This experience from years ago is still fresh in my mind. It, and many other classroom moments like it, helped convince me of the power that informational books have over young readers and writers. For many students, reading and writing about the real world is an exciting, powerful motivation for learning. Just as important, working with informational texts attunes students to the language of exposition, a critical survival skill in our information-centered world.

Informational trade books, which address a dazzling array of topics and effectively complement content-area textbooks, capitalize on children´s curiosity and can interest even our most reluctant readers. Why is it important for even our youngest students to experience the expository text found in informational trade books? Consider these facts:

• When students explore real-world topics that interest them-whether skeletons, trains, or ballet dancing-they read more deeply and retain more information.
• Between 50 and 80 percent of all standardized test content is expository, or informative-type text.
• Ninety-six percent of text that appears on Internet web sites is expository (Kamil & Lane, 1998).
• By sixth grade more than 75 percent of a student´s school reading demands involve non-narrative materials. In fact, most of what adults read on the job, and off, is informational text (Venezky, 2000).

Writing Information Texts With Students: Three Approaches

Clearly, reading informational text is important in the primary grades. However, using informational trade books as models for writing can bring even greater gains. By writing about expository texts, students get exposure to expositional writing while learn about specific content areas.

When we link reading and writing we help students engage more with texts. Studies have shown that kids have better recall of key ideas and deepen their thinking, asking higher-level questions of the text and themselves (Tierney & Shanahan, 1996).

Here are three proven and learning-rich approaches that can help scaffold students as they create their own informational texts: text innovations, written retellings, and “just-like” books. The first, text innovations, is perhaps the easiest. With this method, the teacher provides a template for student use. With a written retelling, students rewrite their own version of a text, recalling as many details as they can. With a “just-like” book, students study the format of an informational book and use it as a model to create an original book on a subject of their own choosing.

As students create text innovations, recall texts through retellings, and follow the format to create their own informational books, they gradually gain greater control over expositional text and greater confidence in writing expository text.

Approach One: Text Innovations

With text innovations, your students use a writing frame, supplying their own ideas within the structure of the text´s own language. This allows them to explore writing in a secure, non-threatening way. Start by introducing students to informational books with a specific pattern through read-alouds, shared, and/or guided reading experiences.

Then, model for students whole-class writing that involves completing a frame to create an innovation on a particular text. For example, the simple first-grade title Now and Then, by Faridah Yusof, uses a compare and contrast pattern. After reading or hearing the book read several times, students can use their own ideas to fill in the frames, draw pictures next to each statement, and make the book their own. For example, one spread of two pages might read:

In the nineteenth century, people crossed the ocean by _______.
Now, we cross the ocean by _______.

As children become comfortable with the idea of text innovation, gradually require students to supply more and more words in the frame.

Approach Two: Written Retellings

With Written Retellings written retellings, students actively reconstruct a text with which they are familiar. This approach requires children to recall and restructure materials into their own form, a process requiring deep understanding of text content. A written retelling is not a summary. In it, students write down everything they can recall from a text, not just key ideas. This lets teachers see how much information children retain and how well they can organize this information. Written retellings are best used with children in grades three and up. For example, Sunken Treasure, by Gail Gibbons, is a good book for written retellings by older students. Students can read the book, create semantic maps based on the headings, and then write their own exciting retellings based on their idea webs.

Written Retellings Step-by-Step:
1. Immerse students in text that will be retold through shared book experiences, read alouds, oral retellings, and so on.

2. Read the text aloud several times. Model a written retelling with the group. Prompt students by saying “What happened first? Next? Then? After that? Record answers on sentence strips and arrange sequentially on the white board. Model “text lookbacks,” or quick reviews of the text for forgotten details.

3. Now provide students with their own copies of an easy informational trade book. Read the text aloud as students follow along. Let students re-read the text, jotting notes or creating visual organizers. They then write their retellings.

4. Last, invite students to share their books and talk about their similarities and differences.

Approach Three: "Just-Like" Books

With “just-like” books, students of all ages can use informational trade books as inspiration for creating their own books. Depending on the model they use, students´ books can take many forms, such as photo essays, survey books, question and answer books, and many others. They can be short or long, simple or complex, depending upon your goals and your students´ abilities.

Writing informational trade books can provide interesting alternatives to traditional report formats. Here´s how it works: Students conduct research on a topic of interest and combine their own research with format ideas provided by a published trade book. For example, one fourth-grade teacher wanted her students to learn how to write steps in a sequence. Students brainstormed topic ideas and reviewed books like How a Book Is Made, by Aliki, and How Is A Crayon Made?, by Charles Oz. They then wrote and illustrated their own books with titles like “How to Hit A Baseball,” “How to Ride Motocross,” and “How to Make a Piñata.”

“Just-Like” Books Step-by-Step:
1. Help students identify interesting topics for their own books. Guide students as they engage in the research process. They can locate library and Internet resources, take notes, and organize information using webs and other rubrics.

2. Give students time to read and review texts that model different formats.

3. After students create rough drafts of their books, conduct writing conferences with students, helping them to edit their work and create engaging book designs.

4. Involve students in writing, illustrating, and binding their books. Then share the books by having an all-class read-aloud. Invite the proud parents if possible.

The Information Challenge

Using informational trade books as models for writing can help you meet the challenge of increasing student exposure to expositional text while capitalizing on children's fascination with curious facts. Inviting children to create text innovations, written retellings, and “just-like” books helps them develop confidence in reading and writing expository texts. It's just one more way that we can help to ensure that today's children are prepared for the literacy demands of the world of tomorrow.

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