A Quick Guide to Teaching Informational Writing, Grade 2 (Workshop Help Desk)

“Informational writing is the perfect genre for second graders because nobody is more curious about the workings of the world and is more eager to tell you a zillion facts about the topic at hand.”
Marika Paez Wiesen

Informational writing taps into second graders natural inclination to explore and excitedly share the new and strange discoveries that fill their worlds on a daily basis. Marika Paez Wiesen offers a framework that will help you harness this energy and implement an informational writing unit of study that thoughtfully addresses the wide range of learners typically found in a second grade classroom.

Addressing the heightened emphasis on reading and writing informational texts in the Common Core State Standards and on state tests, this unit of study guides you through the entire writing process. After considering how to plan and prepare an informational writing unit that builds on young writers? passions, interests, and abilities, Marika describes how to get started choosing topics, planning a draft, and beginning to write chapters. Ensuing chapters explore ways to elaborate on and revise these chapters with an eye towards addressing conventions and using features common to nonfiction texts. The final chapter offers ideas on how best to celebrate this writing and extend this learning across the curriculum.

A Quick Guide to Teaching Informational Writing, Grade 2 is part of the Workshop Help Desk series.

About the Workshop Help Desk series
The Workshop Help Desk series is designed for teachers who believe in workshop teaching and who have already rolled up their sleeves enough to have encountered the predictable challenges. If you’ve struggled to get around quickly enough to help all your students, if you’ve wondered how to tweak your teaching to make it more effective and lasting, if you’ve needed to adapt your teaching for English learners, if you’ve struggled to teach grammar or nonfiction writing or test prep…if you’ve faced these and other specific, pressing challenges, then this series is for you. Provided in a compact 5" x 7" format, the Workshop Help Desk series offers pocket-sized professional development. 

For a comprehensive overview of the Units of Study in Opinion/Argument, Information, and Narrative series, including sample minilessons, sample videos, videos, frequently asked questions and more, visit UnitsofStudy.com.

Marika Páez Wiesen is the author of the Heinemann/FirstHand title A Quick Guide to Teaching Informational Writing, Grade 2. A National Board Certified teacher and literacy specialist at Bronx Community Charter School, she began her teaching career with Teach for America and went on to teach kindergarten, first, and second grades before becoming a Staff Developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. 

She’s led numerous teacher leadership groups and institutes across New York City and the country on a wide variety of topics, such as: supporting English language learners in reading and writing instruction; using reading partnerships to improve reading; and writing fairytales. Her favorite part of teaching writing is witnessing the joy and pride students feel as they share their feelings and passions. She holds a B.M. in Music Education from Willamette University, and a M.S. in Teaching from Bankstreet College of Education.