Informational Writing

Students write a great deal of informational writing in science class.  I give students a variety of authentic writing tasks to show understanding of material and to write for an audience.  I have found that students put forth more effort and produce better products when a global audience is involved.  Students need to be able to teach others the information they have learned in a clear manner.  We use Storybird to produce children's books on different science topics.  The Storybird website allows students to choose artwork from the site and add text as a picture book, a poem, or a longer book.  Click the photo link to see a sample of informational text written for younger children.

Informational writing "imparts knowledge or tells the reader how to do something" (Michigan Science Teachers Association and The Office of School Improvement, n.d.).  Informational writing requires students to organize ideas and clearly communicate the information.  Writing informational text also gives students an opportunity to work with the information and to make connections.  Students can use journal notes and investigation results to develop writing (Michigan Science Teachers Association and The Office of School Improvement, n.d.).

References

Michigan Science Teachers Association and The Office of School Improvement. (n.d.). Writing across the curriculum. Retrieved from Michigan.gov: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/Science_WAC_2_3_264454_7.pdf