Plan an Interview About Life Long Ago

Pair each planner with one library book and one website your child can read on their own. Have them write each note in a few words, never a copied sentence, and fill in the source line before moving on.

Read a model about a garden, then plan an interview with an older relative about long ago with 5 questions and a follow-up. In an interview, you ask a person questions. A note is a few words. The directions on the page read: Read the model. Read the topic. Then, write who you will interview, 5 questions that start with How, What or Why, and a follow-up question. Then, ask and write notes. Then, use your plan to write your draft on lined paper.

Yes, both. We made it for 4th Grade informative writing, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with research writing. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

To paraphrase is to tell a fact from a source in your own words. Coral reefs are built by tiny animals can become small creatures make coral reefs. The coral reef page has children paraphrase 4 numbered sentences (W.4.8).

A quote uses the source's exact words inside quotation marks. A paraphrase uses new words. Copying the exact words without quotation marks is neither, and the Hoover Dam page sorts 6 sentences into quote, paraphrase or copied.

Each heading can become a paragraph. The honeybee page sorts 12 note cards under body, home and food, and the state symbol planner has 3 subtopic boxes, each with a heading, notes and a source.

The sea turtle, honeybee, coral reef and Hoover Dam pages have one. The planners are open, so check that each note is short, in your own words and has a source.