Writing Procedural Text - Spanish Grade 2, CRM 4, Arcs 7-8

(2 Weeks of Lessons)

Resources Needed for this Unit:

Mentor Texts:

Cómo hacer un pastel de manzana y conocer el mundo, by Marjorie Priceman

Sopa de piedras, by Marcia Brown

A sembrar sopa de verduras, by Lois Ehlert

How to Draw a Bunny, Adapted from www.craftsy.com

Additional Resources:

Texas Write Source, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

NOTE: Adjust these mini-lessons and student writing times as appropriate for your

students. Some lessons may take more than one day to complete.

Unit Materials:

Real life examples of procedural writing (recipe, game directions, how to

assemble a household item), procedural texts from school (math game, science

experiment), index cards for introductions in Day 6, colored pencils for peer

editing on Day 9.

Websites:

Cooking with Kids

30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play

Outdoor Activities for Children

Rules to Favorite Card Games

A Variety of Procedural Activities

Science Buddies .org

Water Molecules on the Move

Day 1: Introducing Procedural Texts

1. Tell the students that today they will begin a new writing project called Procedural Writing.

Explain that procedural writing can be found in many of their everyday activities, such as

games, recipes, science experiments, and directions on how to make or do something new.

2. Briefly show examples to the children of directions for how to play a math game, how to play

a playground game, how to play a board game, recipes, and science experiments. Also show

examples of procedural texts they might find at home, such as directions to assemble a bird

feeder or directions to operate a small appliance.

3. Explain that these are all different kinds of procedural texts and they can be found in books,

magazine articles, newspapers, brochures, manuals, and websites. You will also be sharing

with them some picture books that have procedural text.

4. Inform the children that writers of how-to books are experts in their topics. They know how

to perform the activity because they have done it many times, and they also know what can

go wrong when performing this activity. A part of writing a good procedural text is to be able

to warn the reader about what to avoid and how to make sure everything turns out as planned.

5. Allow time for children to explore the books, articles, and various examples of directions and

procedural texts you gathered for today’s lesson.

Teaching Notes:

When writing informational articles, the author writes from the perspective of an expert

on a subject and draws upon what he/she knows about a subject in addition to

information from other sources. There are several type of procedural writing such as

brochures, recipes, posters, directions, and signs.

Be sure to modify the following lessons to meet the needs of your students.

Mini Lesson

Active Engagement

6. After 10-15 minutes of exploration, bring the class together and ask the following questions.

Write their responses on a chart and ask for specific examples whenever possible.

¿Qué notaron en estos textos de procedimiento que estaban explorando? (The students will

probably say that they tell them how to do something and that they look like fun activities.)

¿Cuándo leemos textos de procedimiento? (We read procedural texts when we want to find out

how to make something or how to do something new.)

¿Cuándo en la vida van a encontrarse con textos de procedimiento? Pida ejemplos concretos

mientras ellos comparten sus respuestas. (Cuando estamos cocinando – una receta para hacer

barritas de arroz tostado con malvavisco)

See the sample chart below.

(Continue to add to this chart over the next few days as students offer other connections they

notice.)

Peer Sharing

Textos de procedimiento: Leemos para averiguar cómo crear o hacer algo. Conexiones con nuestras vidas:

Cocinar – una receta para barras de arroz inflado y malvavisco

Comprar algo nuevo – instrucciones para armar una lámpara.

Jugar un juego – las reglas de juego para Connect 4.

Day 2: What We Notice About Procedural Text

1. Share with the students that sometimes we may want to learn how to do something like play

a new game or how to do a science experiment. “We will need to read directions to learn how

to do something. As a writer, we may want to explain to someone how to do something we

already know how to do. We’ll need to write directions for our readers.”

2. Provide a copy of the How to Draw a Bunny procedural writing to pairs of students. Read

the text aloud from beginning to end before having the students follow the directions.

3. Have the students read each part of the text in a shared reading and follow the directions to

draw their own bunny.

4. After they finish their drawings, tell the students, "Fíjense bien en este texto de

procedimiento y piensen en cómo este texto es diferente de las otras historias o artículos que

han leído. ¿Qué observan en este tipo de escrito que es especial? "

5. Chart the students’ responses. Typical responses at this beginning stage may include:

If the students do not notice, point out the following items:

Nos da pasos enumerados

Tiene una introducción (el escrito al principio)

Tiene una conclusión (el escrito al final)

6. Pregunte, “¿Qué notan de la manera en que se escribieron las instrucciones?” Guíe a los

estudiantes a concluir que las instrucciones fueron claras y fueron escritas en el orden

correcto de tal manera que el producto final fue exitoso.

