Informational Writing:
Feature Article
Grade 6
This unit of study of feature articles is designed to
introduce students to a new genre for writing nonfiction texts. In this study students are
asked to connect the material in their writer’s notebooks to the world outside themselves
and to identify topics that they feel strongly about. At the same time they are immersed in
reading feature articles, the kind of pieces we usually find in magazines and newspapers
that give us information on a topic as seen through the lens of the writer’s particular
perspective, or angle. The writing style of feature articles is engaging, with facts and
information woven into a story. Feature articles have a strong sense of audience, often
addressing the reader directly, urging action or further thought. As with other
informational writing, there is a research component to gathering material for feature
articles. However, in this genre, there is an emphasis on talking to people in the
community through interviews and surveys, taking the student beyond books and Internet
sites.
NCEE Standards:
The NCEE standards included in this document offer the teacher guidance with
curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The standards provide a way to bridge daily
instruction with what the students should be able to understand and produce at the
conclusion of the unit.
The following standards represent the expectations for students when working on a
feature article:
Grade 6:
• Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise
developing reader interest;
• Develops a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject;
• Creates an organized structure appropriate to a specific purpose, audience, and
context;
• Includes appropriate facts and details
• Excludes extraneous and inappropriate
• Uses a range of appropriate strategies, such as providing facts and details,
describing or analyzing the subject, narrating a relevant anecdote, comparing and
contrasting, naming, and explaining benefits of limitations.
• Provides a sense of closure to the writing.
Saint Paul Public Schools’ Project for Academic Excellence
2007-2008
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The Structure of a Genre Study
This packet describes a genre study. All genre studies follow a similar structure in which
the students are following two strands of work.
Immersion
One strand of a genre study is an immersion in writing of the genre, in this case, an
immersion in feature articles. During early lessons the teacher and the students build a
definition of feature article from carefully chosen texts. These are feature articles from a
variety of sources written specifically for students, such as “Time for Kids”, as well as
articles gathered from newspapers and magazines.
The teacher reads these feature articles aloud to students during a read-aloud time
established outside of the Writer’s Workshop. This gives students the opportunity to first
experience the texts as readers. They make personal connections, understand the context
and events of the article, relate this text to others they know, etc. Students return to the
articles during the Writer’s Workshop to read or listen to them as writers, noticing the
essential characteristics of a feature article and the elements of writer’s craft the authors
use.
From these noticings, the students and teacher together build a definition of feature
articles. This is followed by sorting and sifting through a variety of texts in the
classroom. Texts that do not match the definition of feature article created by the class are
sifted out. Those that remain are examined more deeply. Some are selected by the teacher
as class touchstones for the unit and used in craft lessons.
Students select four or five articles to create a personal packet of mentor articles they will
use as models for what they will write as they draft.
Student Writing
The other strand of a genre study is the student writing. In this unit of study students will
be discovering a variety of strategies to help them identify possible topics for their feature
articles. They identify topics they feel strongly about or have a keen interest in exploring
and write a variety of notebook entries exploring their thoughts.
After choosing their feature article topics and gathering more writing around those topics,
students draft and revise their pieces. At this point the teacher will turn the attention of
the students to editing, including spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This phase of the
writing process cycle is not meant to replace skills lessons taught outside of the Writer’s
Workshop.
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WRITING: GENRE STUDY OVERVIEW
IMMERSION IN TEXT
 Best-guess gathering
STUDENT WRITING
From the previous unit of study:
 Editing
 Publishing
 Celebration
 Reflection
 Building a definition of the
genre
 Collecting entries in the
writer’s notebooks (or
writer’s folders for K-1)
 Sifting and sorting through
texts (students)
 Rereading to choose a seed
idea/topic
 Gathering around the
seed/topic
 Selecting class touchstone
texts (teacher)
 Drafting
 Revision
 Editing
 Selecting individual
mentor texts (students)
For the next unit of study:
 Best-guess gathering




Editing
Publishing
Celebration
Reflection
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Big Ideas of the Weeks of the Study
Each classroom of learners is unique. Teachers must determine the appropriate pace for
moving through the material.
Best-Guess Gathering
In the weeks before the unit of study formally begins, best-guess gathering is a period of
time for informal talk about the upcoming unit of study as the class ends the previous
unit.
To prepare for this unit of study, the teacher will have selected a collection of feature
articles that will be good models for those she/he wants the students to write. These are
the touchstone texts for the unit. During best-guess gathering, the teacher will be reading
aloud the touchstone texts to help students begin an understanding of feature articles
without specifically giving them a definition. Students are also invited to bring to class
articles from their independent reading that they think might be feature articles.
Most students of this age have not read widely in the genre of feature articles. In fact, for
many of them, this unit of study may be their first experience with this genre and other
types of writing commonly found in newspapers and magazines – editorials, news
accounts, product reviews, persuasive essays, personal essays, etc. Lots of exposure to
feature articles during the best-guess gathering phase and the initial immersion will help
students in two ways:
1. to begin to get the distinctive “sound” and the characteristics of feature articles in
their minds.
2. to help them distinguish between a feature article and other types of writing they
encounter in periodicals and newspapers.
Another text the teacher reads to the class during this time is Lauren Child’s What Planet
Are You From, Clarice Bean? The central character of this picture book, Clarice, is a
student with a multitude of passions and interests (global warming, save the trees, etc.) of
the kind we want our students to identify as they begin to see themselves as feature article
writers. Clarice can be a role model for a student involved in social action.
A note on reflection:
We are encouraging students to be reflective learners. In order to emphasize this habit of
mind, the teacher introduces reflection by asking students at this early stage to write
about what they think a feature article is, what questions they have about the genre, and
what they think they might learn. Teachers will return to this reflection on the genre
midway through the unit, as well as at the end.
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Launching the Unit of Study in Feature Articles
Weeks 1 and 2:
During the first two weeks of the unit of study, some days will be spent on immersion in
the touchstone texts. Other days are devoted to student writing, building a well of feature
article material in their writer’s notebooks. The teacher can move lessons back and forth
between these two strands as the two weeks unfold. A common definition of feature
article is built by the teacher and the class.
Weeks 3 and 4
Based on their definition of feature article, the class sifts through texts to find the best
examples to study further. The teacher chooses five to seven texts that will become
touchstone feature articles to use in craft lessons. Students reread their writer’s notebooks
to choose a topic for their feature articles. They move out of their notebooks to gather
more writing around that topic in folders devoted to their feature article.
Around this time in the unit, the teacher asks the students for a mid-unit reflection on
their learning about feature articles. (See note on reflection above.)
Students identify the angle they want to take on their topic and conduct research,
interviews, and surveys to find information to support their angle. Students choose four
or five feature articles they particularly like to create a mentor packet for themselves.
They examine the craft of feature article writing and try these writing strategies with their
topic.
Weeks 5 and 6
Students return to feature articles they have been studying to look for structures that they
can use to organize and draft their articles. They make final decisions on craft, such as
what kind of lead they will use, how they will embed facts, titles, and possible endings.
They draft their articles.
