A Closer Look at Each Informational Book

An informational text is a piece of writing that gives the reader facts. It does not follow a story structure.

Elementary students are often required to write an informational text within the school year. Popular assignments include: biographies, how to books, an event that took place in history, cultural holidays, ancient cultures, and science writing. 

Informational texts are usually non-fiction (something that really happened), they are very rarely fiction (made up from imagination).

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Beginning

Before Lacrosse there was Stickball teaches young writers to develop strong introductions for their writing pieces. It also highlights the importance of launching a text with topical background information.

Conventions

The Stonewall Inn teaches young writers to follow the capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and tense rules taught in schools. Furthermore, it shows the virtue of including varying sentence types in a piece of writing. 

Descriptive Language

Volcanoes are Marvelous teaches young writers to arouse their readers’ imaginations by including sensory language. It also reveals the appeal of using literary techniques such as metaphors and alliteration. 

End

Autism teaches young writers to complete their stories with strong endings. Furthermore, it demonstrates how to close a topic in a way that is gratifying to the reader. 

Focus and Extra Information

How an Acorn Becomes an Oak Tree teaches young writers to keep their texts focused and on-topic. It shows writers how to avoid long tangents by eliminating unneeded information from their tales. 

Focus and Length

Mae C. Jemison teaches young writers to keep their writing pieces focused and on-topic. Furthermore, it shows children how to end a composition before it goes on too long. 

Lead

Nowruz teaches young writers how to capture a reader’s attention with an interesting first page. It exhibits the importance of appealing to an audience with a hook. 

Middle

Ancient Roman Homes teaches young writers to create detailed chapters for the middle of their writing pieces. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the middle is the longest, most important part of a text. 

Sequence

The Life Cycle of an Elephant teaches young writers to sequence their texts in a logical order. It also reinforces the value of checking over a piece of writing to ensure there is a completed beginning, middle, and end. 

Stretch

The Journey of a Letter teaches young writers the importance of developing a juicy and detailed first draft. It demonstrates how to transform a plan into an interesting piece of writing by adding details. 

Transition Words and Phrases

How to Volunteer teaches young writers to link their sentences together in a smooth and ordered fashion. It also demonstrates how to embed temporal language into a writing piece, to indicate the passage of time.

Voice

The Human Digestive System teaches young writers to establish their own voice when developing a writing piece. It also provides examples of how to include thoughts and opinions in an informational text.