Writers Workshop
Informational
Writing
Writing About
Reading
Bend 1
Planning and
Drafting Companion
Books
Writing about Reading
Supplies
1. Reader’s Notebook
2. A fiction book you LOVE
• Something you’ve read before and want to read
again
• The next book in a series you really enjoy
• A new book that came out that you have been
waiting to read
• Or a favorite book you’ve read in school for a
book club
Reading Day
Session One
Writing about
Reading with Voice
and Investment
Connection
Challenge – To make writing about reading become
important to you!
Real World: Informational Writing
*Writing about a subject you know well
Examples:
• Astronomers write good informational articles
about black holes that reflect what they know, love
and notice.
• Good informational writing about sports reflects
what sports fans know, love and notice.
Your informational writing about reading needs to
reflect what you know and love and notice about
reading and about the books you read.
Teaching Target
“Reading is not walking on words. It is grasping the soul
of them” Paulo Freire
The best way to grasp “the soul” of what you are
reading is by writing about it.
Today I want to challenge you to begin to
write about reading with
•Intensity
•Energy
•Thoughtfulness
•Power
Goal: Write about reading so you LIKE
the writing you do
Turn and Talk
Think about a time recently when you couldn’t stop
yourself from writing
•A text message
•An email
•A note to someone
•A post on Facebook
•Maybe you were so mad you had to tell
someone
•Maybe you were confused about what was
going on and wanted answers
•Maybe you were excited about some good news
•Maybe you heard or saw something so funny
you had to share it with someone
Discuss with your partner how that writing
sounded like you
Active Engagement
Turn to a clean page in the
workshop section of your readers
notebook
Listen as I read the beginning
of a short story to you
Listen as writers who
Hear more
See more
Think more
Feel more
As I read or when I am done
reading write ANY WAY you
The Stolen Party
By Lilana Heker
want about what I just read
•List
•Describe
•Chart
•Map
•Sketch
Anything to show you are
trying to grasp the soul of
this story
The Stolen Party
Entire Story
Working with the Text
Hand out a copy of page one of “Stolen
Party”
•Begin to read quietly with your partner
alternating paragraphs
•Read a small portion of the story until
you come to a natural stopping point
STOP and JOT – whatever that looks
like
Samples
Mid Workshop – Gallery Walk
Imagining the Possibilities
1
2
3 (3examples)
4
It is hard to create what you can’t imagine
Use the ideas of others to inspire what you do
You don’t have to copy someone else but use their
work to help you imagine how yours could be
different or better
I have put copies of 6 students writing about reading around
the room •Visit the different areas read and Silently examine their
writing
•Return to your writing inspired by what you saw–
•Add something
•Change something
•Start over doing something new
Reflecting
Challenge one is to write so you like your writing
Challenge two is for your writing to show intense, potent
and deep thinking about the text
Reflect on the writing you did today – mentally
answer these questions
1. What did you like better about it then the
writing you usually do about reading?
2. What is different in this kind of writing?
3. Where you inspired by the gallery walk, How?
Turn and Talk
Sharing your thinking about writing about reading
•Use one of the prompts below to start a conversation with your partner
•Do not share the writing your did today(we want to work on it more
before we share)
•Discuss, using the prompt how your ideas about writing about what
you have read are changing
I used to think…
But now I am realizing…
Some people think…
But I believe…
My ideas about…are complicated.
On the one hand I think…on the
When I first…I thought…
other hand, I think…
But now when I …,I realize that
really…
Homework
Committing to a Book
Write to add to your Reading
• Is this a good book for you? Ask • While reading:
yourself:
– Find a way to write that adds
– Am I connected to the book?
to your reading:
– Can I push myself to try and
– Jot on post-it notes, paste
understand it through and
them in your notebook and
through?
write around them
– If you answer yes read 30
– Jot quick notes and then circle
minutes
the big ideas and expand them
– If you answer no find a new book
and read 30 minutes
Bring your writing about reading to class tomorrow to
share
Reading Day
Session 2
Using Graphics to
Think and Rethink
about Literature
How to capture ideas about
reading
Thinking about what is on the page
And
Rethinking what is on the page
Some ways to map your thinking about
reading:
• Color Code
• Layered/Categorized Post-it notes
• Stars/Numbers/Arrows
• Diagrams
What to think about
• Notice what the author has done with the
words, how have they shown you the
information
• Ask yourself WHY has the author written
the way they have, why did they chose to
put the words together that way?
