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Writing from Informational Text:
Extracting Information from
Source Material...And Writing About It!
William Van Cleave, Educational Consultant
PBIDA • DVFS • October 9, 2015
I. Extraction: An Overview of the Process
A. Multiple Important Subskills
B. Starting Small - Working Skills In Isolation
II. Stepped Process for Understanding Text
A. Getting Information from Text
- Highlighting
- Notetaking
B. Writing What You’ve Gleaned From Text
- Paraphrasing
- Summarizing & Gist Writing
C. Top-Down Topic Web
- Establishing Purpose
- Applying What We’ve Learned
III. Using What You’ve Read
A. Focusing Your Writing - Topic Paragraphs
B. Informative Writing
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Summarize
Take notes.
Using your highlighting, write
notes in word/phrase form.
Highlight.
Reread, highlighting important
information.
Read quickly.
Understand the content.
Understand the viewpoint(s).
©wvced 2015
Writing from
Informational Text
Write
Write conclusion.
Restate your thesis, explain
your items of support, and
state your opinion about the
material.
Write support.
Turn your categorized notes
into body paragraphs. (Use
notes, NOT source.)
Write intro.
Reword the prompt and add
general information. Use
thesis as final sentence.
Organize.
Cluster information into
categories. Either number
your note items or use a
web.
Decide topic. Write a
sentence establishing the
focus of the paper (thesis).
Revise
Redraft as necessary.
• rewrite paper if current draft is
difficult to read/understand
Read for structure.
• clear sentences
• smooth transitions
• correct grammar/punctuation
Read for content.
• body paragraphs support thesis
• supporting sentences
support their topic sentences
• ideas ordered logically
Strategies for Teaching Writing from Informational Text
Stage One: Highlighting:
•
•
•
Students often either highlight everything or almost nothing. This practice usually
indicates a lack of understanding of the purpose of highlighting or an inability (or
unwillingness) to spend the time necessary to glean key information from the reading.
Highlighting is hard work because it involves both reading and understanding the text and
then choosing the most important words and phrases.
Recommendation: Begin highlighting activities at the sentence level. (Newspapers and
newsmagazines work well for this kind of activity.) Then, move to more difficult and longer
text. (Textbook pages, photocopied in advance, work well for practice.)
Stage Two: Note-taking:
•
•
•
Students are often exposed to several different kinds of notes:
(a) copying teacher notes from the board
(b) taking notes from a source, either a textbook or a research source
(c) taking notes from observations made when watching a movie, etc.
Ask yourself the following questions:
(a) What is the purpose of the note-taking activity?
(b) What do I want students to do with the finished product?
This will allow you to determine how notes should be taken. Computer or by hand?
Scaffolding provided? Etc.
Recommendation: Students taking notes from source material to incorporate into a paper
should avoid pulling complete sentences unless they intend to use those sentences as
quotes in their papers.
Summarizing:
•
•
•
•
Students find it difficult to write summaries without plagiarizing. Use the separate
Informational Text page at the sentence, paragraph, and essay levels to help students write
effective summaries.
Summaries are time-consuming to write. Part of the reason, though, is that they require
student understanding of the material.
Recommendations:
- Help students generate summaries as a group. Provide paragraphs, and ask students to
help you generate a list of the key elements in them. Once a list is formulated, help them
generate a paragraph from that list.
- Teach students to write Gists. With this research-based strategy, students are given a
passage and asked to write a summary within certain word count limitations. (e.g., Write a
summary of the assigned paragraph in 15 words or fewer.)
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Stepped Process for Understanding Text
Focusing Question:
What elements of Harriet’s early life contributed to her lifelong work as an abolitionist?
Taken from Biography.com’s article on Harriet Tubman:
Early Life
Paragraph 1:
Highlighting in Isolation - By Sentence
1. Harriet Tubman was born to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland, and originally
named Araminta Harriet Ross.
