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2nd Grade Informational Writing

See how to teach nonfiction writing through writers’ workshop in a second grade classroom using anchor charts and a few recommendations for different mentor texts.

Second grade writing is amazing! As students develop from kindergarten and first grade, you see So. Much. Growth. When I taught second grade, I saw how much they were capable of and loved reading the wonderful stories they wrote. Our  Writers Workshop 2nd Grade units  provide print and teach lesson plans for daily writing instruction. Informational writing lesson unit plans are in unit 4. Check it out by clicking here,  Writers Workshop Second Grade Unit 4 .

Informational Text Writing Prompts or Topics

I often get asked about the types of writing prompts we suggest for informative writing. During writers workshop, I never give students a topic they will write on. Instead,during our informational writing unit, students explore ideas that interest them.

Research tells us that the best way to get students engaged in their own writing is by allowing them to select the topic they have the most energy to write on. So on a daily basis we ask students to be responsible for what they will write about.

But even second graders need help to get the ideas flowing! We can start those ideas in a few ways.

Nonfiction Mentor Texts for Informational Writing

Introduce students to nonfiction books to start informational writing. We provide a list of mentor texts that are mentioned throughout the writing unit so all the work is done for you! On day one, students start generating ideas lists, and let me tell you… they are experts on ALL sorts of things. 

National Geographic Readers: Cheetahs by Laura Marsha

One thing I really like about the National Geographic readers is they not only have interesting facts about interesting animals, they are also filled with great examples of text features. These grade level texts are the perfect informative writing mentor texts.

Another way to help students gain ideas is through mini-lesson on where writers get ideas. Students brainstorm a list of topics they can write about. We practice this important skill with each form of writing regardless of the grade. Self-selection of a topic is important work.

Informational Writing Graphic Organizers

Often times when students begin to write informational texts, they have a hard time going beyond the topic sentence. Through mini-lessons, we introduce this graphic organizer to help students know if they have enough factual information on that specific topic to write on.

Sometimes students write on a subject where they are using their background knowledge other times research may have been involved. Regardless, we want to be sure we have a power topic to write on.

Informational Writing Anchor Charts

Expository writing is unique, so having a few anchor charts to support these young writers is important. Not only will students use the mentor texts we have read as a reference book for these informational text features, we will also provide a few visuals to help the students learn words such as comparisons, captions, maps, and cutaways. These academic vocabulary posters are part of the writing curriculum.

Informational Writing Rubrics and Assessments

As we launch a new writing unit, we ask students to select a writing goal. We create an anchor chart and as a whole group students place their name on where they want to focus their writing attention. As we move through the writing unit, students may wish to adjust their goals or I may ask the student to move on to a new writing focus if they have mastered their previous goal.

Coincidentally (no really… it is by design) the writing goals align with the writing rubric. We don’t want any surprises. At the end of the writing unit of study, the whole class is assessed with a final writing piece and the rubric is used again. This is a great way to see writing growth.

2nd Grade Informative Writing Example

Let’s take a look at this nonfiction book written by a second grade student in Colorado!

Throughout our units, we provide anchor charts to support student writing. One of the second grade standards is to know and use text features. What better way to understand this skill than to use it in our writing? 

They are even adding captions! “A fox chasing a bird”. 

You can see this young writer latched onto the comparison anchor chart and included it in this writing example.

Sweet little illustrations, too!

This second grade teacher added a couple of extra pages for a diagram and glossary. What a great idea!

During writers workshop, teachers should be conferring with students daily. If students are not with you, they are writing independently and should stay actively engaged throughout the entire writing time. If you’d like to know more about how I confer with students, click  here ! There is some kindergarten writing on the post!  

• Nonfiction Writing in Kindergarten

One more thing! With all of the writing going on in your classroom, it can be difficult to keep it organized. I discovered the perfect solution for student writing. Click to learn more!

• Writing Folder Organization

Informational Writing Unit Curriculum

If you would like to have the writing mini-lessons, anchor charts, rubrics and more, we have these informative writing units just for you! You can find these unit by clicking:

• Writers Workshop Writing Through the Year: Unit 4 for 2nd Grade Informational Writing
• Writers Workshop Writing Through the Year: Unit 4 K-1 Grade Informational Writing

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How to Teach Informative Writing

n this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Informative Writing and provide details about my Informational Writing Unit resources for for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. Be sure to download 3 FREE Informational Writing Graphic Organizers!