Revisions include attention to the logical flow of the piece, making sure the angle is clear
and craft elements are polished. The definition chart is used to guide revision to include
essential elements of the genre. Students also use what they already know from previous
units of study about crafting effective writing (i.e. use of figurative language, “show, not
tell,” strong verbs, etc.) to enhance their work.
Students edit their articles, building on strategies learned earlier in the year and adding
others specific to informational texts.
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Week 7
The class examines mentor articles for layout possibilities for their text and graphic
features, such as charts or photos. Students make decisions about how to publish their
articles. They celebrate their writing by sharing it with others.
Students write their final reflection on the unit of study, naming what they’ve learned and
setting goals for growth as writers.
Suggested Texts
NOTE: The feature articles referred to in the lessons in this packet have been distributed
to teachers enrolled in Writing Institute Level II in hard copy only. Teachers may choose
current feature articles which share the characteristics of the articles cited in the lessons.
Feature article packets can be ordered from the Center for Professional Development.
Please allow 4 weeks for delivery.
Periodicals for children:
Time for Kids
National Geographic for Kids / National Geographic Explorer
Scholastic News / Junior Scholastic
Weekly Reader
Websites:
www.timeforkids.com
www.chicagotribune.com/features/kids/
www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/kidspost/
Books used in the study:
What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? by Lauren Child
Sequence of Mini-lessons
The following sequence of lessons is numbered in sections. Depending on the needs of
the class, the teacher may spend several days on one section, doing a series of minilessons within that section. At other points, the teacher may switch between two sections
over a period of days, moving between a focus on looking at published feature articles
(immersion) and developing the students’ writing, for example.
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Some of the following sections are written out fully, describing what the teacher might
say or do for each part of the mini-lesson. It is not meant to be a script! In others, a
summary of the lesson is given.
This lesson sequence follows a period of best-guess gathering. See page 4 above for a
description.
ONE: Student Writing
Collecting Entries
Before this unit of study begins, students need to have experienced a rich unit of study in
Living the Writerly Life. They must be used to keeping a writer’s notebook with a variety
of types of entries. Those that are especially useful in a feature article unit of study are:
observation, wondering, writing off artifacts such as clippings, jotting interesting facts,
and writing about feelings and opinions. It is also imperative that they are writing in their
notebooks outside of school on a regular basis.
Mini-lesson: Jotting / Writing personal responses to a feature article
This lesson invites students to reflect on a feature article they are familiar with from the
best-guess gathering phase, during which they read or listened to the article and discussed
it as readers. It demonstrates one way to gather material for a feature article in their
writer’s notebooks.
Connect: “Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been reading and listening to articles from
newspapers and magazines.”
Teach: “Today I am going to return to an article we read together: ‘The Secret of the
White Tiger’ from National Geographic for Kids.” (The teacher may choose any of the
feature articles she/he has selected to be touchstone articles for use in mini-lessons for the
class.) “I want to show you how I used my personal responses to a feature article to write
more in my writer’s notebook.”
The teacher reads the article aloud. Students may follow along with their own copies or
with a copy on an overhead projector. While reading, the teacher stops periodically to
think out loud about connections and responses she/he is making, jotting them down in
her/his writer’s notebook or on a chart the class can see. The jotted responses from one
teacher include:
“The Secret of the White Tiger”
Memories – “This reminds me of a time when I saw an albino squirrel in my yard.
This reminds me of when my grandmother had cataract surgery.”
Opinions - “I think we should get rid of zoos and let animals be free in their own
environment.”
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Reactions - “ It upsets me that humans are breeding white tigers to make money
off of them.”
Connections to other sources – “I read several fascinating articles in the
newspaper and saw TV news reports last summer about the students who found the
mysteriously deformed frogs in Minnesota.”
Wondering – “I wonder if our zoo is breeding endangered animals?”
The teacher can create a chart, “Responses to a Feature Article” and include the types of
responses listed above (memories, opinions, etc.) or others that are pertinent to the lesson
given. As the unit of study unfolds, the class can add other types of responses they have
to the material they are reading. If the students are familiar with text-to-self, text-to-text,
and text-to-world connections, this can be a guide for ways to connect with the texts.
The teacher then shows students how she/he picked one of these responses, put it at the
top of a fresh page, and wrote an entry in her/his writer’s notebook. The teacher reads the
entry to the students, modeling using a response from the article to write a personal
connection, not just a summary of the article. The teacher makes the point, too, that
she/he is not writing a feature article in the notebook yet, but simply collecting entries
that may or may not lead to a feature article.
Active Involvement: Students turn and talk to a partner about one personal connection
they made to the article. Students jot that response in their notebooks, just as the teacher
did.
Link: Remember, when you jot and write today, you are not rewriting the article. You are
looking for your personal responses to things in the article.
Work time: Students work alone or with a partner, rereading the article and making a
number of personal response jottings of their own in their notebooks. Then they choose
one, put it at the top of a page, and write off of it.
Share: The teacher can choose a few students to share responses, looking for a variety of
types of responses to model the many ways individual writers react to text. New types of
responses that students try are added to the chart this day and on other days when this
kind of work is done.
Other opportunities for personal response to texts:
Individual work in class – variety of texts
On other days, students can jot and write similar responses to feature articles or other
kinds of nonfiction texts in the classroom. For this kind of response, the texts do not need
to be exclusively feature articles. Some may be news articles, opinion pieces, book
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excerpts, etc. The goal at this point is for students to build a well of personal response to
the real world.
Students can choose texts from a collection the teacher has prepared, from articles the
students have brought in, or from their nonfiction reading in Reader’s Workshop.
The teacher can read aloud selected articles from the newspaper for students’ response.
Homework
Students select an article to take home and respond in their notebooks for homework.
They share and discuss the article at home with family members or friends and record
their own and others’ ideas – a precursor to interviews and/or surveys students will do
later in the study.
Partner work
Students choose an article of mutual interest with a partner, read and discuss it together,
jot, and write responses in their notebooks. During share time, they share the notebook
entry with the original partner.
TWO: Immersion
Building a Definition of Feature Article
Mini-lesson: What is a feature article?
This lesson invites students to begin noticing essential characteristics of feature articles
they have previously experienced during the best-guess gathering.
Materials: Copies of two familiar touchstone feature articles for each student. These
should be carefully chosen by the teacher to include two articles that exemplify the
characteristics the class will be asked to emulate. Care should be taken that the angle
(opinion or perspective of the writer) in these articles is implicit, not directly stated.
Connect: “We’ve been reading a variety of articles and doing some writing in our
notebooks inspired by our responses to what we’ve read. We know that we are going to
be writing feature articles, but we haven’t yet said exactly what makes a feature article a
feature article.”
Teach: “ ‘The Secret of the White Tiger’ is a feature article we have read together a
couple of times and you’ve responded to it in your notebooks. I have another feature
article ‘ (title of another touchstone article).’ I am going to read it again today, and I want
you to follow along in your copies, noticing how they are written. We are looking for
characteristics that both of these articles have in common. We know they are about very
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different topics. But we’re not noticing what the articles are about, but how they share
characteristics of the genre of feature article.”