Have the students turn to a partner to discuss what they learned about procedural writing today.

Mini Lesson

Active Engagement

Peer Sharing

Lo que notamos acerca de la escritura de procedimiento:

Nos explica cómo dibujar un conjito

Incluye imágenes para ayudarnos

Nos da pasos a seguir

Nos dice qué materiales usar

Day 3: Writing a Procedural Text of a Game

1. Choose one of the outdoor games or card games from the websites listed in the Unit

Resources above. Have the students join you in a shared reading of the directions for the

game.

2. Allow time for the students to play the game, keeping the directions handy for them to re-

read on their own, if questions arise. Monitor their playing of the game. If you notice

students playing incorrectly, ask them to reread the directions to make sure they are playing

correctly.

3. After playing the game for about 5-10 min., ask the students what problems they ran into or

what questions they had once they began playing. Point out that when they are writing

directions for a procedure, they will want their directions to be very clear, so the reader does

not have any questions.

4. Pregunte a los alumnos, ¿Qué tipo de palabras en las instrucciones ayudan al lector a saber

exactamente lo que debe hacer? (Las palabras que le dicen dónde colocar algo: arriba, abajo,

alrededor, al lado de, a lo largo de, etc. Palabras que indican en qué orden se debe hacer las

cosas: antes, luego, después, ahora, finalmente)

5. Ask the students whether they have suggestions or strategies for how to win the game. These

strategies can be added to a procedural writing to make the writing more interesting.

6. Pick up the directions for how to play this game from the children. Each student will work

with a partner to write a procedural text about this game, but we want them to practice

writing the steps clearly and in the correct order without the help of the directions they read.

7. Remind the students of the parts of a procedural writing. Use your chart from Day 2, ‘What

We Notice About Procedural Writing’ and rewrite it to apply to all different types of

procedural writing.

8. Pregunte a los estudiantes qué nuevas ideas debería agregar al gráfico de cómo escribir

instrucciones. (Las instrucciones deben ser claras y estar en el orden correcto. Y pueden

incluir sugerencias sobre cómo hacer que la actividad sea más exitosa.)

Mini Lesson

Redacción procedimental

Nos dice cómo crear o hacer algo

Incluye ilustraciones para ayudar al lector

Nos dice qué materiales usar

Tiene una introducción y una conclusión

Las instrucciones están escritas en el orden correcto

Las instrucciones usan lenguaje claro, tal como "arriba, abajo, alrededor, después, luego

Puede incluir sugerencias y estrategias

1. Together in a shared writing, have the students help you to write a title and a brief

introduction. You might write about how fun it is to play games with your friends and why

you recommend this game.

2. Continue to write the materials list and the first step in the process with your students. Add a

quick illustration.

3. Have the students write with a partner the remainder of the steps in the process of how to

play this game. Encourage them to add illustrations.

(This partner-writing will give you information to pre-assess which students understand how

to write using procedural language, whether they are aware of the importance of writing the

steps in the correct order, as well as the need for clarity when writing directions.)

4. Have the students talk to their partner about the kind of advice they might tell someone to

help them win the game or to make the game more fun. Tell them to write an additional

paragraph of a strategy to help the reader win the game. This paragraph should not be

numbered and does not need an illustration, unless the illustration is necessary to make sure

the reader understands the strategy.

5. Together as a class, write a conclusion to this game procedural writing. Be sure to add a few

words of encouragement, such as “Have fun playing with your friends!” or “Remember this

game the next time you are looking for something fun to do with your friends.”

Pregunte,"¿Cómo es diferente escribir las instrucciones para un juego de escribir una receta?

Writing Conventions: Prepositional Phrases Teacher should provide explicit instruction and modeling of the writing conventions during modeled and shared writing. In addition, teacher should keep anecdotal notes to guide further instruction in small group and individually.

Shared and Partner Writing

Peer Sharing

Day 4: Brainstorm Ideas and Audience for an Independent Procedural

Text

1. Tell the students how proud you are of the procedural writings they have completed with the

class and with partners over the last few days.

2. Today they will begin the process of writing their own procedural text. First you will help

them to brainstorm ideas and think about who their audience will be.

3. Begin a chart of all the possible ideas the class can think of for procedural writing. After each

idea is written, pregunte "¿Cuál sería la audiencia para este tipo de escrito?”

4. Begin with all the possible games they know well and about which they could write. Write

on your chart the exact names of the games, such as Connect 4, Crazy 8s, Kickball, etc.

Remind students to think about board games, play-ground games, card games, math games,

and any other classroom games they have played. The audience for a game procedural

writing will probably be students from a younger class.