2. Her mother, Harriet “Rit” Green, was owned by Mary Pattison Brodess.
3. Her father, Ben Ross, was owned by Anthony Thompson, who eventually married Mary Brodess.
4. Araminta, or “Minty,” was one of nine children born to Rit and Ben between 1808 and 1832.
5. While the year of Araminta’s birth is unknown, it probably occurred between 1820 and 1825.
Paragraph 2:
Highlighting in Chunks - By Paragraph
Minty’s early life was full of hardship.
Mary Brodess’ son Edward sold three
of her sisters to distant plantations,
severing the family. When a trader
from Georgia approached Brodess
about buying Rit’s youngest son,
Moses, Rit successfully resisted the
further fracturing of her family, setting
a powerful example for her young
daughter.
Paragraph 3:
Taking Notes - NO SENTENCES!
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Summarizing & Gist Writing - By Paragraph
Physical violence was a part of daily life for Tubman and her family. The violence she suffered
early in life caused permanent physical injuries. Harriet later recounted a particular day when
she was lashed five times before breakfast. She carried the scars for the rest of her life. The
most severe injury occurred when Tubman was an adolescent. Sent to a dry-goods store
for supplies, she encountered a slave who had left the fields without permission. The man’s
overseer demanded that Tubman help restrain the runaway. When Harriet refused, the overseer
threw a two-pound weight that struck her in the head. Tubman endured seizures, severe
headaches and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life. She also experienced intense dream
states, which she classified as religious experiences.
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What’s the Gist?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 4: The line between freedom and slavery was hazy for Tubman and her family.
Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben, was freed from slavery at the age of 45, as stipulated in the will
of a previous owner. Nonetheless, Ben had few options but to continue working as a timber
estimator and foreman for his former owners. Although similar manumission stipulations
applied to Rit and her children, the individuals who owned the family chose not to free them.
Despite his free status, Ben had little power to challenge their decision.
What’s the Gist?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 5: By the time Harriet reached adulthood, around half of the African-American
people on the eastern shore of Maryland were free. It was not unusual for a family to include
both free and enslaved people, as did Tubman’s immediate family. In 1844, Harriet married
a free black man named John Tubman. Little is known about John Tubman or his marriage to
Harriet. Any children they might have had would have been considered enslaved, since the
mother’s status dictated that of any offspring. Araminta changed her name to Harriet around
the time of her marriage, possibly to honor her mother.
What’s the Gist?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Great article about summarizing, gist writing, reading comprehension, and more:
http://www.bath.k12.ky.us/docs/GIST%20Article.pdf
Complete article about Harriet Tubman:
http://www.biography.com/people/harriet-tubman-9511430
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Top-Down Topic Web
Some Research About Graphic Organizers
- Graphic organizers have a positive effect on both writing and reading comprehension.
- Introducing multiple graphic organizers is not effective; select a few core graphic
organizers for use.
- Use the same model across the disciplines; multiple exposures to the same strategy
cements understanding and develops desired skill.
Some Guidelines for Top-Down Topic Webs
- Vary shapes at the different tiers (e.g., You might use a rectangle for the heading,
triangles for the sub-headings, and circles for their details.)
-Use colors to further delineate the different tiers as desired.
-Research indicates that Top-Down topic webs are effective for students at all
grade levels. K-1 students and struggling readers and writers can use pictures or
pictures combined with words to develop their ability with this and other reading
comprehension strategies.
Practice
Panda Bears (Use the next page.)
The giant panda, also known as panda bear or simply panda, is a bear native to south
central China. It is easily recognized by the large, distinctive black patches around its
eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The name “giant panda” is sometimes
used to distinguish it from the unrelated red panda. Though it belongs to the order
Carnivora, the giant panda’s diet is over 99% bamboo. Giant pandas in the wild
will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds,
rodents or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves,
oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food. The giant panda lives in a few
mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in neighbouring
provinces, namely Shaanxi andGansu. As a result of farming, deforestation, and other
development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once
lived.
Though many have worked with Top-Down Topic Webs, Joan Sedita does a particularly good
job in her Keys to Literacy series, available at wvced.com.
