Our current writing unit is How-To writing, in which students choose a task or project and write a step-by-step book to teach others how to meet the objective.
I love this unit because it involves us making a bunch of stuff as examples of How-To writing. The kids love it because they get to add colored pages to their books (red pages for warnings and green pages for tips). A really good example of a warning from a child's writing this week, "How To Make Pancakes" was 'Be careful! Don't burn yourself on the stove!' I suggested including a tip that said 'When you see the bubbles, you know it's time to flip the pancake over.'
I had a parent donate a large amount of toilet paper rolls and I was incredibly excited because I knew right away how I wanted to use them! The very next day I wrote a hurried How-To book and had the kids follow along to make their own candy holders!
Going through each step one by one helped students realize what they needed in their own writing.
Without the "Things You Will Need" page, we wouldn't have known what to get ready. I accidentally left scissors out initially, and we realized it was important to add those!
We also saw that it was more trouble than it was worth to add the feet, so we just crossed through that step. We talked about using words like "first," "next," "then" and "finally." We talked about putting one step per page. We talked about drawing clear pictures with arrows that helped the reader understand the directions.
When we finished, students went back through their own writing to make sure it was clear and easy for the reader to understand.
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