5. Have your students write their own brainstorming list in their Writer’s Notebooks. Students

should only write ideas for games they have played before and enjoyed and games they know

well. They may copy games from your chart, and they may add any additional games they

think of while writing.

6. Allow time for writers to think and write quietly.

7. After a few minutes of quiet thinking and writing, continue adding to your chart(s) some

classroom or school routines that will work well as a procedural writing. These might

include prepararse para ir a casa al final del día, sacar un libro de la biblioteca, leer con sus

compañeros de lectura, qué hacer durante un simulacro de incendio, etc. The audience for

these types of procedural writing is most likely a new student to the school.

8. Allow time for your students to add to their own brainstorming list in their Writer’s

Notebooks. Again, students should only write ideas on their personal brainstorm list for

school routines they have done many times before and know well. They may copy ideas

from your chart, and they may add any additional routines they think of while writing.

9. Allow time for writers to think and write quietly.

10. After a few minutes, you can make another list of chores the students do at home. Examples

include alistarse para el día de escuela, cuidar a una mascota, lavar los platos y más. The

Mini Lesson

Active Engagement

audience? (The robot who will take over all the household chores some day!) Their parents

would probably be most interested in hearing the procedures for home chores.

11. This list can also include recipes for snacks they have frequently made.

12. Allow time again for writers to add chores they do at home that they feel they could explain

in an expository writing.

Ask writers to continue to think about more ideas as they continue through their day. Challenge

them to come up with 1-2 new ideas before writing time tomorrow.

Day 5: Orally Practicing How a Procedure Will Sound

1. Ask 1-2 students to read their personal brainstorm lists from yesterday’s lesson. Ask what

new ideas they thought of during the day and allow time for them to add these new ideas to

their lists.

2. Direct the students’ attention to the charts you generated yesterday. Model for the students

how you think about each of these categories of ideas to choose one topic for your own

writing. Think aloud about which topics sound like they would be fun to explain and those

that you know a lot about. Be sure to point out a few topics that you don’t know much about

and, therefore, you know you shouldn’t write about them.

3. Remind them that procedural writers need to be experts at the topic they will explain. Orally

think through how you will explain a topic that you are interested in, to see if you know

enough about it to be able to explain it thoroughly. You are modeling the thinking that you

will want your writers to do once they think they have determined their topic.

4. Ask writers to think quietly about the topics they wrote on their personal brainstorm lists.

Have them narrow the selection down to 3 topics that they will draw a star next to.

Mini Lesson

Partner and Independent Writing

Peer Sharing

5. Now have them circle the one topic that they feel excited to write about today.

6. Tell your writers that you want them to orally practice what they might write for this topic, to

help them decide whether they know enough about it.

7. Organize partners and have them orally practice with their partner how they will explain the

procedure to perform the game, activity, or chore they have chosen.

8. If students realize they don’t know how they will explain the procedure, or that they don’t

have much they can say about that procedure, this is a sign that they should rethink their

topic. They should try explaining another topic, to find out if it will work better as a topic for

this writing.

9. Once writers have determined their topic, have them go to their Writer’s Notebook and write

the title and materials needed for their procedural writing. Have them write the steps they

practiced orally with their partner. They can number their steps at this point.

10. This is only a beginning draft. Do not worry if their steps are not complete or if they are not

in the correct order. They will check and revise for these details later in the process. For

now, we just want them to get down as many steps in the procedure as they can think of.

Organize writers into a different set of partners so they can share their procedural steps with

someone new. Before students begin sharing, you might want two students to show the class

what this type of sharing will look like, while you coach them.

As each writer shares his/her steps in the process, ask listeners to listen carefully to determine

whether the steps are in the correct order and whether the writer missed any steps that will

change the outcome of the activity.

Listeners write their feedback on a sticky note, read their note aloud, and give their note to the

writer.

Partners switch jobs so the opposite partner is now the writer, and the writer is now the listener.

Peer Sharing

Day 6: Writing an Introduction and Conclusion

Prior to this lesson, have a basic set of steps written for your own procedural topic that you

can use for today’s lesson. Include a place between two steps where a small step is missing –

not too obvious—or where a step is out of order. (You will revise this error in tomorrow’s

lesson.)

Note that this lesson includes an extra lesson/ teacher model. You may want to complete this

lesson in 2 separate days.

1. Have the students read the notes they received while sharing their procedures with a partner

yesterday.

2. Allow time for your writers to make changes to their procedures using the notes they

received. (Writers may need to ask their partner to help them remember what change they

recommended.)

3. The students should add illustrations as needed to help the reader to know exactly how to

follow the directions.