We write for a variety of purposes. The most popular are to inform, entertain, explain, or persuade. While we teach our students to write for each of these different purposes, the ability to effectively write an informative piece of writing is a highly important skill for students to learn. It is one of the most common types of writing we use in our everyday lives.

Today I’m excited to share 5 tips for teaching informational writing, as well as a valuable resource that has everything you need to teach informative writing to your kindergarten , first grade , or second grade students! 

1.  Read Informative Writing Mentor Texts 

As a teacher, you may “Start with the end in mind”  when you plan out your units of study, but it also applies to students learning about different genres of writing.  Before you can ask your students to write in a genre that is new to them, you must first immerse them in it.  

So to begin your informational writing unit, you’ll want to share lots of quality informational texts with your students.  These mentor texts provide students with excellent examples of informational writing. As you read them aloud, highlight the way the author structures their writing and the features they include to help make their writing more clear for the reader.  All of these things will help students better understand what type of writing we are asking them to do.    

When you’re picking informative mentor texts to share with your students there are a few things to consider .  First, do you (the educator) think it is excellent?  Second, is it easy for your students to understand?  And finally, is it relevant to the type of writing you are teaching?  If you answer “Yes!” to all three, then you’re good to go!

To help you out I’ve created a list of excellent mentor texts you can use when teaching Informative Writing to kindergarten, first, or second grade students.  

A List of Informative Writing Mentor Texts:

Gail Gibbons

• The Moon Book
• The Pumpkin Book

Nicola Davies

• One Tiny Turtle
• Big Blue Whale
• Bat Loves the Night
• Surprising Sharks

Jim Arnosky

• Slither and Crawl
• Frozen Wild
• Beachcombing: Exploring the Seashore

Diana Aston

• An Egg is Quiet
• A Beetle is Shy
• A Seed is Sleepy
• A Rock is Lively

I’ve saved all these titles on one board so you can easily take a closer look at these mentor texts. Click here to see this list on Amazon .  

2.   Model Your Own Informational Writing

Never underestimate the importance of modeling!  It’s the most powerful tool in your arsenal.  

When teaching informative writing first model how to choose a topic.  Picking a topic is fun and easy because you get to choose something you already know a lot about!

Remind students that they are already experts in so many areas!!  This can be a big confidence booster for kids who might normally struggle to come up with ideas to write about.  Use think alouds to show them how you brainstorm a list of topics you already know a lot about and show them how you narrow it down to one.  

Next, model how you gather information and organize your ideas.  For informative writing you can show them how you use your prior knowledge, as well as pull important information from outside resources like books and websites. 

Finally, reread your work aloud and show students how you catch silly mistakes such as spelling, capitalization or punctuation errors.  You can also show how you add more details to make your piece more informative for your reader.  

3.  Use Anchor Charts

You want your students to know that when they write an informative piece they are sharing facts, or true information, with their reader. They are not sharing their opinion. It is important to take time to review fact vs. opinion with your students. You can create an anchor chart that clearly defines fact vs. opinion and then practice determining if different statements are facts or opinions.

You will also want to create an anchor chart using the writing you model. This will serve as another example of excellent informative writing. As a class, add labels to identify the topic sentence, supporting facts/details and the closing sentence in your shared writing. 

Post these anchor charts in your writing center so your students can refer back to them and use them as support as they write their own pieces.

4.  Allow students to edit and share their writing

Provide a good writers checklist at your writing center.  For informative writing you’ll want the checklist to include items such,  “Does my writing have a topic sentence?”  “Did I include enough facts?” and “Do I have a closing sentence?”, as well reminders to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors.  

Give students the opportunity to share their writing with others!  Pair students with partners and let them read their pieces to each other. 

You can teach them to provide each other with a bit of feedback by encouraging them to use sentence starters such as, “I like the way you….:” ,  “I learned that….” or “Your writing made me wonder….”.  Of course, this is also something you’d first want to model. Posting these sentence starters in your writing center provides support and helps to keep students focused and on-task.  

 5. Provide Daily Opportunities for Students to Write

As with all things, writing takes PRACTICE!  Informative writing requires students to do a lot of hard work. It requires that they think carefully about their purpose for writing. Then they must plan what they’ll say and how they’ll say it.

