Lesson Plan

Informational Essay: Getting Organized Before Writing

Students will continue their informational writing project by organizing the information they gathered through research. They will use a graphic organizer to organize their ideas and sort their research notes into meaningful sections.
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Help students develop their understanding of the informational writing process with this lesson that guides them through the prewriting stage of the process. Students will organize their research notes by categorizing and identifying big themes.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to sort and organize their research notes for their informational essay.

Introduction

(2 minutes)
Graphic Organizer: Informational WritingResearch Graphic Organizer: Note-Taking
  • Introduce the general structure of an informational essay:
    • An introduction paragraph that includes a thesis statement, a sentence that summarizes the main point or claim in the essay
    • Three body paragraphs, one for each supporting point
    • A concluding paragraph that restates the thesis and wraps up the essay
  • Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about how they might use their research notes to eventually write an informational essay. Prompt them to think about additional steps they think would help them in the process, and encourage them to draw on previous writing experience.
  • Call on volunteers to share with the class, and explain that the next step in the process of writing their informational essays is to sort and organize their research notes. This step will prepare them to later write an outline and then a first draft.
  • Display a copy of the Graphic Organizer: Informational Writing worksheet and share that they will use this tool to organize their research notes as they bring their informational writing project one step further in the process.