Writing Non-Fiction For an Audience

Students will:

• Be able to choose a topic and write at least three facts with details about their topic.

Vocabulary Words:

1. Informational Piece of Writing: Informational writing is a type of nonfiction writing that conveys information about something, which means it is factual. Many examples of informational writing can be found in newspapers, almanacs, and reference books.

To prepare for this lesson: 

Before the lesson, teachers must set up SeeSaw accounts for their classes and invite parents to join.

• Please view the TEACHER video on using SeeSaw in the classroom. 

• Students should also know the basic features of SeeSaw.

  • Please view the following videos to decide how your students will access SeeSaw.  Students can access it with email, a class code, or a QR code. 

    •  Student sign-in using email

    • Get Students Started on Seesaw: Sign in with a code

• Here is a student video on how to use SeeSaw. 

• The SeeSaw app needs to be downloaded on student devices or bookmarked on computers. 

• Students should also know the basic features of SeeSaw.
  • Teachers will need journal paper or “informational writing paper”  available to students. There are many templates that can be found using Pinterest. 
    • The organizer will include:
      • Topic 
      • Topic Sentence
      • Facts 1-3
      • Conclusion

Note: SeeSaw has many other tutorials on their website and Help Center.

See the Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students website in the Teacher Resources. 

Directions for this activity:

1. The teacher begins by asking students “Who reads your writing?” Student answers will include people in the classroom and also their family at home if journals go home.

2. The teacher then asks, “what types of writing do we write?” Students should answer journal writing, stories, nonfiction, etc…

3. The teacher explains that today when students work on writing, they are going to write to teach somebody something, post their writing to SeeSaw and read it aloud for their audience.

4. Teacher and students discuss nonfiction topics that they like to write about. Students may say:

   • Animals

   • Weather

   • Sports

5. Next, students and teacher talk about reading an informational text out loud to someone and how to help their reader understand their story. Students may say:

   • Read clearly.

   • Include a diagram.

   • Point to the words.

6. Students create their informational writing on journal paper and color a picture to match. When finished, the students will upload their writing to SeeSaw.

7. In SeeSaw, students press the “+” sign, then select the camera icon to take a photo of their writing.

8. Next, students tap the microphone and record themselves reading their writing aloud.

9. When finished, students select the green check to add it to their journal.

Here is a photo of the steps to add and explain a photo in SeeSaw:

Different options for assessing the students:

• Observations
• Check for understanding
• Teachers can see what students have posted to their journal from the Teacher side of SeeSaw. They are able to leave feedback for students and intervene with any student who did not read their story or added more detail then they wrote about. The teacher can also talk about how their writing might help someone to continue the discussion about audience.