Pictures of different ways to think about
reading
Use Shift create some analysis
Flashback chapters
Events that effect Chris and those that effect Chris and Win
Active Engagement:
• With your partner
• Read the next section of the story:
• The Stolen Party
Map your Thinking
• Look at your responses to this writing
from yesterday
• Try to respond differently today – use
different method to think about your
reading
Whole Class Share
How did you map your thinking about
reading?
Remember:
We are looking at different ways to think and
write that thinking down
We are not looking to decode this story
Work Time
With your book:
Use the methods of writing about your thinking about
reading:
Use something you tried in the past two days
Use a new method
Remember!
A good writer gets the ideas and then selects the
tools to record those ideas
Don’t let the supplies dictate your method of writing
HOMEWORK
Continue to read your book
After each section or at a break in
the action
•Maybe the end of scene
•New Chapter
•Change in character thinking
or talking
Stop to write about your reading in
a new entry in your journals
Reading Day
Session 3
Thinking Big,
Thinking Small
Teaching Point
Learning to look through the
ladder of abstraction when
thinking and writing about our
reading!
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Look at the student examples from
yesterday
Turn and Talk:
With your partner create a list of good ideas
to write about reading you see in the
student examples:
Anchor Chart
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
• Record important details (quotes, setting,
symbolic objects)
• Think about the big ideas/themes (linked
to details)
• Use Academic Language (narrator,
protagonist,resolution)
• Explain your thinking (write to clarify)
Practice:
Look at your writing about reading
Highlight 3 places in our entry where you’ve
included very concrete specific details
from the text
*If your details aren’t as specific as they
could be go back and alter them.
Example using The Stolen
Party
When writing about the Stolen Party your
thinking might include:
1. Your detail might include that Rosaura
didn’t just tell her mother to be quiet, she
yelled at her saying “shut up”
2. You could quote the text when it says,
Rosaura ‘didn’t approve of the way her
mother spoke’
Writing about the Big idea
• When thinking about reading and then
writing about it focusing on the theme is a
good idea.
• Use the questions on the next slide to help
you think about the big idea
Turn and talk to your partner and try to do
this with a story you are familiar with – or
use the class book club on Shift
Anchor Chart:
Writing about Theme
•I learned from (the character, the event) that in life it
is important to
•Even if…you should…
•This story teaches us not only about…but also
about…
•When I first read this story I thought it was just
about…but now that I think more deeply about, I
realize that it is really about…
•Something that’s true in this story that’s also true in
the world is…
•(A character) shows/teaches/demonstrates that…
Writing at both ends…
Powerful writing about reading has two
opposites: details, lots of them, and also a big
idea or two, usually stated in a way that makes
it relevant to people everywhere
Writing about reading should come from both
ends of the ladder – Ladder of Abstraction
The ladder represents the details you can see
The abstract is the space at the top
representing themes and big ideas you don’t
see
Academic Language About
Literature
When writing about reading use the
following vocabulary:
•Narrator
•Character
•Protagonist
•Antagonist
•Conflict
•Story arc
•Rising Action
•Climax/Turning Point
Transitional Phrases
Transitions in Informational Writing are used to:
•Help you move between big ideas and smaller details
•They work to help you connect your ideas
Transitions
To Add
In addition
Furthermore
Also
To suggest a contrast
On the other hand
In contrast
Unlike
To suggest examples
For example
For instance
Specifically
To show relationships of
cause and effect
Therefore
Consequently
Because of
As a result
Writing about Reading
Select a goal for today's writing entry
Look at the anchor chart
Or try to use transitional words to link your
information together.
Using your thinking and mapping from
reading pick a topic to focus today’s entry
on.