4. Review the criteria chart for writing a procedural text. Tell them that today, you will model

for them how to write an introduction and a conclusion.

5. Read your steps in the procedure that you have chosen.

6. Go back to any one of the procedural texts you have shared in prior lessons and re-read how

those authors wrote their introductions. Point out that you want to get the reader’s attention

and you want the reader to know what this writing will be about. These are important items

to include in all introductions.

7. Write your introduction in only a few sentences on a small chart that can be taped to

beginning of your procedure.

8. Now ask your students to write their introductions on an index card that can be taped to the

beginning of their procedural steps. Advise them to read some mentor procedural texts to

give them ideas about ways to write an introduction for this type of writing.

Mini Lesson

Independent Writing

Writing Conventions: Sentence Combining Teacher should provide explicit instruction and modeling of the writing conventions during modeled and shared writing. In addition, teacher should keep anecdotal notes to guide further instruction in small groups and individually.

9. Allow time for quiet writing and thinking.

10. When the students finish, they should re-read their introduction and their steps to make sure

it makes sense and all the steps are included in the correct order. The students should make

any changes they feel will make their writing more clear.

11. When most students have finished writing their introductions, provide the same type of

instruction for writing your conclusion. Reread mentor texts to get ideas about how to write

a conclusion.

12. Read your procedural writing from beginning to end and write a conclusion for your writing.

13. Have your students write their conclusions at the end of their procedural steps in the same

way that you just modeled. Remind them to read some mentor procedural texts to get ideas

for their conclusions.

14. Allow time for quiet writing and thinking.

15. When the students finish, they should re-read their procedural writing from beginning to end,

to make sure all parts of the writing are connected and make sense. Students should make

any changes they feel will make their writing more clear.

Have the students share their writing with the same partners from yesterday. They will read their

complete writing, from beginning to end. Listening partners will listen to decide whether the

introduction and conclusion make sense with the steps to the procedure.

Model for the students how to use polite language when giving feedback to their partner.

Peer Sharing

Usa una voz amable al dar tus comentarios a tu compañero:

“A mí me parece que tu introducción no está conectada con tus pasos…”

“Tu introducción sonaría mejor si tú…”

“Suena como que falta algo. Vamos a ver si podemos averiguar qué falta…”

Mini Lesson – Teacher Continues to Model

Independent Writing

Day 7: Revising to Make Sure All Steps Are in the Correct Order

1. Tell your students that when writers draft, they often work quickly to get their thoughts on

paper. Then they go back to look for places where they can make the writing sound better.

This is called revising.

2. Today, the students will make sure they have included all the steps in the correct order, and

revise to add more specific details.

3. Read your procedural text aloud to the class. When you get to the steps in the process, have

your students pretend to act out each of the steps.

4. You may need to do a little pretending here yourself, but show them how their acting helped

you to see that you were missing a step or that one of your steps is in the wrong place in the

sequence.

5. Show them how you circle the words that need to be moved and draw an arrow to show the

place in the text where the words should be moved.

6. Have the students work with a partner to read their procedural writing and have their partner

pretend to act out the steps in the process.

7. The acting partner should help the writer to notice steps that are missing or steps that are in

the incorrect order.

8. Together, they should use Post-It Notes or draw a circle and arrow to revise their draft and

show how to move sentences around in the draft.

9. Writers should repeat the process with the opposite partner reading and the other writer

acting.

Pregunte,"¿Cómo te ayudó como escritor el que tu compañero actuara tu procedimiento?”

Mini Lesson

Active Engagement

Peer Sharing

Day 8: Revise to Add a Strategy, Tips or Advice

1. Review the revising strategy the students applied to their writing yesterday.

2. Remind students that when they looked at procedures for games, these texts often included

some strategies for ways to win the game.

3. Show them how you can add a strategy or 2-3 tips to the procedural writing you have been

writing. Explain that these tips or strategies are usually found at the bottom of the steps,

before the conclusion.

4. Ask the students to turn to a partner to read their writing and talk about what kinds of

strategies or tips they could add to their procedural writing.

5. Allow time for quiet thinking and writing.

Have all writers share their entire writing from beginning to end, including all the revisions and

tips/strategies with a different partner. Listeners may still make recommendations to the writer

to improve the writing.

Mini Lesson

Independent Writing

Peer Sharing

Day 9: Peer Edit and Final Draft

1. Review all the grammar and editing skills you have taught your students so far this year that

apply to this genre of writing.

By the end of 2nd Grade, students are expected to:

Use capital letters and end punctuation in sentences

Use capital letters for the names of people and proper nouns

Spell base words and endings (-ing, -ed –s) correctly

Spell high-frequency words correctly. See High Frequency Word List.

