Informational Writing

Writing to think session 5

I can prioritize my ideas

​Monday

​Harvard Students and the moon

• ​

  Take note of anything that you notice about the moon

• ​Think about somethings that you might want to write down if you were writing an important paper about the moon.

• ​It's because ...

• ​I think it is because...

• ​I wonder if perhaps..

​Trace the events on the map while we read.

​The Settleres traveled from what is now Missouri toward the west in covered wagons. It was a long-more than 2000 miles- and hard trip. Many of them travled through (what is now) Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington before they stopped. They had to cross many rivers like the Platte River and others.

​Turn and Talk

​Discucss with your partner what would you add to the passage, thinking about details.

​The rivers must have given people some of their hardest challenges. They probably thought about going around those rivers, but for example the plate is 300 miles long. Going around it would mean the settlers had to go really far north, where winters were worse. That detour would have slowed the trip in a big way. probably after a while, some people became ferrymen, charging money to help people cross the river, but other times, when settlers reached the side of the river, they probably stayed there for a while and built themselves a raft. It must have been scary to drive your covered wagon that held everything toy owned onto a homemade raft, hoping it wouldn't flip over or sink!

​Writing to think

​"This makes me think..."

​"I'm realizing..."

​"This might be important because..."

​"I wonder if..."

​"Could it be that..."

​"Probably they..."

​"It must have been...."

​"For example...."

​"Probably after a while..."

Information Writers

1. think about the topic-and the parts of the topic, to write about

2. ​Plan how the writing might go

3. ​Research, taking notes.

4. ​Draft.

5. ​Revise with various lenses: growing ideas, looking for patterns and asking questions. Thinking about how the geography of the place impacted how the events unfolded,(Thinking and speculating)

Independent Work Time​

10 Min Share​:

​Ask your partner: What are the surprising parts about this?

​So what?

​How does this connect with other things I know?

Writers of History Draw on an Awareness of Timelines

I can slow down and explain the larger point 

Tuesday

​Using Timelines to write

​Think about how these events are related to the overall story

​1. The bears sit down for breakfast, but their pourage is to hot so they go walking

​​2.Goldilocks comes in to the house

​3. Goldilocks tries all of the porridge and eats baby Bear's

​

​4. Goldilocks tries all of the chairs and breaks Baby Bear's

​5. Goldilocks tries all of the beds and falls asleep in Baby Bear's

​

​6. The Bears come home, discover the eaten poridge, the broken chair, and Goldilocks asleep in the bed

​7.Goldilocks wakes up and runs out the house

​Cause and Effect Relationship

Looking for patterns and asking questions

​

​Writing about how these events would

​effect history.

​Using the timeling to revise my writing

​Different things took people west-one was the opening of the Erie Canal, which made it much easier for people to get from the East Coast to the Midwest because the Erie Canal brought people to the whole chain of the Great Lakes. Then, starting in 1846, the Oregon Trail and other things took people from the Midwest to California and Oregon.

​The process

​History Writers revise by...

​

Asking questions

​

​Studying geography (Maps)

​

​Looking for patterns and changes

​across a timeline of events

​Why were people willing to leave home? how could they go, not knowing the danger?

​

​Gold mines aren't just in California, they were all over the west coast.

​

​Time again and again U.S. would expand their t

​territory so that the European settlers could

​make a better life for themselves.

Information Writers

1. think about the topic-and the parts of the topic, to write about

2. ​Plan how the writing might go

3. ​Research, taking notes.

4. ​Draft.

5. ​Revise with various lenses: growing ideas, looking for patterns and asking questions. Thinking about how the geography of the place impacted how the events unfolded,(Thinking and speculating)

​Thinking about how the timeline of history impacted how the event unfolded

​Is this well detailed?

​

​IS this well structured?

​

​Have I brought out the place, the

​geography?

​

​Have I brought out the places event

​in the timeline of history?

​Independent Work time

​Think about the timeline on your draft, what can you add, where can you add dates? How can you use the geography of the map?

Assembling and Thinking about Information

I can use my notes and develop a draft

Wednesday

​Look over your notes, and draft

• ​Have any new questions come up?

• ​Have there been any sections are information you didn't mention?

• ​​Do you have any unanswered questions in your draft

​Redrafting Our Research Reports

​Writing is similar to building a sand castle.

​

​How you can capture your vision in writing.

​Small groups on drafting a paper

​1. Think about the topic-and parts of the topic to write about

​2. Plan how the writing might go

3. Research, taking notes.

​4.Draft

​5. Revise with various lenses: growing ideas, looking for patterns, and asking questions, thinking about how the geography of the place impacted how the events unfolded, thinking and speculating, thinking about how the timeline of history impacted how the events unfolded

​6. Redraft

​My draft

​

Thefore because of the oregon Trail, America become more expanded, this caused the erie canal and the Transcontinental railroad to be built because of the nations size need for it.

​

​2. Later these covered wagons would travel about 2k miles to get to their destination

​3. across the loussiana territory and through the rocky mountain

​4. to get to the west settlers traveled on the oregon trail, going through kansas, wyomiong, idaho and washington,

​5. Traveling over rivers were hard with no boats and traveling over mountains were hard with wooden tires so settlers would travel in wagon trains. where about 4k wagons would stick together while traveling to the west and brave many severe situations

Small groups​

Share: Adopting a formal tone

​

1. Avoid contractions. Instead of didn't or weren't try did not or were not

2. ​use expert language from your research

3. ​Use fancy transition words like therefore, additionally, in other words, on the other hand

​Celebrating and Reaching Toward New Goals

​Thursday

​Drawing Inspiration from Mentor Text