The teacher reads the article, stopping along the way to gather what the students notice
about the way the article is written. A chart is constructed: “Characteristics of a Feature
Article.” If a characteristic is mentioned, a check is made to see if it is common to both
articles. The definition chart is begun in today’s lesson, but is kept in a prominent place
in the meeting area so that additions to it can be made as the unit continues.
Possible characteristics for the chart:
A Feature Article . . .
Has a catchy title
Has a strong lead, the “hook”
Has a purpose to inform the reader
Reads like a story with facts woven in
Engages the reader with voice, style of writing, anecdotes, questions
Covers a topic the writer knows and cares about (and this is obvious to the reader)
Gives history, explanation, or analysis of the background of the topic
Doesn’t tell all about the topic, it takes a focus
Has an angle (opinion) that is not directly stated, but is revealed as the article goes on
Acknowledges alternative views on the angle
Is not a review, argument, or persuasive essay
Has an organized layout, sometimes using subtitles, columns, sidebars
Includes facts, statistics, data
Includes quotes from reliable sources (experts)
Includes quotes from surveys or interviews with people involved in the topic
Sometimes includes photographs with captions
Sometimes includes sidebars with more facts, maps, graphs, or advice
Uses the specialized vocabulary of the topic (sometimes defined within the text)
Excludes facts that aren’t needed
Has an ending that leaves the reader thinking, or gives ways to take action
Note: Not all of these characteristics will be elicited from the students during one lesson.
At first, most classes do not notice the characteristic of the implicit angle, or slant, that a
feature article writer takes on the subject. There will be further lessons to develop this
understanding in the students.
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Work time: Students work in groups to examine feature articles given to them by the
teacher. They look for the characteristics on the chart begun during the lesson and for
others to add to the chart.
Share: Groups share characteristics they have found in their articles and add new ones to
the chart.
This work can be repeated with more feature articles on subsequent days. The class adds
new noticings to the chart. The teacher can vary the ways students work on the articles –
solo, in pairs, in groups, response to teacher read-alouds, etc.
Mini-lesson: What’s my angle?
It is important that students realize that feature articles have an opinion supported by
facts. However, the opinion of the writer is not directly stated in a feature article. If it is,
the piece of writing is called something else – an editorial, a persuasive essay, an
argument. In a feature article this implicit opinion of the writer is called the angle.
Students usually require many experiences of the teacher modeling her/his thinking to see
the angle in feature articles.
Understanding the angle early in the unit of study is important because it will help
students:
• Understand the structure and purpose of the articles they are reading
• Recognize an essential characteristic of the genre
• Make smart choices of topic, knowing that their topic needs to be something they
are deeply interested in, or that they feel strongly about
• Collect entries and facts, and develop surveys or interview questions. Writers of
feature articles set out to collect material that supports their angle.
Teach: In the lesson, the teacher defines angle. One strategy is to show a piece with an
explicit opinion and contrast it with a feature article with an implicit opinion. The teacher
selects a feature article and models thinking about it using the questions from the Feature
Article Response sheet (See appendix):
FEATURE ARTICLE RESPONSE
Title:
Author:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What are the main ideas in the article?
Does the author have an opinion (angle) that you detected in the article? If so, what is it?
What parts of the article give clues to the writer’s opinion about this topic?
What are some facts or other supporting evidence (quotes, surveys, etc.) that the author has chosen
to include about this topic?
What do these facts make you think about the topic? What do these facts add to the piece?
Do you consider this an effective feature article? Explain your response.
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Work time: Students work in groups to fill out a response sheet for a feature article.
Share: Groups share their thinking about the angle in the article they worked on, naming
the angle and how the author supported it.
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Other strategies for helping students understand angle:
From The No-Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing by Judy Davis and Sharon Hill:
1. Find published feature articles on the same idea to show how different writers
have chosen to write about the same topic in different ways. While the topic is the
same, each writer has a different purpose and has taken a different angle.
2. Using either student or teacher writing on an overhead transparency, the writer
gives various perspectives she/he might take on a topic. If the teacher is doing this
work, she/he might have prepared entries ahead of time trying out different angles
on the same topic.
3. Take a topic that class has had some experience with, and through interactive
writing, take a new angle on the topic together.
4. Make a chart that displays the topics and the possible angles students are
considering and display it publicly.
THREE: Student Writing
Neighborhood Walk
Mini-lesson: Generating notebook entries during a neighborhood walk
Connect: We have noticed that feature article writers are interested in or concerned about
the world around them. Many of the articles we’ve read seem to be written about
something very close to the writer’s life.”
Teach: “Today we’re going to go out into the world right outside our school and record
what we notice in our writer’s notebooks. Be a keen observer of what you encounter.
Even the smallest thing can be an observation that might later lead to an idea for a feature
article. For example, the other day I saw a McDonald’s bag blowing across the street near
my house. That’s not something I would usually think about putting in my writer’s
notebook, but when I started to write about it, I discovered that I had some thoughts that a
feature article writer might have. I quickly jotted some of those thoughts (reads from
notebook):
“It makes me mad when people drive through my neighborhood and throw their
garbage here and just drive away.”
“I wonder how many thousands of pounds of garbage are produced by fast food
restaurants in one year?”
“I think one reason we have so much of a problem with overweight kids is that
places like McDonalds run TV ads and toy campaigns to appeal to kids.”
“Can people get addicted to fast food?”
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“I wonder, if I surveyed people, would they admit to littering? I’ll bet very few
people would say they did it, but all this trash in my neighborhood must come from
somewhere.”
Work time: Students go out for a neighborhood walk. They carry their writer’s notebooks
and make brief entries jotting observations, questions, comments, etc.
Share: When students return to the classroom, the teacher asks them to choose one thing
they saw that makes them feel, think, question, or wonder. The teacher conducts a
popcorn share of those chosen lines.
For homework, students can be an assigned to do the same kind of walk around the place
where they live or another place they spend time, making entries. Share the next day.
Follow-up lesson:
The teacher models taking one of the brief comments, opinions, questions, or feelings
from neighborhood walk entries and putting it at the top of a page to write more thinking
about it. During the active involvement section of the lesson, students share with a
partner what they will write about. At the end of the workshop, students share their
entries with their partners.
More mini-lessons to generate a well of notebook entries for feature article:
Note: Lessons for collecting entries in notebooks are happening during the first weeks of
the unit of study on some days, while lessons from the immersion strand are happening
on other days.
Notebook Dig
Return to a familiar article, such as “Secret of the White Tiger.” Ask students, “What
kinds of entries do you think the author had in her writer’s notebook that might have
given her the idea for this feature article?
Make a list of possibilities. They could include:
A description of a trip to the zoo or a circus
An experience with a person or animal with a birth defect
Jottings from a TV show or news show about white tigers
List of favorite animals or endangered animals
Clipping from the newspaper
Memory of a childhood stuffed tiger
Ask students to reread their notebooks, and dig for words, phrases, or entries that might
lead to thinking about a feature article. Model rereading and asking questions such as:
Can I say more about this?
Does this bother me or scare me?
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Is this a problem for me or other people?
Can I connect this with another entry?
What else does this make me think of?
Do I have questions about this?
Could this be a topic for a feature article?
Students can underline, write questions in the margins, highlight, or use sticky notes to
mark places in their notebooks. Work time is for taking one or more notations, placing
the idea at the top of a fresh page, and writing more.