Finally, they’ve got to get it down on the paper in a way that is clear for the reader.   That’s a lot for a young child! 

Students need dedicated instructional time to learn the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers, as well as time to practice what they learn. When you think about your daily instructional schedule, make sure you are giving your students ample opportunities to practice their informational writing through whole group instruction, small groups and/or through independent practice in writing centers. 

Informative Writing Unit For Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Students

We know informational writing requires a lot from students, but planning these informative writing units is also A LOT of work for you as the teacher!

To help you out I created informative writing units that have the essential resources you need to teach and students to independently practice informational writing!  These units are a perfect addition to your literacy work in writing centers.

Today I’m excited to share with you the details about my Kindergarten Informative , 1st Grade Informative, and my 2nd grade Informative writing units!

These units were developed with standards-based research specific to each grade. They have EVERYTHING you need to give your students ample amounts of practice writing informational pieces. You can use them within whole class or small group lessons, or as a literacy center where students can practice independently!  

What’s Included in these Informative Writing Resources?

The kindergarten , first grade, and the second grade resources all include information to help you teach the unit, as well as mini-lesson to provide your students a review of informative writing.  You’ll get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, academic vocabulary posters, a printable fact vs. opinion anchor chart, and graphic organizers appropriate for each grade level.

The kindergarten resource also includes the materials needed for students to create seasonal writing mini-books . Each mini-book comes with traceable sentence stems and a picture supported vocabulary word bank. This helps your young writers brainstorm ideas for what to write about and support their spelling.

You’ll also get an editing checklist that is specific to informative writing but also appropriate for the kindergarten level.

Instead of a seasonal mini-book, the first grade and second grade resource comes with seasonal writing prompts . You’ll get 5 informative writing prompts for each season, so you can practice informative writing all throughout the year. 

The prompts are both PRINTABLE & DIGITAL.  The digital version has been  PRELOADED  for you,  with 1 click add them  to your Google Drive or upload them to SeeSaw.

Each seasonal prompt also comes with publishing paper that includes a story specific vocabulary bank to provide spelling support and help students get ideas for what to write about.  

Finally, you’ll also get a self-editing checklist and rubric that have both been made specifically for informative writing.  This rubric can be used to help guide students as they work on their pieces, and/or as a self-assessment tool.     

I love these resources because they can be used in so many different ways.  They offer opportunities for students to practice informative writing as a whole class, in small groups, as a literacy center activity, for homework, or as a meaningful activity for when you have a substitute teacher!  They provide k-2 students with all the practice they need to master informative writing! 

FREE Informational Writing Graphic Organizers

Are you ready to begin teaching informative writing in your classroom? To help get your students started, I am happy to offer you 3 FREE informational writing graphic organizers! Download them here!

Helping your students to develop their ability to explain their ideas and share information with others is a valuable academic and life skill they will use well beyond the walls of your classroom.  I hope the information and resources I’ve shared today will help to bring stronger informative writing instruction and more meaningful practice to your kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms!

Be on the lookout for my next post that will focus on another genre… Opinion Writing ! I’ll share information and tips for teaching opinion writing, as well as give you details about my Opinion Writing Units for Kindergarten , First and Second grade students!

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How to Teach Informative Writing in 2nd Grade with Spectacular Results

Not going to lie.. informative writing can be daunting. Which makes teaching informative writing that much more daunting. However, it doesn’t have to be a battle and it can even be FUN!

Important Concepts:

Students need to learn how to research facts about a topic and restate those facts in their own words. Both parts of that concept can be difficult.

Research might be hard with students who are just learning to read. A great way to combat that is to do research as a class or in small groups.

Restating facts in students’ own words is an easier concept to teach. This can be done with lots of modeling and guided practice.

By second grade, students should be able to write a topic sentence, 3-4 fact sentences WITH details, and a closing sentence. This means student writing should be anywhere from 5-10 sentences at least. However, many students are ready to write in paragraphs by second grade and should be encouraged to do so by adding more detail sentences to each event.

Challenges:

Students might struggle understanding the difference between an event and a detail. Talk to students about how an event is SOMETHING that happened, and details are the supporting ideas that help tell that story. Details can add dialogue, words from 5 senses, or more explicitly explain certain subjects from their writing.