Reading Day
Session 4
Explaining your
Thinking
Teaching Point
When writing about reading, you
should expect that you will come to
new ideas.
As you write, be sure that your
thinking and big ideas are explained
and developed.
Writers can use free writing to explain
their big ideas so that others can
grasp their thinking
Model and Try it
Look in your notebook and find an entry
where you have charted/diagramed a
section of the text but don’t have a written
explanation
Teacher Example Entry
Ask a question:
Look at your entry and ask yourself:
What was I thinking when I made this page?
Write down your answer
Teacher answer to what I was thinking
I was thinking this when I created my diagrams
I’ve started reading War Horse, a novel written from the
point of view of a horse that was ridden into many
battles during WWI. Last night when I finished reading
the beginning, I thought how peaceful it was for the
horse before the war, and then I was thinking about how
I learned that horses suffer a lot in battle and they get
wild. I started getting the idea that War Horse shows
not just how horses get hurt, but how there are other
effects people don’t even think about.
Animals get hurt, and innocent people who are just
living there get hurt too.
War causes a lot of suffering.
Maybe that could be one of my big ideas.
Check for information
Next check to see if you have already
captured some of your thoughts on the
page.
Here is a picture of my diagram
This is my diagram you can tell see all that thinking I
just discussed from these right?
Turn and Talk
Show your partner your
picture/chart/diagram or map of the
reading
Now give your partner your written
explanation of what you were
thinking when you created the map
Ask them:
Could you see that thinking from my
drawing?
Return to the page to add more thinking
Most of you will be like me and your
explanation contains more thinking
then your original mapping of the
reading.
So
Return to the page and add more
thinking
Adding to my thinking:
On a new page I begin to write:
The reason I drew the horse is that the horse shows how
much suffering war causes.
At the beginning of the story, he lives an idyllic life on the
farm, I surrounded him with flowers to show all good. I was
sort of making him a symbol or goodness, of innocence.
When the war comes, there aren’t any flowers anymore, just
shells and grenades, and he is hurt. Not just physically, but
his spirit is hurt. It’s like war changes everything.
Workshop Writing Time
Go through your charting and thinking
about your reading
Try to add thinking and details to some
of the entries you created during our
reading day yesterday.
Reading Day
Session 4 Part 2
Need some ideas
Some things to think about while reading that lead
to great writing about reading include:
Look closely at points of tension for the main
character
Look at places in a story where a change occurs in
scenery, in action, in dialogue
Look at places when you see a characters feelings
or thoughts, when they make a choice
Look at places when characters interact
Using prompts to write about reading
Generate ideas about important
moments and details:
• This makes me
think…because…
• Maybe…Or maybe…
• I used to think…but now I’m
realizing…
Trouble Connecting to the Text
Do you have good ideas but do they
seem to stray away from the text?
Try these sentence starters:
• For example, in the beginning, the
reader sees…
• When the character says,”______,”
this shows that…
• On page…the author writes…This
demonstrates(reveals, illustrates)…
Anchor Chart
Highlight this point on your list:
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Record – and cite – important details (quotes,
setting, symbolic objects)
Finding, Analyzing, and Citing
Evidence to Support Ideas
If you have an idea or thought about
your reading that you want to write
about
You are making a claim about the
reading
You need to explain your idea and then
use words, phrases, quotes from the
book to support (prove/backup)
what you are claiming in your idea.
How to add support in your writing
Search for the most important
(compelling) evidence that can
support the claim, then add it to the
essay like this:
• Quote some parts of the text
• Story-tell other parts
• Summarize yet other parts
Ways to Cite Evidence from a Text
After a detail
Early in the first book The Hunger Games series, we
learn that most citizens don’t own weapons, but if
they did, they would probably poach for their food.
(Collins, 2008, p.5)
After a quotation
Katniss, the narrator, says that “Even though
trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching
carries the severest of penalties, more people would
risk it if they had weapons.” (Collins 2008, 5)
Teaching Point
Introduction to companion books
A companion book takes a deeper look at parts of a
story – brings facts in about certain parts of the
book to help the reader better understand the story.