Listing Interests, Passions, Concerns, Issues
Teach: The teacher starts this mini-lesson by reading an article that is written by an
author who feels passionate about her/his topic. After reading, the teacher asks, “What
kinds of entries might be in this author’s writer’s notebook?” The teacher can show
students the charts described below to guide the conversation.
An alternative strategy for this mini-lesson is to return to the picture book, What Planet
Are You From, Clarice Bean? by Lauren Child. Show the students the charts below and
ask what Lauren Child, or even Clarice Bean herself, might have written in her writer’s
notebook.
Display three charts with headings printed along the top:
• Things I Care About: (issues, things that you think should change, passions)
• Things I Know About: (hobbies, activities, interests, current events)
• Things I Wonder About: (questions and wonderings, things that may worry or
scare you, confusions you want to investigate)
Come up with some examples for each chart together as a class.
Active Involvement: Students create three pages in their writer’s notebooks, one page for
each of the headings above, or using some other headings that encompass areas for listing
students’ interests, passions, concerns, and issues.
Work time: Students record ideas in their writer’s notebooks.
Share: Students record some more of their ideas on the class charts for all to read.
Follow-up:
1. Over the next days, students continue to add to their lists. During work time or for
homework, students write entries about topics on their lists. The teacher models entries
and finds student models for entries in which the writer is trying out the idea as a feature
article topic. The student entries can include:
• what they know about this topic
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•
•
•
•
their interest and concern about the topic
personal stories related to the topic
questions and wonderings
playing with different angles on their topic
Students are not writing feature articles in their notebooks, but they may be trying out the
style of the articles they have been immersed in – the voice and perspective that feature
article writers use.
2. The teacher models with questioning and thinking aloud how some things on the lists
can lead to more ideas for feature articles. For example, if a student says her passion is
her dog, the teacher can ask about the student’s concerns about dogs and possibly get
ideas such as puppy mills, euthanizing dogs at shelters, dogs who don’t get enough
exercise in the city, pets getting fat from too many treats, dogs that bark all day and
disturb the neighbors, dogs killed on the freeway because their owners let them run loose,
dogs used to comfort people in nursing homes, etc. Students can put a topic in the center
of the page and web ideas, or at the top of a page and list ideas.
Watching the TV News
Assign students to watch the local evening news several nights a week and jot notes
about community, national, or world events that interest them. They can add ideas to the
lists created in the lesson described above and/or create entries around topics.
Observation leads to Wondering
Teacher models a notebook entry that moves through this process or finds one that a
student has done. Students try it.
The idea is that observation and wondering go hand-in-hand and that one leads to the
other, sometimes to the surprise of the writer. Here is one teacher’s model for this type of
entry which began with simple observation with no end thoughts in mind as the
observation began:
Februrary 10, 2003
Standing in my kitchen. Bananas, like fat, yellow torpedoes in the bowl. Nothing lightweight about this
fruit.
Why do they turn black? How do they get sweeter as they sit there? Does the fact that they get sweeter
have anything to do with the way bananas get speckled black, then blacker?
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Who grows the bananas that sit in my big green fruit bowl? People in a very warm part of the world, I
know. Images come to my mind of shirtless men, sweating in the sun. Houses with grass roofs. Unpaved
streets. Barefoot kids.
Am I right? Or do the people who grow my bananas live in towns with roads, stoplights, schools, running
water, lace-up shoes?
I pay 59 or 79 cents a pound for these sweet, golden fruits. That’s only three or four or five dollars for a
bunch of bananas. How much of that do the people who grow them get? Are they being exploited like the
people who grow coffee in warm parts of the world? Is their sweat and labor being stolen for the china
fruit bowls of American homes like mine?
What are the politics and economics of bananas? And if I knew, would they taste as sweet?
FOUR: Immersion
Sifting and Sorting through Texts
Once students have a begun to build a definition of feature article and can discern the
angle implicit in these pieces, the teacher asks students to spend time reading or listening
to many other kinds of nonfiction writing often found in newspapers and magazines,
including some pieces that are news articles, product reviews, persuasive essays, etc.
Recognizing what is NOT a feature article helps them define what is. Students work in
groups to consider pieces given to them by the teacher, discarding certain pieces and
defending their decisions. The learning that comes from the talk around the sifting and
sorting decisions is more important than whether the student has the “right” answer.
The particular voice and style that characterizes feature article writing, the “sound” of the
genre, should be coming clearer to the students.
This work is happening in the writing workshop on some days while on other days
students are working on the last phases of collecting entries in their writer’s notebooks.
The pieces that are not feature articles of the type that students will be writing are sorted
out of the class collection. The remaining pieces are all feature articles, but of varying
quality. Some may be good examples of particular characteristics that the class has
identified as essential (for example, an effective lead), but weak in other respects. At this
point, they are kept in the collection for students to use later as they put together their
own packet of mentor articles.
Some of the pieces that have been sifted out because they are not feature articles may
provide ideas for the students’ notebooks.
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FIVE: Student Writing
Choosing a topic and honing in on the angle
Mini-lesson: Choosing the topic for your feature article – Day One
Connect: “You have been collecting a variety of entries in your writer’s notebook while
thinking about feature article topics.”
Teach: “Today you will reread what you have in order to choose the topic for your
feature article.” The teacher models rereading her/his notebook thinking through the
following questions, which are written on a chart prepared for the lesson.
Chart:
•
•
•
Choosing a Topic for a Feature Article
Is this a topic I have a strong interest, concern, or opinion about?
Can I research it in a variety of ways? (surveys, interviews, internet sites,
periodicals, books)
Can I find research sources I can use? (reading material at my reading level,
experts I can contact, a population of appropriate people to survey, etc.)
The teacher rereads her/his notebook with several sticky notes at hand, stopping to put a
sticky note on entries that hold promise when viewed in light of the questions on the
chart. The teacher should take care to model her/his thinking about why certain topics are
discarded, as well as thinking about those to consider further as possible topics.
Work time: Students follow the process modeled in the lesson, rereading their notebooks
thoughtfully and placing sticky notes on 3 – 5 possible topics.
Share: Students meet in small groups or with partners to talk about the entries they
marked. They share their possible feature article topics and answers they have to the
questions on the chart. Other students can give ideas for resources, possible survey
questions, etc. This will be a longer share than usual, giving students time to orally try
out some ideas with others.
Follow-up: The teacher can ask students to write down and turn in the 3 –5 topics they
are considering. This gives the teacher information going into the next lesson.
One possible problem around choosing topics is that students will choose topics that are
too broad. If that is the case, the teacher models thinking about narrowing topics and
confers with students who need help with this common problem.
Writing Folders:
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From this point on, students will move out of their notebooks and begin writing all the
work connected to their feature article topic on pieces of paper which will be kept in a
folder devoted to the project. Some teachers photocopy the original notebook entry that
led to the feature article topic for the student to keep in the folder. That way, the
notebook can continue to be maintained as a writer’s notebook with a variety of types
entries on a variety of topics established during the first unit on Living Life Like a
Writer.
