Get to the POINT!

   As we move through our genre of informational text (procedural) I want my children to truly understand how to develop a topic for an audience.  One thing they must do is to think of not only the topic, but also what is the point they are trying to make with their readers.  In an informational text the point or focus of the topic is stated in the conclusion, throughout the body, and in the conclusion.  In order to do this the children must ask themselves questions about what they've read and what they're writing.

Using the book Nonfiction Mentor Text as my guide I set out to do just this.  After looking at these questions we then used Venus by Seymour Simon book (used earlier to teach text structure) to determine what were his big ideas and what essential questions did he use that guided his writing.  I reminded students again and again throughout the process that we write with the reader in mind! Here is their thinking after reading the first few pages of the book: 

I'll be honest- it was really hard for them to come up with question that he sought to answer.  Definitely a skill that we will be developing as we move through this genre!