The Writing Process:

I cannot stress enough the importance of taking your students through the writing process every single week, for every single genre. This involves brainstorming/planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, grading and sharing.

Hook/Brainstorm:

Getting students EXCITED can be half the battle during writing. I love to tie all of my writing projects to engaging read alouds and fun topics. You can find my favorite narrative writing companions here.

It is equally important to MODEL each step of the writing process for students. After reading aloud our companion text, I typically will read aloud my model. I also will then model my own plan so students can see what I am looking for when it is their turn to write.

Then, it is time for students to make a plan. Be sure not to skip this phase, it is NOT writing a full draft, but rather jotting down their ideas they are going to write about. They can use bullet points or pictures to gather their ideas, but this should NOT be done in full sentences and should not take longer than 5-10 minutes.

I like to give students two full days to draft for narrative writing. Each week, we focus on a different important skill that needs to be taught during narrative writing. Some skills we focus on are:

• Transition Words • Topic Sentences • Closing Sentences • Adding Details such as adjectives, prepositions, similes, metaphors, etc. • Adding Dialogue • Writing with a problem and a solution

Typically, students write their topic sentence, and first two events and details one day. Then, I have them write their second two events and details, along with the closing on the second day. We focus on the skill of the week, while also reinforcing the other skills that were previously taught.

Revising/Editing:

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year setting up a peer editing time that is productive for students. We spend an entire day revising and editing, and I also roam the room and select certain students each week to conference with during this time.

Depending on the length of your writing block, you can either meet with all of your students or rotate through small groups of them each week.

Publish, Grade, Share:

I always have students publish a piece of writing every single week. We add it to our writing portfolios that we take home at the end of the year. When students finish publishing, I have them grade themselves on the rubric. Self-assessment is such a powerful tool for students.

After they self grade, we find time to share each week. This can be partner sharing, author’s chair, sharing with buddies, recording themselves reading or more.

Year of Writing Crafts and Activities for Informative Narrative Opinion How To By The Mountain Teacher 2nd Grade

Digital Year of Writing Activities for Informative Narrative Opinion How To By The Mountain Teacher 2nd Grade

Common Core Writing Pack for Opinion Narrative and Informative Writing Templates By The Mountain Teacher

The Writing Process Anchor Charts Bulletin Board Posters By The Mountain Teacher

Writing Strategies for Narrative Informative and Opinion Posters Anchor Charts Bulletin Board By The Mountain Teacher

What are your favorite strategies for teaching informative writing in 2nd grade? Drop some tips and tricks in the comments below!

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How to teach informational writing.

In my third installment of how to teach Common Core aligned writing units, I’m going to discuss teaching informational writing. The last couple of weeks, I also wrote about Narrative Writing and Opinion Writing. We’re going to target informational writing today. I’m going to share what I think best practices are, how to break apart the components of informational writing, and how to keep your kiddos engaged when your teaching informational writing! All of the images you see below (except for the read-alouds) are part of my ELA writing units. The links to all grade levels are at the bottom!

Informational Writing Common Core Expectations

Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, narrative, and opinion writing! Today, we’re going to dive into the informational writing standards. It begins kindergarten and each year, gets progressively more in depth and detailed. Here is a look at K-5’s expectations for opinion writing, according to Common Core.

Primary Standards

• Kinder: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
• 1st Grade: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
• 2nd Grade: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

Intermediate Standards

• 3rd Grade: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (a- Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.) (b- Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.) (c- Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also , another , and , more , but ) to connect ideas within categories of information.) (d- Provide a concluding statement or section.)
• 4th Grade: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (a- Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.) (b- Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.) (c- Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another , for example , also , because ).) (d- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.) (e- Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented.)

Let’s Look at Informational Writing Outline

• Introduce WHAT Informational Writing is
• What are facts and definitions?
• Writing introductions
• The body: strong facts & supporting detail
• Writing conclusions
• Teach specifics such as how-to and all-about pieces
• Practice, practice, practice

Informational Writing Mentor Texts

All of the components and learning pieces within this blog post should have a mentor text example along with it. Each time you teach your students about a component of narrative writing, use a strong example! Each of the book links below are affiliate links to Amazon.