It is important not to let writing in the notebooks die as students move toward publishing
in a genre. Notebook writing keeps a rich variety of entries going for other genre studies
later in the year, such as poetry. Students should be writing in their notebooks at home.
To maintain accountability and interest, the teacher can establish response groups for
student sharing of notebooks entries once or twice a week. There can be a focus for the
sharing given by the teacher, such as reading an entry in which you tried something new,
or the students can choose what they would like to share with their response group that
week.
An exception to this happens when students take their notebooks with them to record an
interview or make additional observations to support their feature article work.
Mini-lesson: Choosing the topic for your feature article – Day Two
Connect: “Yesterday you chose three to five ideas from your notebooks that you think
might be good topics for your feature article. You got a chance to share those in your
small groups to get response to your ideas.”
Teach: “Today I’m going to give you a way to think further about your possible topics so
that by the end of the workshop you’ll be able to share your one topic with us.”
The teacher returns to her marked entries from the day before and shows how she thinks
further about them by filling out the following form for one of her/his possible topics.
(See appendix.)
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THINKING ABOUT A POSSIBLE FEATURE ARTICLE TOPIC
Possible topic:
What my notebook entry is about:
Angle I could take (my opinion on the topic):
Facts, history, or background on the topic that I would need to support my angle:
Possible resources for facts, history, background of the topic:
Possible survey of people involved - who would I survey, questions I could ask:
Experts on the topic I could interview: (You do not need names here yet, but the type of person who
would be an expert on your topic.)
Using an overhead transparency, the teacher shows a form she/he has already completed
on one of her/his possible topics. It is all right at this point not to have specific answers to
all the sections of the form. The form is to guide students’ thinking about the viability of
possible topics.
Possible answers from the teacher who wrote the entry about bananas described in
section three above:
THINKING ABOUT A POSSIBLE FEATURE ARTICLE TOPIC
Possible topic:
• Where the bananas we eat come from
What my notebook entry is about:
• Looking at bananas in my fruit bowl. Wondering about bananas and about the people far away
who grow them.
Angle I could take (my opinion on the topic):
• Americans who don’t grow their own food don’t think about where that food comes from and the
people who grow it. They don’t want to know, because it would make them feel guilty that the
people who grow it live in poverty so that Americans can have cheap prices.
Facts, history, or background on the topic that I would need to support my angle:
• Where bananas are grown
•
How much the people who grow them are paid
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•
What are the working and living conditions of banana workers – Is this a good life?
•
How many bananas Americans eat in a week, month or year
•
How much Americans pay for bananas
Possible resources for facts, history, background of the topic:
• Internet sources from the government – Department of Agriculture
•
Books or encyclopedia articles about bananas or about the countries where they are grown
•
Internet research on articles using key words like: bananas/imports/agriculture/prices
Possible survey of people involved – who I could survey, questions I could ask:
• People who like bananas – kids at school, adults I know
•
Questions: How many do you eat a week? Do you know who grows the bananas you eat? Do you
care that the growers of your bananas make only $1.00 a day (or whatever my research tells me
that they earn)
Experts on the topic I could interview: (You do not need names here yet, but the type of person who would
be an expert on your topic.)
• Someone at the grocery store where my family shops
•
An expert at the university in the agriculture department
•
After I find out what countries export bananas to the United States, I could find someone who
is an expert on that country, or someone who lived there
The teacher then talks about what she/he discovered from doing this, making comments
about how interested she/he still is in the topic and how many ideas for research to
support the angle she/he generated.
Active Involvement: Students choose two topics they are most interested in and that they
think would make good feature articles.
Link: The teacher makes the forms available to the students and asks them to fill out one
for each of the two topics they identified. Students can do more if they have time.
The teacher asks the students to notice which topics they are most interested in as they
dig deeper into thinking about them.
Work time: Students work on the answers to the form. The teacher may encourage
students to talk to the group they worked with yesterday to help brainstorm answers to
the resource questions or give them time to do a quick check of texts or internet sites to
see if there seems to be information readily available.
Share: The teacher has prepared a chart with each student’s name and space for their
topic and angle to be listed publicly. After considering the work they have done during
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the workshop today, students choose their topic and announce it during share time. The
teacher records the topics on the chart. Students’ angles will be added to the chart later.
Students keep these forms in their feature article writing folders.
Follow-up:
Choosing a topic for a feature article, like the choosing of any seed idea to take to
publication, is a critical juncture in the writing cycle. The teacher takes the time to confer
with students around their choice to be sure it is viable. During the next few days, as
students begin to collect information to support their angle and seek out resource
materials, it may become clear that some topics do not have enough information available
to elementary school students to allow them to proceed. Or it may be that the student’s
idea is too broad, and needs to be narrowed. Teacher guidance in choosing and focusing a
topic choice with individual students is critical.
The following lesson, intended to help students articulate their angle, will also help them
focus their topic.
Mini-lesson: What’s my angle?
Connect: “We’ve been getting very good at identifying the angle in the feature articles
we’ve been studying. This is what we’ve noticed about the angle in feature articles (this
could be a chart on angle that has been developed during immersion):
We know that. . .
• the angle is the author’s opinion or perspective on the topic.
• the author doesn’t come right out and state her/his opinion explicitly.
• the author supports her/his angle by the facts, quotes, and stories chosen.
• a topic can have more than one possible angle. For example, a feature article on
how much TV kids are watching could have a variety of angles taken by the
author.
• the author of a feature article acknowledges that there are differing opinions about
the angle.
Teach: “We want to spend some time to be very clear about the angle in our own feature
articles. Remember, the research you will be doing to gather information about your topic
– the facts and statistics, the surveys, the information from experts, the personal
experiences, the stories from other people that you write about – all of this work you are
doing should be focused on supporting your angle. If you are not clear about what your
angle is, it is hard to know exactly what kind of information will be useful in your
article.”
The teacher has chosen three students ahead of time to model thinking about angle.
She/he invites them to sit on a panel for the lesson and interviews them about their topics,
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probing for specificity on their angle. “What do you want your readers to know and to
think about your topic when they are done with your article? Can you be more specific?”
The teacher can ask the class, “Do you hear this writer’s angle here?”
After discussion, the teacher asks the panelists to say what they would write in answer to
the question, “What’s your angle?”
Work time: Students working alone or with a partner ask themselves the same kind of
questions the panel modeled. They write as specifically as they can what they want their
readers to know and think about the topic after reading the article.
Share: The teacher chooses students who have been successful in articulating a clear
angle.
SIX: Immersion
Examining craft and choosing mentors
Mini-lesson: Examining craft within the characteristics of feature articles
Connect: “We’ve created our class characteristics chart of what makes a feature article a
feature article and identified through our sifting and sorting some of the articles that
contain characteristics we want to include in our articles when we write them.”
Teach: “Today we’ll continue our study of feature articles by looking at the author’s craft
and noticing not only what the author does in an article, but by identifying why the author
used that particular craft technique – what effect it has on the reader. We’re going to read
this article together, looking at it through the lens of a feature article writer.”