Publishing your thinking about reading
You will have an audience – someone who has read
your book or plans to read your book
This is why you have to explain your thinking
As you continue to write picture your audience and
write to explain your points to them
Examples of Companion Books
•The Hunger Games Companion
•A Friday Night Lights Companion
•Filled with Glee: A Glee Companion
•The Sorcerers’ Companion: A Guide to
the Magical World of Harry Potter
•The Unofficial Heroes of Olympus
Companion
•The Divergent Companion
Work Time
Reading Day
Session 5
Close Reading
and Analytic
Writing
Teaching Point
Analytic readers don’t just follow the main
character’s progress though the story.
Instead, they notice:
• More elements of a story
• Think about how different elements of a
story connect
• Think about how different elements of a
story influence each other
*Analytic readers often use writing as a way
to do this thinking!
Connection
When I first started watching football I enjoyed the game and could
keep track of the ball and celebrate a touch down for my team.
But now when I watch football I watch the different player
positions, I note when the offensive line is protecting the
quarterback and how that effects our passing and running
game.
I see so much more of the game now. I can see how different plays
and players are connected to the timing and strategy of the game
and the impact all of those things have on the outcome, I now
see it more like an announcer
Thinking about this made me think of the work you are doing as
writers- you often read like I used to watch football – paying
attention mostly to the main character and to what that person is
doing right in the moment. But you could use writing to
become more like an announcer – connecting relationships
between all the elements in your story.
Teaching Point
• How can writing encompass more of a
story?
Whole Class – Create a list of the 5 elements
of a good fiction story on the board
• Look through your writing about reading –
• Note which elements you are writing about
Turn and Talk
Which elements of a story do you write most
about?
• Characters
• Setting
• Plot
• Theme
• Conflict
Writing about one element more than the
others is like watching the football game
only looking at who has the ball without
thinking about all the other players!
Skilled readers are like skilled observers of a
sport and they take in elements on the outside
edges and make connections between the
elements!
Modeling
• Connecting the elements – using “The
Stolen Party”
Modeling
How are these elements connected?
• Begin by selecting two elements to focus
on – in our example lets look at:
• Character and Setting
Now decide on a way to think about the
connection between those elements
Lets use cause and effect –
Do the places of this story (cause) have an
effect on Rosaura in ways we can see?
Write it down
• Don’t jump to conclusions!
• Investigate – this will lead you to re-read a
section of the story closer gathering data
to support your answer
• Select a particular scene and see how that
setting seems to affect Rosaura
Selecting a Scene
Remember when Senora Ines has asked her
to help, so Rosaura is in the kitchen? How
does being in the kitchen affect Rosaura?
I could write about that. Let me start
with…
Being in the kitchen affects rosaura. When she’s in the
kitchen, she feels special, like she gets to help out
and is trusted more than the other kids. She is
allowed in to behind-the-scenes places and this
makes her feel special. When she’s in the kitchen,
she gets to look at the monkey, which was the main
reason she wanted to come to the party in the first
place.
Active engagement – Turn and Talk
• Writer’s I want you to try this with other elements
and scenes in the story.
• Compare and Contrast the different elements
To Connect and Analyze Story Elements
Compare how:
•
•
•
•
•
Characters respond to some event(Rosaura and her
mother to the invitation arriving)
Characters react to a setting (Rosaura in the kitchen and
other guests to the kitchen)
A character feels/acts at different point of the plot
Settings at different point of the plot
A character feels/acts in different settings
Connect to your Text
It is important to take the skills we learn in
class and apply them to the work you are
doing in your own reading and writing
With your partner
List some of the writing you could do today
as you explore connections between story
elements in the book you are reading.
Jot a quick list of entries that would be worth
writing about in your notebook
Once you each have a list of at least 4 begin
doing that work.
Anchor Chart
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
•Record-and-cite important details (quotes, setting,
symbolic objects
•Explore big ideas/themes (linked to details)
•Use academic language (narrator, protagonist,
resolution)
•Explain your thinking (write to clarify)
•Connect story elements (analyze ways elements
influence each other)
Reading Day
Moving from Summary to Analysis
When moving toward more analytic writing
some students will fall back into
summarizing they story.