• What is the Moon Like? by Franklyn Branley
• The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
• What If You Had Animal Feet? by Sandra Markle (entire series)
• How to Teach a Slug to Read by Susan Pearson
• Assorted National Geographic Kids Readers
• From Milk to Ice Cream by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
• I am Martin Luther King Jr. by Brad Meltzer (entire series)
• How a House is Built by Gail Gibbons
• Why are the Icecaps Melting? by Anne Rockwell
• Hippos are Huge! by Jonathan London

Let’s Start! What is Informational Writing?

Just like with the opinion writing and narrative writing blog posts, I suggest starting with teaching what informational or informative writing is. It’s important for the students to understand the components behind informational writing. First, you’ll teach them the different types of informative writing. These are how-to pieces, all about pieces, biographies, articles, explanatory pieces, and more. Then, you’ll teach them the structure of informational writing pieces. This is the introduction, body, and closure.

After you use an anchor chart about teaching informational writing, you can give them practice. Let them identify different examples from an informational text and which part of the structure it belongs to. In the picture above, you see two different activities. In the first activity, the teacher shows a sample writing piece that is color-coded into different parts. Then, the students will have follow-up activities where they will put the informational writing cut-outs in order. This will help them get comfortable with what is expected of them.

Big Picture: Facts and Definitions

Once you’ve taught students what informational writing is, it’s time to give them a lot of practice with facts, details, and definitions. When we did our opinion pieces, students took a day or two simply writing opinions. We will do the same with informative writing. Students will need to practice simply writing facts and definitions because it is important that they include only facts, definitions, and details in their informational writing.

Here are two activities to practice fact writing. First, the students will get a topic card and have to come up with a sentence about that topic. This will help them practice facts, instead of opinion sentences or even narrative sentences. For example, you want a student to draw a card such as working dogs and say, “Working dogs can have real jobs, such as airport security,” instead of “I think working dogs are helpful” and “I once saw a working dog helping a police officer”. This helps shift their mindset into only facts and definitions. Then, you can have students independently practice fact writing with informational writing graphic organizers or flip books.

Teaching Informational Writing Introductions

You’ve taught what informational writing is and how to focus on facts. Now, it’s time to dive into the structure of teaching informational writing. First, you’re going to teach students about writing introductions. Begin by teaching them the different ways that you can introduce a writing piece. They can use a fact or statistic to open their piece. Or they could include a quote or an anecdote. You’re trying to teach them to hook their reader to interest them in their writing topics. Give students lots of different ways to practice this, such as matching games where they’re working with real examples. You can also give them writing practice where they have a topic and they have to come up with their own introduction.

The Body: Facts & Details

Now, we can move onto the biggest chunk of teaching informational writing… the body. The body is where your big facts and support details exist. In Common Core, students are eventually expected to include supporting details for all strong facts they include. One way to get them to eventually do this is to give them a strong fact and ask them to come up with a supporting detail. Since you’re giving them the facts, their job is to focus on that specific topic and come up with an important detail. The more practice you give them, the better they’ll be at naturally giving a detail for each fact they include.

If you’re needing to back up a little bit when teaching facts and details, give students topics and simply ask for adjectives or describing words. If you give a student a card with a desert on it, they’ll need to come up with adjectives to describe that desert. Then, they can use those adjectives to further develop their facts and details.

Teaching the Conclusion

And finally, we can teach conclusions. Just like with introductions, you’re going to teach what a conclusion is and different ways they can give a sense of closure. They can give a summary, share their feelings, give a suggestion, provide a quote, and other high interest ways to wrap up their writing pieces. One way to give students a firm grasp of strong conclusions is to use your mentor texts. Use 2-3 different mentor texts and read the conclusions in each. Then, ask students how the author provided a sense of closure.

Give students a lot of practice when teaching informational writing conclusions. Give them real examples that they have to sort into strong or weak. Then, give them topics where they have to come up with their own conclusions! You can even give them activities where they have to sort what type of conclusion they’re reading.

Specific Informational Writing Pieces: How-to and All-About

How-to writing pieces are specific types of informational writing. It’s important that students learn the different types of informational writing after they learn the structures. How-to writing follows the same structure as we have been discussing throughout this blog post. However, there will be more step by step fact writing within the body, plus students will need to include more sequencing details and transitional words.