The teacher chooses one of the articles from the class touchstones. On an overhead
transparency she reads through the piece, thinking aloud and soliciting noticings from the
class. The class comes up with a name for what they notice and then discusses what
effect this has on them as readers. A chart for the article is created with the title of the
article, author, and two columns:
Two-column chart:
Feature Article Title:
Author:
What the author does
Why the author does it/
Effect on the reader
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(Quote from article/ name it)
Examples of craft that students might notice:
• The author uses a play on words in the title. This catches the reader’s attention
and makes us think that the article will be fun to read.
•
The beginning of the article is like the beginning of a story with a description of
the setting and a character. A story engages the reader’s attention and the
description of a specific person helps us make a personal connection to the topic
of the article.
•
The author weaves statistics into the story. This makes the reader believe in the
authority of the author, but just enough data is included to support the author’s
angle – not lists of statistics, which might confuse us or bore us.
•
The author uses specific word choice to create pictures in the reader’s mind.
•
The writing has voice, expression. It makes us feel as though the writer is talking
to us. It persuades us believe in the angle of the author.
•
The author uses questions several times through the article and at the end. This
causes us as readers to think about the topic in relation to ourselves.
Work time: Students work in groups or alone on a favorite feature article, looking for
craft techniques the author uses and the effect they have on the reader. They put sticky
notes on the articles, highlight, or make a chart like the lesson chart to share with the
class.
Share: The teacher can structure the share to tie into characteristics of feature articles by
asking students to share around particular elements. For example the share could begin
with noticings about titles, then leads, use of facts, endings, anecdotes about people, etc.
Alternatively, the share could be from one or two students or groups sharing all that they
noticed from one article.
This lesson helps students begin the process of noticing craft that will help them to pick
articles they like for their mentor packets as described in the lesson below. They will
deepen their understanding of the craft of feature articles as the study progresses by doing
craft try-its as they gather more writing around their topic and as they revise their drafts.
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Mini-lesson: Creating an individual packet of mentor feature articles
In this workshop the teacher invites students to sift through the feature articles they have
been studying and choose four to six of them to create an individual packet of feature
articles to use as mentor texts for their own writing. The teacher tells students to choose
articles they especially like. The topic doesn’t matter – but rather the way the article is
written - the voice, the style, the hook, the way it incorporates facts or quotes, the ending,
etc. The students are reminded to see past the subject of the article, to notice the writing.
This is a time when a student might choose an article that may have strong points (a
captivating hook) and yet have a weakness (not enough hard facts).
Students put a copy of each of the articles in their writing folders.
Mini-lesson: Feature article mentor book
Students create an individual mentor book from the feature articles in the packets they
selected in the previous lesson. They use a Feature Article Mentor Book sheet (see
appendix) for each of the essential characteristics the class has observed in feature
articles – a catchy title, an engaging beginning, etc. Ahead of time, the teacher may have
consolidated and selected seven or eight characteristics from the class definition chart.
For an example of eight characteristics chosen by one teacher, see the ones listed on the
characteristics sheet in the following lesson.
The teacher models going through her/his packet of favorite articles and creating a
mentor sheet for each characteristic. She/he reads through the packet, writing down
favorite examples from the articles. There is room on the sheet for several examples. Ask
students to quote directly the words from the article when possible. An example page
from a mentor author book might look like this:
FEATURE ARTICLE MENTOR BOOK
Catchy title
CHARACTERISTIC
“Ruff Copies” – I like the play on words, the humor
“So a Big Bad Bully is Coming After You…” – alliteration of the B sound
creates a rhythm like feet stomping after me, like being stalked by a bully
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“The Secret of the White Tiger” – I’m always intrigued by a mystery
Students spend their work time creating pages of examples for each characteristic. They
make brief notes explaining why they picked each example. They can staple these sheets
together to create a mentor book.
Mini-lesson: Finding examples of feature article characteristics
For this workshop the teacher has prepared a copy of a form for each of the students to
narrow down their choice and record one example of each essential characteristic of
feature articles from their mentor books. (See appendix for a blank version of the form
CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE ARTICLES.) In each class the teacher prepares
the form by consolidating and filling in essential characteristics the class has developed
for their definition chart. One classroom’s characteristic form is shown as an example:
CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE ARTICLES
FEATURE ARTICLE
CHARACTERISTIC
1. Catchy title
EXAMPLE FROM
ARTICLE
TITLE OF ARTICLE
2. An engaging beginning, a “hook”
3. Angle: Author has a perspective or
opinion - an angle which gives the
piece focus. Written with expression;
the author’s voice and passion for the
topic are evident.
4. Purpose is to inform the reader –
uses facts, statistics, history or
background information, photos with
captions, etc.
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FEATURE ARTICLE
CHARACTERISTIC
5. Tells a story or stories about people
involved in the topic. Includes
anecdotes or examples.
EXAMPLE FROM
ARTICLE
TITLE OF ARTICLE
6. Includes quotes from people
interviewed, from surveys, from
experts.
7. Author acknowledges an alternate
perspective or opposing viewpoint
8. Ending urges reader to respond to
the topic
The teacher models how to use the form to make selections of their one favorite example
of each characteristic chosen from their mentor books. The teacher models thinking about
the mentor examples she/he likes and also what will work best for the feature article
she/he is working on. Students spend the workshop time rereading their mentor books.
They choose one example of each characteristic from their articles that they want to
emulate in their own feature article and place quotes or examples on their copy of the
form. These decisions will aid students as they begin to draft.
During share, students can work with a partner to share a couple of their favorite choices
on the form and what effect they have on them as a reader.
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SEVEN: Student Writing
Gathering around the topic
In a the feature article unit of study the gathering phase of the writing cycle may include
research, conducting interviews and surveys, doing craft try-its with their material,
writing about personal experience with the topic, and observation related to the topic.
All of this gathering work is done looking for sources and writing that support the angle
the writer is taking on the topic. However, the angle can shift as the writer conducts
research in the world.
Possible mini-lessons for gathering material:
Planning research
Students return to the form “Thinking About a Possible Feature Article Topic” and use it
to make more specific plans about specific facts they need to research, people they need
to contact, etc. Students make a plan for the gathering phase. The teacher emphasizes that
a clear angle will help students be clear on what they need to gather to support their
angle.
Creating a survey
Students determine if a survey would support their angle. They decide upon a population
to survey and create a question or questions that would lead to powerful statistics. Three
types of survey questions that students can use are:
• Multiple choice
• Yes or no
• Rating Question
Students examine mentor texts for ways feature article writers include survey results in
their articles. The teacher can demonstrate various ways to report data to support the
angle of the writer. For example, if a student surveys ten boys and discovers that nine of
them play video games with violence against people depicted in them, what are the
different ways that data could be expressed? Which way supports your angle?
Interviews
Students study mentor texts to see ways in which quotes from interviews are used.
Students can conduct two kinds of interviews. One is an interview with a recognized
expert on the topic, probably an adult in the community. The other type of interview is
with people who have had personal experience with the topic of the article.
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Lessons on planning interview questions include modeling the types of questions that
generate only yes and no answers compared to questions that encourage the interview
subject to give a more complete answer. Students practice interviewing each other.
Students will need strategies for recording or note-taking to get quotes for their article.
