfered with their current lifestyle. Along with that we used books from the library as well as google searches. If I found a website that was trustworthy, I would like it to an Edmodo post so that students could access it from there. I also used PBS Learning, National Geographic websites or NewELA if the information found there was useful.

]]> 2017-11-05 00:50:50 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/203582258 Mary English mecomer https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/205845810 We use Discovery Education and Britannica to research about animals to write informational pieces about their habitats. We also read informational texts online using Big Universe and Epic. Students have access to Nat Geo for kids books to help with their research project, as well. ]]> 2017-11-11 00:32:35 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/205845810 Erin Swinson enswinso https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/207037722 I use Readworks a lot to give my students informational articles on a variety of topics that my students have an interest in. I also have used various websites that my student's regular education teachers have been using to support what they are doing, or we will research sites together on where to get information.]]> 2017-11-15 03:05:09 UTC https://padlet.com/jewill13/vma5m1w1lkjj/wish/207037722