If you notice summarizing instead of more meaningful
writing ask:
What is the bigger theme or connection that you are
interested in?
If a student has no good answer you will need to work
with them on finding connections – comparing
story elements
If they have an good answer but their writing doesn’t
show it work on transitional phrases.
Problem Solving - Conferring
If writers are having trouble:
Have students try to work with just one
element in isolation – working to add their
own thinking in detail
Set goals – I will write one page on 1 or 2
related traits I see in my character
Teach students to look at the elements from
different perspectives – like setting from
and emotional point of view
Try to group students with like troubles to
problem solve and provide support
Pursuing and Idea or Way of Thinking
Organizing and Focusing your writing
• Decide on a way to read – a way to think about the
text
• Find something you could think about in deep ways
in the beginning, middle and end of your book
• Look for a big idea you think is relevant and worth
exploring
• Stay with that one way of thinking across time and
pages
• Stick with collecting information to support your
idea through out your reading
• Try finding a big idea/theme that your focus fits
into
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Add this to your anchor charts
•Pursue worthwhile thinking across the
book
Uncovering Themes
Thinking about relationships between story
elements will help you land on a theme for
writing.
Character(s)
+setting
+(plot + language)
Theme
Model this formula with the Stolen Party
(next slide)
Finding the Theme – Turn and Talk
Think about the character at different times
in the plot and setting
Character – Rosaura
How does she feel or act
Settings – In the kitchen at the beginning
when she is asked to help out?
In the end when Senora Ines goes to pay
her?
How can we add up just those two elements character
and setting, in a way that lets us talk about the
theme, the life lesson the story teaches?
Finding Theme
To find the theme in your story and to focus
your writing about reading:
Think about:
What changes for the character and what is
learned as a result
Think about how that applies to many people,
not just the character in the story
Think about the message the author wants to
send about what happens in certain scenes
in the story
Homework
Write a one to two page entry, focusing on
theme or themes.
Look closely at what you have been writing
If you don’t have an idea on the theme – look
at what you have been writing and see if
you can find a pattern
Remember there is always more than one big
idea in book so try to about other possbile
themes
This work will help you write your
companion book later!
Reading Day
Session 6
Letting the book
teach you how to
respond
Teaching Point
Today we will learn that skilled
writers about reading don’t just
have one way to travel through
a text. Skilled readers, like
skilled athletes, adjust and
write in ways that help them
tackle the challenges that a
particular text poses.
Connection
Have students think about sports or music
How many of you have struggled learning a
new play or piece of music?
After you have mastered it do you use that
same play all the time or does it depend on
your opponent?
After learning a new piece of music do you
play it the same solo as you do when
performing with the band? What
changes?
We have to adapt our strategies to our
situation and the challenges it presents.
Try It – The Stolen Party
With your partner – Jot some ideas to the
following:
What are the challenges you encounter
reading this story? Think about these
questions:
• What is going on in this story or with this
character that seems confusing or
complicated?
• How can I do some writing to help me
think about that?
Rosaura doesn’t see the truth
One of the complications you might have
discussed is how Rosaura didn’t always
see the situation for what it was.
One example is when she was asked to serve
the hot dogs – she was proud of her job
but as readers we had a feeling she wasn’t
being asked because she was special.
What are some other situations where
Rosaura doesn’t see the truth that you saw
as a reader the first time through or now
knowing the outcome of the story
Turn and Talk
How could we write to track these ideas
When you find the complication in the text you can find a way to
write about that complication which will help you better understand
the text.