Research from the internet
The teacher gives students guidance on using search engines to enter key words to find
material on their topics. The teacher can bookmark sites that are appropriate for research
for this age group. Although students often think of the internet as their first source, many
of the other gathering strategies listed here are more accessible and more personal,
leading to a better feature article. Students should have some very specific questions in
mind as they use search engines. Specific questions often come later in the gathering
phase after interviewing an expert, etc.
Taking notes from other text sources:
The teacher uses the same techniques taught to students for taking notes in other content
area research with an emphasis on taking notes in the student’s own words. The
exception to this is when the student finds a quote in a text that supports his or her angle.
Then they need to know how to reference the source.
Personal connections with the topic
Feature article demands a personal connection, a strong feeling or opinion, or keen
interest in the topic. Students gather by writing more about their personal connection.
These pieces of writing can be narrative in nature, telling the story of an event or events
the student experienced or witnessed. Or, they can be opinion pieces in which the student
explores what they think about their topic.
Observation
A feature article topic may have been sparked by observation in the world. The student
returns for more observation. Other students whose topics initially did not include
observation find situations in which to observe.
Double entry chart of opposing viewpoints
The student constructs a question that addresses the central issue within the article. For
example, one student asked, “Should pet owners have the right to throw out their cat or
dog?” Then the student put the question at the top of a paper and created two columns
below with “Yes” at the top of one, and “No” at the top of the other. The writer generated
as many arguments for each point of view as possible.
This work can point the way to survey or interview questions to provide material to
include alternative views in the article.
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Craft Try-its
Attention is given to the craft of a particular genre throughout a unit of study – as
immersion begins, during sifting and sorting, gathering around the topic, drafting, and
revision. During the gathering phase of the feature article unit the teacher may give minilessons on craft techniques that feature article writers use, expanding on the noticings the
class has done up to this point. Students try the technique with their own material, using
mentor examples from their form “Characteristics of Feature Articles.” Students might
try some possible titles, leads, ways to embed quotations from experts, etc.
The class will return to craft work during the revision phase of the project. See section
nine for more craft lessons.
EIGHT: Student Writing
Drafting
Mini-lesson: The structure of a feature article
Connect: “You have been gathering writing around your topic, researching, interviewing
and sharpening your angle for your feature article. You have read and reread your mentor
articles so many times you practically have them memorized! The sound of a feature
article is clear in your mind. “
Teach: “Today you’ll begin your draft by planning the structure of your article. In order
to do that, lets look again at a feature article to examine its structure.”
The teacher places a familiar feature article on the overhead. On it she/he marks the
broad sections that form the structure of most feature articles, referring to a chart
prepared for the lesson.
PARTS OF A FEATURE ARTICLE
Catchy Title
The Hook
Various types to engage the reader: (some we’ve noticed)
Descriptive, sets the scene or describes a character
Narrative, begins with a little story
Provocative statement
Question asked of the reader
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The Body
Contains two major components, the arrangement of which varies
in different articles (can switch back and forth between the two)
1. Background on the topic, which can include:
• Information – tells the reader what we need to know to
understand the rest of the article
• Describes the setting and the people involved if this has
not been done in the opening
• Tells the history of the topic
2. Exploring the angle (the heart of the article)
• Lays out the concerns of the writer through anecdotes,
facts, interviews, survey results, quotes
• Acknowledges other perspectives/opposing viewpoints
The Close
Urges reader response: (some types we’ve noticed)
• To think more about the topic
• To find out more
• To get involved, take action
Other elements of structure:
 Can have photos with captions, sidebars, maps, fact boxes, graphs,
cartoons
 Parts of the article are often structured with subtitles
Work time: The teacher provides students with planning pages or a flowchart to plan the
structure of their draft using the parts shown on the chart. Students highlight the material
in their folders that they want to include and make initial decisions about how they will
order it. They work with their mentor article packet and characteristics sheet with favorite
examples beside their own material.
When students are ready, they begin to draft. Remind students to write on every other
line and on only one side of the sheet of paper. This will make it easier to add words or
cut the draft apart to rearrange sections or add new writing if needed later.
Two key ideas for the teacher to emphasize during conferring:
• everything should work to support the angle, except for a small part that
acknowledges an opposing viewpoint
• any one part in the student’s material may work for the hook, or it may
work in the body, or at the close – experiment with placement
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Share: This is a good day for a process share. The teacher finds those who can talk about
successful strategies for structuring their draft.
NINE: Student Writing
Revision
The teacher makes a plan for which revision lessons she/he will offer based on
assessment of the initial drafts. What weaknesses in the pieces need to be addressed
whole group to lift the level of the writing, and which are better addressed in conferences
with individual students or small groups?
Possible revision lessons:
Response to initial draft
After an initial draft, a first revision strategy is for students to read their articles to one or
two other students. The teacher may want to establish these partnerships or trios to last
through revision so that the partners can give the writer feedback on how well intended
changes are working during this phase.
For a first reading the group considers these questions:
Does it make sense?
Does the piece flow logically?
Is the angle evident?
Is there enough information?
Are we left with confusion or questions?
Characteristics chart
Another revision strategy is for students to use the characteristics sheet or class chart to
check that essential elements are included.
The teacher can develop a checklist for students. See appendix for a sample Feature
Article Checklist. This sample can be modified for the needs of each individual class.
Craft lessons:
Students are encouraged to try out what the authors of their mentor texts do as writers.
Some ideas for craft lessons:
Titles
Students may have noted two types of catchy titles that they liked on their characteristics
sheets – for example, one that uses alliteration (“So a Big, Bad Bully is Coming After
You”) and one that uses a play on words such as “Ruff Copy,” an article on cloning dogs.
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Students try out a number of titles using these types or others noted by the class, choosing
the one they like.
Leads
Students examine types of leads, or “hooks,” from mentor texts. The teachers asks
students to write more than one lead for their draft, then choose the one that is most
effective.
Incorporating research
In a feature article the facts are woven into a story or stories. The teacher shows example
sentences and paragraphs from mentor articles that incorporate various elements of
research students have gathered:
Sentences that embed statistics, facts, numbers, etc.
Sentences that include a definition of specialized vocabulary within the piece
A sentence or paragraph incorporating a quote from an expert or an interview
A paragraph that gives history or background on a topic
The overall balance of facts and story
Transitions
What transitional words or techniques do writers of feature articles use to create a flow
through the piece? The lesson uses examples from mentor articles. One transitional
device particular to this genre is the use of subtitles and paragraph headings.
Anecdotes
Students study the technique of writing a very short narrative in a telling way.
Questions
Using a question, especially a question with the word “you” in it, (“Would you clone
your pet?”) is a common technique employed by feature article writers to draw the reader
in. This technique also helps to set the conversational tone that many articles have.
Students can study the use of questions as a lead type, a strategy for the closing of the
article, or at various places in the body of the article, sometimes used as a transitional
device.
Using personal experience
Feature articles are not written in the first person. Students practice including their
personal experience with the topic by rewriting it as a third person anecdote.“ A twelve
year old girl walks into the gymnastics arena, ready for practice. Already her shoulders
ache, her sprained ankle throbs. Is this worth it? she wonders.”
