Evaluate Your Informational Report

Writing a Conclusion

A conclusion should

• stress the importance of your reason for informing
• give the paper a sense of completeness
• leave a final impression on the reader

Techniques for Closing:

• Summary: Summarize the content, presenting the information through a new angle rather than repeating everything directly.
• Reaction or feeling: Tell how you feel about the content.
• Image description: Describe a visual or sensory image related to the content.
• Image: Include a visual image (photo, drawing, clipart) related to the overall message.
• Quotation: Present an interesting quotation or fact related to what you have written.  You might need to write something before or after the quotation/fact so that it makes sense to the reader.
• Encouragement to reflect:  End with a statement that encourages readers to keep thinking about the concept.
• Encouragement to act: End with a statement that encourages the taking of some action(such as using less fossil fuel or continuing to look for real-life uses of math).
• Question: End with a question that encourages readers to keep thinking about the concept.

Writing a Great Introduction

After weeding through several mentor texts, our class came up with the following features that make a great intro.

1. Be at least one paragraph
2. First Sentence should "hook" you.  Click here for strategies.
3. Tell the reader what they are going to learn about in this paper.
4. Only use important facts.

Organizing our Informational Articles

Let's think about the structure of an informational article.  In all our mentor texts, we noticed that the structure falls into these categories:

Let's look at your research and begin organizing your article by completing a flowchart.  In google docs, open your draft then create a table and type the flowchart.

Review the research on your index cards.  Jot notes/ideas in the flow chart.  It is not necessary to cite anything or write complete sentences at this point.  Our purpose is to organize our thoughts.

Let's organize!

Researching and Taking Notes

After you've selected your topic and headings, it's time to research the answers to your questions.  Some things to keep in mind.

• Document what you've found.  Be sure to tell the location of the source (book, website-National Geographic, video) and then then the source (author, website address, video address). Below is an example of a note card.

• Make sure your source is reliable.  Stick to a .org, .edu, or .net. If you use a .com, make sure it's reliable.  Can you find the information in at least 3 other sources?  Is the date current? Does the author have quality experience?  

• Take lots of notes.  Use "quotation marks" if you are quoting an author word for word.  Do you need to do this?  Why are you quoting?  Paraphrase short pieces of information and summarize long pieces.  Click here to learn the difference.  Try to have all your research COMPLETE by Friday.  

Informational Research - Possible Headings

Animals

• What do they eat?
• Where do they live? (habitat)
• How do they defend themselves?
• What do they look like? (Physical characteristics)
• How many are there? Are they endangered? 

Famous Person

• Their life when they were younger? Where were they born/grew up? 
• Why are they important? 
• What did they do that affected their country/the world? 
• Decisions/ consequences they've made

Country

•   Characteristics of the land (mountains/ lakes/ rivers/jungle/coastal etc.)
• Government 
•  Economy
• Native People
• Natural Resources
• Conflicts 
• Religion
• Tourism/Fun
• Native Animals
• Global Connections (how do they interact with the world?)
• How do they travel/communicate?
• Challenges they face

Diseases  

• What is it? 
• How does it affect you?
• How does it spread?
• Major Outbreaks 
• Is in undercontrol or out of control currently?
• How is it treated?

Informational Report Planning

Think of a topic you'd like to research and write an informational report about.  We'd like to stay in the theme of Africa so ideas may stem from one of the categories:

• Country 
• Animals
• Endangered Animals
• Tribes and Traditions
• Diseases
• Famous People

Be ready to choose a topic by tomorrow.

Informational Text Features

Contagious Disease Projects

Publishing Fun
Check these contagious disease projects!

West Nile by Hannah
Tuberculosis by Stella

Pertussis by Nyssa

Cholera by Amber

Small Pox by Sam

Polio by Lola

Bird Flu by Joey

Scarlet Fever by Kassidy

Typhus by Kylie

Cancer by Nick L.

Leprosy by Gabby

Measles by Nick V.

Hepatitis by Jacob S.

Mononucleosis by Hayden 

Influenza by Carter

Mumps by Jacob K

Chicken Pox by Jackson
Malaria by Jadee

Giardia by Logan

Swine Flu by Grace

Writing an Informative Piece: Writing a one page essay

We used our research notes to create a one page essay.  This was incredibly easy after all the hard work of reading and organizing our notes.  We practiced orally summarizing then synthesizing our reading notes with a partner before writing.  Students posted their essays on their writing blogs.  Check them out.  Next step:  PUBLISH for an audience.  

Joey:  Bird Flu

Hannah:  West Nile

Stella:  TB Sanitoriums

Writing an Informative Piece: Organizing Paragraphs

You've written your thesis, chosen your categories/details, and have written an introductory paragraph.

Time to order your paragraphs.  

1. Click on the link to access the Research Guide google Research Guide Template
2. Make a copy of the doc and title your name/ research
3. Copy and past your introductory paragraph into the first box.
4. Write a topic sentence for each category in the box.  Use the remainder of the box to write the remainder of your details.  Complete at least 3 of these category boxes.
5. Make sure that your sources are listed at the bottom of the 2nd page.

Writing an Informative Piece: Writing an Introductory Paragrapha

After determining a thesis, students then webbed (or jotted notes in a table) about which key ideas they wanted to share in their paper.  They are in the process of using their notes to write an introductory paragraph.  See examples below:

By Kylie






by Grace

By Kassidy

By Stella

Writing an Informative Piece: Research Question to Thesis Statement

After developing a research question, students turned it into a thesis statement. They also determined whether their paper will use a compare/contrast structure or chronological structure.

Here are a few examples:

Compare/ Contrast Structure by Kylie

Chronological Structure by Grace

Chronological Structure by Kassidy

Compare/ Contrast by Joey

Chronological Structure by Lola

Research Question:  How could one simple sneeze turn out to be so deadly?

Thesis:  Even though there is a successful vaccine, Pertussis is still very common.

Chronological Structure by Nyssa

                             

Writing an Informative Piece: Formulating a Research Question

We've been reading, reading, reading about contagious diseases.  Each student chose a different disease to read more closely about.  While reading, they summarized their reading by jotting notes in a table. Beside the notes, they also jotted questions that developed as they read.  After reading multiple sources, students were asked to develop a question they'd like to research more.  One that could be used to inform others about something interesting.

Research Guide Template

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wWRT_0DyapGjh3wRO_l9ICJX27VqsgaW_NgC4uw6ij8/edit?usp=sharing
Below are a few examples:

By Kylie

By Grace

By Lola

By Kassidy

By Nyssa

By Joey

By Stells

Students were also asked to cite their source on their table.