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Top-Down Topic Web: Panda
I. Generate list:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
II. Create categories to organize your list:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
III. Create your Top-Down Topic Web (usually best placed horizontally on a page):
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Name: __________________________________
Date: ___________
Instructor: ________________________________
Grade: __________
Topic
(put in your
own words)
Introductory
Paragraph
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Position or
______________
Focus
(where you
stand or the
direction
you’ll take)
______________
Support
May be 2
lists, each
supporting 1
side.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Hook:
______________________________________________________________
Grabs the
Reader ______________________________________________________________
(1-2 sentences)
____________________________________________________________________
Body:
Explores
Angles of
the Topic
or General
Information
About the
Topic
(2-4 sentences)
___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Claim/
Thesis: __________________________________________________________________
Makes Your
Position or ______________________________________________________________
Focus
(1 sentence)
______________________________________________________________
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Informative/Explanatory Writing - Elementary
Informative/explanatory writing involves examining a topic and sharing information
about it. Part of the process here will be obtaining information about the topic.
Students may need to develop highlighting, notetaking, and summarizing skills in order
to accomplish this kind of writing.
Though length and sophistication will and should vary by skill and grade level, all
informative writing includes these characteristics:
•
•
•
introduction of topic
information about topic
conclusion
As the writer develops his craft, his writing will employ these characteristics:
•
•
•
logical grouping of related information
facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, etc. to develop topic
transition words, phrases, and clauses
Provide older students with the Signal Words for Reading, Writing, & Notetaking list for
transitions. For younger students, here is a simpler list:
Some Informational Transition Words for Younger Writers
first
one, one of the first
one example
to start with
second, third, etc.
then, next, another,
and, also, etc.
finally, last
in conclusion
Though the basic elements of an informative/explanatory piece remain the same, as
students grow older, they should create informative/explanatory pieces that are more
elaborate and sophisticated.
The graphic organizer on the following page should be used as a guide for informative/
explanatory writing; notice that the Template is remarkably similar to a Basic Paragraph
Template. It can be simplified for younger writers and those with more basic skills and
expanded for older writers and those with more developed skills. One way to expand it
is to vertically bisect each of the Fact boxes to allow for a Details section. Students can
then elaborate upon each fact by including details about it.
As students become ready to use different kinds of information and transition words,
phrases, and clauses, an expanded template may prove useful. The students should
generate many pieces of information designed to explain their topic and then determine
how best to organize them into categories, each of which will be represented by a
supporting paragraph or section of their paper.
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Informative/Explanatory Writing - Middle/Upper
Informative writing involves examining a topic and sharing information about it. Part
of the process here will be obtaining information about the topic. Students may need
to develop highlighting, notetaking, and summarizing skills in order to accomplish this
kind of writing.
Though length and sophistication will and should vary by skill and grade level, all
informative writing includes these characteristics (highlights from the C.C.S.S.):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
introduction of topic
organization of ideas, concepts, and information
development using relevant information
use of appropriate transitions
use of precise language and domain-specific vocabulary
use of a formal style
conclusion
As the writer develops her craft, her writing will employ these characteristics (highlights
from the C.C.S.S.):
•
•
•
previewing of what is to follow as part of introduction (7)
use of objective tone (9)
natural progression of ideas (11)
As students grow older, their writing should show increasingly sophisticated transitions
between ideas. Provide older students with the Signal Words for Reading, Writing, &
Notetaking list for transitions.
The graphic organizer on the following page should be used as a guide for informational
writing; notice that the Informational Template is remarkably similar to a Basic
Paragraph Template. It can be simplified for younger writers and those with more basic
skills and expanded for older writers and those with more developed skills. One way
to expand it is to vertically bisect each of the Fact boxes to allow for a Details section.
Students can then elaborate upon each fact by including details about it.
As students become ready to use different kinds of information and transition words,
phrases, and clauses, an expanded template may prove useful. The students should
generate many pieces of information designed to explain their topic and then determine
how best to organize them into categories, each of which will be represented by a
supporting paragraph or section of their paper.
10
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Informative/Explanatory Template
Topic: __________________________________________________________________
List of
5 Facts
1. _______________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________
Star the 3 facts you want to use. Each will become a supporting sentence.
Topic
Fact #1
Fact #2
Fact #3
Conclusion (Explains What Has Been Learned)
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