Descriptions of characters
Feature articles often include thumbnail descriptions of people whose experiences are
described, or of those who serve as experts for the article. Students study examples of the
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way feature article writers bring these characters to life with a few carefully chosen
details.
Revisiting craft strategies from previous units
The teacher reminds students of techniques of effective writing they studied earlier in the
year. These could include figurative language, strong verbs, replacing “tired” words with
an image, show not tell, etc.
Students return to their response groups to get feedback on how well their revisions are
improving their articles.
TEN: Student Writing
Editing
During a skills block time the teacher has taught lessons on a few of the conventions of
punctuation and capitalization that students will want to incorporate in their feature
articles. One that is useful is a study of how to punctuate quotations.
The class can also spend one workshop doing a mini-inquiry into their feature article
mentors noting special or unusual ways feature article writers use conventions. Students
may notice the use of exclamation points, ellipses, and colons. The use of paragraphing in
a feature article – paragraphs’ length and structure - is another interesting inquiry.
Mini-lesson: How to edit our feature articles, alone and with a partner
Connect: Our feature articles are drafted and revised. We are ready to share our writing
with readers, but we will need to edit them the best we can, so that other people can read
them.
Teach: The teacher describes what the authors of the published articles do before
publication. The author reads through the article and fixes up anything she/he sees and
knows how to fix. Then the author goes to a partner, called an editor, to get help in fixing
up the book.
The teacher then co-creates a chart with the class that will be an editing checklist for all
to use. This will involve adding new skills the class has learned since the last publication.
The teacher will have in mind what she/he knows will be on this list, depending on what
skills she/he taught and expects from the students in the class (punctuation, grammar,
spelling, capitalization, etc.). Each section of the chart can begin with a question such as,
“What do we know about capitalization conventions?”
Students may break from conventions if they are using craft elements from a mentor text.
An example of this might be the deliberate use of a sentence fragment.
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Discuss what students should do when they recognize words they know are misspelled,
but don’t know where to find the correct spelling. The criteria should match the lessons
given so far in the class. Perhaps students are responsible for words on the word wall,
close approximations by sounded out spelling, and a have-a-go with a dictionary or other
spelling resource.
Depending on the students in the class and on the time of year, there may be anywhere
from seven to fifteen items on the list. It is better to have fewer items that students can
concentrate on than too many. This editing checklist will grow over the course of the year
as new skills are learned.
Work time: First, students read through their own writing carefully, out loud, fixing
anything they can. Then, on the same day or another day, students read their work with a
partner who helps them edit their pieces.
Note: The teacher can become the final editor of these pieces, going over them after the
students have had a go at it. The teacher should always include the student’s final draft
(before teacher edits) in the students’ portfolios.
ELEVEN: Student Writing
Publishing
Mini-lesson: Decisions on layout
Connect: “We are ready to put our feature articles in their final form. You will have to
make some decisions on how your piece will look when it is published. We have noticed
various features that our mentor articles use, and different ways the text can be laid out in
columns.”
Teach: The teacher models making decisions on layout and extra features for her/his
feature article based on the material she/he has and the options in the mentor articles.
Decisions include:
• Will the text be typed, and if so, will it be in columns?
• Will the published article include any sidebars with additional facts or advice?
• Will it include photographs? Captions under the photos?
• Is it appropriate to create a cartoon or a drawing?
• Will there maps or graphs that will add to the reader’s understanding?
• Will there be resources for the reader listed at the end – to get more information
or take action?
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Work time: Students plan the layout for their articles. They write anything needed such as
lists of facts, photo captions, etc.
If students are not proficient at keyboarding, the teacher may want to arrange for parent
or community volunteers to type the texts of the students’ articles and insert the
photographs students have found.
TWELVE: Celebration
The teacher and the class decide on ways to share their articles with others. An obvious
publishing format is to create a class magazine.
Another consideration in celebration that is particular to this unit of study is the effort to
share the work with people in the community who may have participated in the creation
of the article as an expert or interview subject.
THIRTEEN: Reflection
The class spends a day in Writer’s Workshop reflecting on the learning in this unit. The
teacher asks students to write about what they learned about writing during this unit and
what they want to learn more about as writers.
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APPENDIX
1. Feature Article Response
2. Thinking About a Possible Feature Article Topic
3. Feature Article Mentor Book
4. Feature Article Checklist
5. Characteristics of Feature Articles
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FEATURE ARTICLE RESPONSE
Title: ______________________________________________________
Author: ____________________________________________________
1. What are the main ideas in the article?
2. Does the author have an opinion (angle) that you detected in the
article? If so, what is it?
3. What parts of the article give clues to the writer’s opinion about this
topic?
4. What are some facts or other supporting evidence (quotes, surveys,
etc.) that the author has chosen to include about this topic?
5. What do these facts make you think about the topic? What do these
facts add to the piece?
6. Do you consider this an effective feature article? Explain your
response.
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THINKING ABOUT A POSSIBLE FEATURE ARTICLE TOPIC
Possible topic:
What my notebook entry is about:
Angle I could take (my opinion on the topic):
Facts, history, or background on the topic that I would need to support my angle:
Possible resources for facts, history, background of the topic:
Possible survey of people involved – who I could survey, questions I could ask:
Experts on the topic I could interview: (You do not need names here yet, but the type of person who
would be an expert on your topic.)
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FEATURE ARTICLE MENTOR BOOK
CHARACTERISTIC
Quote examples from your feature article packet that you think are particularly effective.
Add a note explaining why you picked each one.
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Feature Article Checklist
Title can be made “catchy” by:
 Using a play on words (“Ruff Copy” for an article on dog cloning)
 Using alliteration (words in the title begin with the same sound – “Amazon
Alert!”)
 Using mystery (“The Secret of the White Tiger”)
 Using rhyme (“Why Care for Your Wear?”)
 Asking a question (“Are School Uniforms a Must for Success?”)
The hook or lead engages the reader by:
 Using an anecdote, a story from someone you interviewed or observed
 Setting the scene
 Introducing a character
 Posing a question to get your reader to choose her/his position on your topic
 Beginning with an astonishing fact or provocative statement
 Misleading your reader into believing the “flip side” to your angle
Your feature article tells the “whole” story:
 Your reader can easily and clearly identify the points you make
 You make statements and give evidence to support them
 The reader knows your perspective or angle
 You make many points to support your angle
 You also make some points to show the “flip side”
 You support each of the points you make by making comparisons, using quotes,
statistics, survey data
 You have research-related information (gathered from books or internet sites)
 You include graphs, maps, cartoons, captioned photos, drawings, sidebars with
additional information or advice
Your passion for the topic shows:
 You use a clear voice to demonstrate your authority on the topic
 You show the “whole” story, but slanted to show your angle or point of view on
the topic
 You pose a question and then go on to answer it
Ending:
 Your ending urges the reader to respond to the topic
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CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE ARTICLES
FEATURE ARTICLE
CHARACTERISTIC
1.
EXAMPLE FROM
ARTICLE
TITLE OF ARTICLE
2.
3.
4.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF FEATURE ARTICLES continued
FEATURE ARTICLE
CHARACTERISTIC
5.
EXAMPLE FROM
ARTICLE
TITLE OF ARTICLE
6.
7.
8.
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