Note: You should only have your students edit their drafts for the mechanics and editing

skills you have already taught them. The above list is a reminder of the expectations for

2nd graders at the end of the year.

2. Have the students sit side-by-side with a partner to read, first, one student’s paper, then the

other student’s paper. The writer reads the paper aloud and holds a colored pencil (any color

other than red).

3. Remind your writers of one mechanics or editing skill you have taught them. Write the rule

on your chart, along with one example of the rule.

Example:

Mini Lesson

Partner Writing

Expectativas para la revisión:

1. Cada oración comienza con una letra mayúscula y termina con puntuación final.

Example: The game of Crazy 8s is fun to play on a rainy day. It is best to play it indoors where the wind will not blow your cards away! (Continue to add more skills and examples, one at a time, while students check their papers.)

4. As the writer reads his/her writing aloud, the other partner checks for only the one editing

point you just wrote on the chart. If the partner finds an error, he/she points to it in the

writing, and the writer makes the correction on his/her own paper.

5. Partners switch roles, reading and checking for the same editing skill.

6. Have one partner stand and move to a new desk where he/she sits with a new writer.

7. Repeat the process with a new editing skill.

8. Continue to have writers move to a new partner. The writer reads, and the partner checks for

only one editing skill at a time. Partners switch roles so that both writers have checked their

papers for only one skill before moving to another partner.

The students have already shared their writing with several other writers today. It is not

necessary for them to share again. Instead, if time remains, have your writers begin to write their

final drafts.

Peer Sharing

Day 19: Expectations for a Final Draft

1. Congratulate your writers on the hard work they have put forth to come to this final stage of

their writing process!

2. Tell them that today, they will write the final draft of their procedural writing.

3. Diga a los estudiantes, "Cuando los escritores redactan sus borradores finales, piensan en su

audiencia. Piensan en todo lo que pueden hacer para ayudarle al lector a entender sus

escritos. Esto incluye todas las revisiones y correcciones que hicieron durante los últimos

días.”

4. Together with your students, create a chart of your expectations for the final drafts of their

procedural writing. Your chart may look like this:

5. Using your own procedural writing, model for your writers what you mean by including the

words and sentences you added during revision and write the numbered steps in a list. Show

them what the first part of your final draft looks like.

6. Remind your students that writing a final draft takes a lot of concentration, because it is their

only chance to get everything right! This is no time to get lazy or work too quickly because

that can lead to mistakes that their audience will notice. They need to make sure their final

draft reflects all the thinking and hard work they have given to this piece of writing.

7. Provide students with the tools (special papers or pens) they will need to work quietly for

most of your writing time today. Insist that students stay quiet so everyone can concentrate

on their best writing. The only voices you should hear are questions about how to spell a

word or questions about the writing.

Mini Lesson

Independent Writing

Redactar tu borrador final:

Escribe todas las partes de tu borrador, incluyendo las

palabras y oraciones que agregaste durante la revisión.

Escribe los pasos enumerados en una lista.

Dibuja tus ilustraciones con emero al lado de los pasos

que les corresponden.

Asegúrate de que todas las palabras está bien escritas.

Corrige todos los errores que encontraste mientras

editaste.

No taches palabras, borra con nitidez.

Escribe con tu escritura a mano más bonita.

8. Walk around the room to assist students as needed. Your monitoring of their work today

shows them how serious you are about the quality of their work.

9. When students finish their final drafts, they should practice reading their writing smoothly

and fluently, to prepare themselves for reading in front of an audience.

It is not necessary to share today, since all students will have the opportunity to share their final

draft with an audience. Use this extra time to give all writers time to finish their final drafts.

Publish and Share with An Audience

1. Invite parents and family friends to come to your classroom for this important publishing

event.

2. If some students chose younger students to be their audience, arrange with a Kindergarten or

1st Grade teacher to allow the students to read their writing to their class or a small group

audience (perhaps during a center.)

3. If some students chose to write their procedural piece for new students to the school, they can

read their piece today for any class of students, but you should gather their writing into a

portfolio that can be stored in the school office, so visitors and new students to the school can

read it.

4. All students should have the opportunity to read their writing to some type of audience, even

if it is not the audience they originally intended.

After the parents have left and all students have returned to the classroom, debrief the experience

with the students. ¿Cómo te sentiste al compartir tu escrito con una audiencia? ¿Cómo

reaccionaron a tu escrito? ¿Cómo te sentiste mientras leías? ¿Qué crees que deberíamos hacer de

manera diferente la próxima vez?

Celebrate Writing!

Peer Sharing