Teaching Explanatory Writing to 3rd-5th Grade Students

I will not be grading the unit you produce, but as a teacher, you should be continuously assessing the effectiveness of your planning and instruction. Here are some things to think about as you finish up your planning:

• Have I planned lessons to explicitly teach all of the skills that are included in my grading rubric?
• Are my texts and lessons differentiated to meet the needs of all students?
• Have I considered challenges my students may face and how I will scaffold my instruction?
• Have I included various teaching techniques - modeling, peer conferencing, shared writing, etc?
• Does my Research Task look similar to something students might see on LEAP 2025?
• Will my students have fun with this assignment?

In addition to answering the above questions for yourself, consider setting a growth goal for your students. If you have writing samples from earlier in the year, grade them using the rubric for this project, and set a goal for how much improvement you would like to see. If this is the first full essay that students will compose, use it as your baseline data, and check back in after your next unit. Remember to have high expectations, but celebrate small wins throughout the process!