Active Engagement
Divide the class into 7 groups –
Give each group some ways that stories can
be confusing
Have groups brainstorm how you might use
writing to tackle those challenges
Challenges listed on the next slide
Challenges in a text
You, the reader, know more than the
character in the story about what is
happening
Hard to keep track of multiple characters
Setting jumps around in time and place
The character feels many pressures and
motivations from different sources
Hard to hold onto details in long, descriptive
passages
New vocabulary
Confusing structure (story within a story)
Whole group discussion
Have groups share their ideas
Handout – Using writing to tackle
common challenges sheet
Students should add additional
ideas of classmates in the
different categories
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Add this to the last point on your
anchor chart
Pursue worthwhile thinking across the
book
•Let the story guide how to respond
•Find important parts to write about
Today's Writing
Ask yourself what feels complicated in the
book you are reading?
How will you write to tackle that challenge?
Use the language of your book in your
writing – use terms, vocabulary, names,
specific details
Let the text tell you when to respond in
writing
Watch for the flashing lights by the author
pointing to important parts of the story –
pivotal event, setting change, character
addition, plot twist, new conflict
Homework
1. Look back – Using post it notes skim over
the parts of your book you have read and
mark pivotal scenes, conversations or
moments you might want to write about.
2. Continue reading making quick notes as
you go
3. Write a one page entry about a pivotal
moment or about the way the character
and setting, plot, language are combining
to help you think about a theme for the
book.
Reading Day
Books should be
finished 6 school days
from today.
By the end of Bend 1 –
Ends with session 9
students should be
done reading their
books.
Session 7
Working toward a
companion book
Writing Companion Texts
Share some mentor texts with students
Allow them to explore and ask questions
about companion texts
Pay particular attention to the table of
contents (this is what we will be working
on creating today)
Teaching Point
Today you will learn that writers get ready to
write information texts about literature by
planning sections or chapters that
showcase their most insightful, important
thoughts about the text. They redraft until
they have a plan that makes sense and that
encompasses the most important points
about the text.
Model
Now that you have seen a companion book it
is time to begin writing one to go with the
book you are reading.
We will begin by creating a “good enough” table of
contents for your book
This will be a rough draft of which parts of the book
you think are important to write about – in the
order you think they should appear.
This order should make sense to what you are sharing
with your readers about the book not necessarily
the order of events in the original book.
The Stolen Party Example
Let’s look at the story we have been
using in class “The Stolen Party”
Looking back at things we have written
and discussed about this story begin
by asking:
1. What is important to say about this
text?
2. What ideas and observations could
become chapters in our companion
book?
Possible Chapter Ideas
Rosaura – This is a big idea how could we
break this into smaller more specific
sections?
(In the Hunger Games Companion book the
chapters weren’t just about Katniss they
were about a particular aspect of her – her
survival instincts or strategies)
We could talk about Rosaura’s relationships
with people –
Turn and talk which relationships might we
include?
Possible Table of Contents
So far we might have a table of contents that
looks like this:
Chapter 1: Rosaura and Her Mother
Chapter 2: Rosaura and the Ines Family
Chapter 3: Rosaura and the Magician
*but there are other important ideas from
this story besides Rosarua’s relationships
Maybe add something about the setting or
big ideas…
Revised Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Rosaura and Her Mother
Chapter 2: Rosaura and the Ines Family
Chapter 3: Roasura and the Magician
Chapter 4: The Significance of the Kitchen
Chapter 5: The magic Show Matters
Chapter 6: Two Dollars Change Everything
*Now look over the chapters are there any
that might contain the same information
and need to be combined? (3 and 5)
How to Plan a Table of Contents
•Look over entries (things you have written about
the text) and ask yourself: What’s important
enough to become a chapter?
•Is there a logic for the chapters? (Start to finish
of the book? Least to most important topic?)
•What chapters would need to be written to get at
the most important parts of the book?
Today’s Writing
Using the writing and thinking you have done
on your book begin to flag important
entries.
Using post it notes begin to mark important things in your
writing that you want to share with others – remember
those ideas can be based on characters,, relationships,
issues, changes, themes or something else.
After you have started to mark some great ideas you will
need to put them into categories or chapters –
*Give a content box organizer to start collecting your
important information
**Use the graphic organizer and post-it notes to plan your
chapters
ReadingDay
Informational Writing Rubric
• As you get ready to draft
• Review the informational
writing targets
• Select goals
Mid Workshop Teaching
Drafting a Chapter
Begin by grouping the ideas written on your
content box – group like topics with the
same color
Give your groups a heading
Those headings will help you create a “good
enough” table of contents and are ready to
start drafting a chapter.
