Writing with FRAMEs: The Informational Essay

Purpose: The purpose of this FRAME is to give students an outline in writing informational essays. By incorporating sentence stems into the FRAME model, we are also providing differentiation and support to EL students, as well as our native speakers who need additional support.

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I teach in one of the top Strategic Instructional Method (SIM) districts in Texas. This graphic organizer/writing FRAME aligns with:

Current (old) TEKS:

7.14, 7.17, 8.14, 8.17, (Sections A and B), Fig. 19C

Newly adopted TEKS:

Strand 6, 110.23 and 110.24, inclusive.

Aligned to CCSS: ELA.Literacy.W.7.2; ELA.Literacy.W.7.3; ELA.Literacy.W.7.10; ELA.Literacy.W.8.2; ELA.Literacy.W.8.3; ELA.Literacy.W.8.10.

This FRAME was constructed for my 8^th grade Pre-AP, ESL, and Gen Ed students. It is based on the Strategic Instructional Method (SIM) FRAME Routine. The original use was to help guide students in writing an informational essay about South Sudan as a follow up to our study of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, but has been subsequently used for a number of assignments. The FRAME is used for the first rough draft only, and students do all subsequent drafts on lined paper or using google docs. I do collect and grade the FRAME as a daily grade, with all drafts attached or referenced.

The first step in the FRAME is to have students write out the prompt you are having them write to. When you give them the prompt, have them write it both verbatim and paraphrased; this will help you recognize students who may be misunderstanding the prompt. It is also essential to have the students identify the purpose of the writing – to inform about a specific subject. This is how you focus the students’ writing, and their research.

After your scholars have researched their topic and selected the three (or however many you assigned) facts to write about, have them move to the “R” portion of the FRAME. This is where they begin their actual first draft. You will notice that unlike my other FRAME routines, the “master” of this one does not include the sentence stems in a permanent format. This is because of the fluid nature of an informational text.

After completing an introductory paragraph, students assemble the body of the essay by annotating their research information in the “A” section of the FRAME. This is a perfect opportunity to also teach the skills of citing one’s research and preventing plagiarism! In this area, I do not care if they are using APA, MLA, or the USPS (just kidding), as long as they are citing their research. You will notice from the student sample that I encourage students to mention additional areas of research related to their topic. I find this leads to some excellent ideas for future lessons!

In this FRAME, I refer to the “M” as a “merge” for my scholars to bring all of their information together again, and to conclude the essay. Remind students that they are restating a topic, and not a thesis.

As with my other FRAMEs, the “E” is an extension and reflection. Because this FRAME focuses on research for the body information, I have added a Works Cited section.

You will find that the sentence stems on the PowerPoint are fully editable.  Those that I have included were specific to my scholars for the research after our book study.

On a separate note, I would greatly value your feedback! Please let me know how this (and other products you may have gotten from me) worked for you and your scholars/students! Is there any way you feel it could be improved? Email me at elainmiddleschool@gmail.com, or leave us feedback!