All-about writing is another type of informational writing. These writing pieces follow the same structure we’ve discussed in this blog post. First, students come up with a topic. Then, they provide facts all about that topic. Finally, they wrap up with a closure. Many times, though, these all-about pieces are turned into mini books and the facts are more developed on each page.

Practice Makes Perfect!

Finally, you’ve taught all the components of informational writing unit. Therefore, it’s time to practice, practice, practice. Choose high-interest and engaging topics for students to write about. Give them lots of different prompts to pick from. Provide them with scaffolded graphic organizers that will help them brainstorm and pre-write. They’re going to rock those informational writing pieces!

Then, it’s also important to let students assess themselves. Once they learn about informational writing and get lots of practice, it’s time to assess themselves. Asking students to self-assess is important because it allows them to truly understand the expectations of them in these types of writing.

Time to find your grade level!

• Kindergarten Informational Writing Unit
• 1st Grade Informational Writing Unit
• 2nd Grade Informational Writing Unit
• 3rd Grade Informational Writing Unit
• 4th Grade Informational Writing Unit

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2nd grade writing samples

by: Jessica Kelmon | Updated: June 24, 2018

Print article

In second grade, kids learn to think about writing as a process with four steps: prewriting (deciding on a topic and organizing their ideas), writing a first draft , making revisions (adding or changing their reasons, adding facts, putting information in a different order), and then making final edits (fixing spelling and grammar). In these examples, you’ll see what to expect when second graders organize their thoughts in the prewriting stage and what their final reports look like after they’ve completed all four writing steps. Learn more about your second grader’s writing under Common Core .

Second grade writing sample #1

1,000 Ways to Save Water!

Madison’s report has an introduction, a few reasons to support her thesis, and a conclusion. Scroll to the end, and you’ll see the hand paragraph she used to organize her thoughts and reasons in the prewriting phase.

Second grade writing sample #2

LOTS of ways to save wate!

Ngan’s report is short and to the point, with an introduction, three reasons supporting his thesis, and a conclusion. You’ll see a few examples of “ invented spelling ,” like spelling third “therd.” He’s spelling a complex word phonetically, which is perfectly normal in second grade, even after the final edits step of the writing process. Most kids move away from invented spelling by third grade.

Second grade writing sample #3

Ways to Save Water

Morgan’s report is clear and concise, and she also used a hand paragraph in the prewriting phase. Not all schools use hand paragraphs, but most should encourage second graders to organize their thoughts before writing. If you’re helping your child with a writing project at home, it’s easy to make a hand paragraph. Your child’s thesis can go on the thumb, and each of the other fingers can be a reason that supports their idea.

See more examples of real kids’ writing in different grades: Kindergarten , first grade , third grade , fourth grade , fifth grade .

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Free Printable Informational Writing Worksheets for 2nd Grade

Informational Writing: Discover a collection of free printable Reading & Writing worksheets tailored for Grade 2 students, created by Quizizz to enhance their learning experience.

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Explore printable Informational Writing worksheets for 2nd Grade

Informational Writing worksheets for Grade 2 are essential tools for teachers to help their students develop strong reading and writing skills. These worksheets focus on nonfiction writing, allowing young learners to explore various topics and practice writing in a clear, concise manner. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, teachers can effectively teach the fundamentals of reading and writing, while also engaging their students in exciting, real-world subjects. With a wide range of topics covered, from animals and science to history and geography, Grade 2 Informational Writing worksheets provide a solid foundation for students to build upon as they progress through their education.

Quizizz is a fantastic resource for teachers looking to supplement their Informational Writing worksheets for Grade 2. This interactive platform offers a variety of quizzes, games, and other engaging activities that help students practice their reading and writing skills in a fun and interactive way. Teachers can easily integrate Quizizz into their lesson plans, providing students with additional opportunities to practice nonfiction writing and reading comprehension. With a vast library of content covering numerous subjects, Quizizz is an excellent tool for reinforcing the skills taught through Grade 2 Informational Writing worksheets. By utilizing both worksheets and Quizizz, teachers can create a comprehensive and dynamic learning experience for their students, ensuring they develop strong reading and writing abilities.

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Informational Writing - Grade 2 Sample

Martial  Artist - Informational/Opinion Writing Grade 2

Feedback for Improvement

Broad Topic/Assignment: Learning something new can be exciting. Write to explain a time when you learned something new.