Look over your table of contents and choose
one chapter that really interests you
Using Text Structures to Organize the
content in your chapters!
Look at the details and information you used
to create your chapter titles
Think about what you want each chapter to
teach or what you want your readers to
understand
Using your notes on text structure select the
text structure you think will best help you
get your point across and try writing the
first chapter of your book using it!
5 Text Structures
Description – Use when your purpose is to give a detailed
description of the way something looks, feels, smells, sounds
or tastes.
Sequence – Use when your purpose is to show the steps,
process or timeline of something.
Cause and Effect – Use when your purpose is to explain why
or how something happened.
Problem/Solution – Use when your purpose is to present a
problem and possible solutions.
Compare and Contrast – Use when your purpose is to
explain similarities and differences between two things.
Think About Elaboration
As you draft:
• Make sure you have a concept, or a point
that you’re making
• Use examples or important details
• Include a chart or diagram when needed
to add support to your ideas.
• Use quotes and definitions to further
support your ideas.
Example using “Stolen Party”
Concept/Big Idea/Point
Rosaura had a loving but complicated relationship with her mother.
Examples/Details/Evidence
At the beginning of the story, Rosaura had a disagreement
with her mother about going to the party. Rosaura thought she
had been invited because Luciana was her friend, while her
mother was wrong and yelled that she didn’t know anything
about being friends. Maybe Rosaura’s mom really understood
the Ines family and was just trying to protect her.
At the end of the party, Rosaura sought protection from her
mother. When Senora Ines tried to give her money, Rosaura
“pressed herself against her mother’s body.”
Turn and Talk
Is there anything you think could be added?
What is the authors purpose for writing this section?
What text structure is being used? Would a different one work
better?
Work Time/Homework
Use a new graphic organizer for drafting
chapters
Work on drafting your first chapter or two
*Don’t forget the concepts we reviewed
today!
Have fun with it! Your enthusiasm will show
in your writing.
Reading Day
Session 8
Incorporating
Evidence from the
Text = Elaboration
Teaching Point
Information writers, regardless of
what genre or text structure they are
writing in, elaborate on important
points and ideas. Literary
information writers, in particular
cite evidence from the story they are
writing about by discussing specific
details and examples, as well as
direct quotations, from the text.
Writing Workshop
Today you will work to draft more
chapters
You might:
• Revise and existing chapter
• Elaborate on a section that is
done
• Add a new chapter or section
Purpose
As you are writing keep in mind:
• What is your purpose for sharing this
chapter with your readers – what do you
want them to learn.
• What details can you use from the story to
support your thinking?
*Show an example from the mentor text
where the author used the original text to
support their ideas
Tips to Remember
Content Box of details:
Don’t forget you have been collecting
important ideas – those are great places to
go back to for evidence to elaborate!
Your color coded when you grouped like
subjects – continue to do that by adding a
color to the top of your drafting sheets.
Information writers need to stay very
organized!
Anchor Chart Review
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Record – and – cite important details
(quotes, setting, symbolic objects)
*Then use details as a springboard for
interpretation and elaboration.
Grammar Reminder
Using Appositives and Dependent Clauses to Express
Complex Thinking
Complex Sentences
Contain one independent clause, with a subject and a
predicate, and one dependent clause
Appositives – These are words or phrases the follow
the noun and rename (or explain it) They are
separated from the rest of the sentence with
commas.
Ex: Senor Ines, Luciana’s mother, puts Rosaura to
work.
Dependent Clause – dose not express a complete
thought
Ex: Because she wanted to believe that she belonged,
Final Reading Day
Your should be finished
with you books by class
time tomorrow!
Drafting Day
• Continue to work on drafting
your chapters
• Finding evidence
• Adding in elaboration
• *Your drafts are due at the end
of class tomorrow!
Final Drafting Day
The first draft of your
companion books should be
done by the end of class
today!
Congratulations!