Description

While working in cooperative groups, students research a topic for an expository report. Students then work collaboratively to write, edit, and revise the report to produce a polished research paper. Following the group effort, students work independently to test their newly acquired research and report writing skills. Please note that this unit can be scaled up or down to meet the needs of teachers of various grade levels or across many subject areas.

Duration

The planned duration of this activity is 33 days.

Lesson Plans

Fact or Fiction--What Is Expository Writing?
This is the first lesson in a unit on expository writing called Info Expo. Students take a pre-test, compare and contrast various forms of writing with a Venn diagram, and explore the various formats for expository writing.

Information Sensation!
This is the second lesson in a unit on expository writing. Students are brought up to speed on narrowing the topic, conducting research, and creating source cards. Students practice recording bibliographic information in a research scavenger hunt.

Information Shuffle
This is the fifth lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to explore, examine, and evaluate information for a research topic. Ultimately, students shuffle and physically sort their note cards into an organizational pattern for writing.

No Plagiarism, Please!
This is the third lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction provides boundaries for taking notes by differentiating between paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing. Students practice writing note cards.

Those Baffling Bibliographies!
This is the fourth lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction guides students in using source cards to create a Works Cited list for a report.

Collaborative Compositions
This is the final lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to develop, draft, and elucidate information for a research topic. Students work collaboratively to write a paper as practice for the final task of writing their own papers.