What worked:

• Assignment: The student attempted to write to the task, however it is unclear as to what genre of writing this student produced.

Areas of instructional focus:

• The piece reads a little bit like a personal experience and a little bit like an informational piece. There are no clear main ideas, no paragraphs, and it’s difficult to summarize. In reality, this is just a list or a random collection of thoughts.
• The focus skill for this student has to be to revisit genre and organization as that is the necessary foundation for every other skill area.

Feedback with Prescriptive Lesson:

Recognizing Genre and Organization: The student needs to recognize and identify how an informational/opinion piece is structured. By using these lessons, the student will build an awareness of the structure.

• Section 1: Genre and Organization - all lessons

Once the foundation has been established, then move into the next set of skills.

Broad Yet Distinct Main Ideas/Reasons: The student needs to expand on main ideas using sentence variety and create main idea sentences that are clear to the reader. Creating separate paragraphs for each main idea would help the reader to understand the topic and clearly show the organizational structure.

• Section 2 Lesson 6: Alternatives to Boring
• Section 2 Lesson 6: Alternatives to Boring, Redundant Main Idea/Main Reason Sentences
• Section 2 Lesson 7: Revising Boring, Redundant Main Idea/Reason Sentences Section 2 Lesson 8: Sentence Variety and Word Referents
• Section 2 Lesson 9: Main Idea/Reason Blurbs into Sentences

Elaboration: Student needs direct instruction in how to elaborate on the simple list-like details through the use of the productive questions: What does it look like? Why is it important? Most of the details were simply stated.

• Section 3 Lesson 1: Just Okay...or Much Better? (recognition and awareness) Section 3 Lesson 2: General vs Specific
• Section 3 Lesson 3: Recognizing Overly General Words and Phrases
• Section 3 Lesson 4: Break Up That Grocery List
• Section 3 Lesson 5: What Does It Look Like? Why is it Important? Grab Bag Section 3 Lesson 6: Describing Objects What Does It Look Like? Why is it Important?
• Section 3 Lesson 9: Writing Sentences Using Detail-What Does It Look Like? Why is it Important?

Another important lesson for this student will be to identify the givens and variables in the task in order to create a workable pre-writing plan. In Section 6: Authentic Writing Tasks, Lesson 1 Identifying Givens and Variables, this student can practice planning so that the plan for this piece look like this:

Topic: Martial Artist Main Idea #1: Kung Fu (Chinese)Trials/Ranks Main Idea #2: Moves Main Idea #3: Dojo (Training Facility) Recommended Resources

• Empowering Writer's Methodology
• Informational & Opinion Writing Guide for Grade 2  

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Second Grade: Writing Sample 2

Context of writing.

A second grade girl wrote this story in response to a teacher asking them to write about an animal that lives in one of the habitats they were studying during science.

What is this child able to do as a writer?

• She has generated an idea to write about — an animal she feels strongly about (‘they are so cool’).
• She sticks to the topic.
• Shows a beginning sense of sequencing in her text. She starts with ‘I like white sharks’ and then adds a few details about sharks and ends with ‘they are so cool.’
• She uses capital letters for the word ‘I’.

Title: White Shark

I like white sharks because I like how they swim and I like how they are in the water and I like when they are so cool. The end.

What does this child need to learn next?

She may benefit from seeing different ways to organize factual information. The teacher may use a mini-lesson to show different examples of nonfiction animal books. This student, and the rest of her classmates, could look at nonfiction text features and try to use them in their own writing (table of contents, captions with pictures, bold words, close-ups, diagrams with labels, an index). This may motivate her to find more information about white sharks and think about how to organize it in a multi-page format. This would be an effective tie to a nonfiction reading unit.

• Teaching Text Features
• Example of a unit for researching animals and creating nonfiction books (opens in a new window)

This student is not using any punctuation in her writing. She may be so excited to get all of her information on the page when she writes that she can’t think about using mechanics at the same time. She should be encouraged to re-read her writing aloud to herself or someone else. She could be taught to listen for natural pauses in her words which would signal the ends of sentences.

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• Informative with 2 examples

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Informative paragraphs with 2 examples

Using multiple examples.

Examples bring informative writing to life. Students respond to prompts by writing an informative text with 2 facts and 2 examples . A chart is provided for students to organize their thoughts.

With prompt:

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