Blog Post: An Informative/Explanatory Writing Unit (6-8)

What is the focus of the blog post writing unit?

This writing unit is specifically designed to meet the standards for informative/explanatory writing (W.6.2, W.7.2, W.8.2). Blogging is a platform in our society where anyone that is passionate about sharing information about anything can start a blog and share their writing with others. This unit teaches students how to create a well-structured blog post where their opinions and ideas are valued by their intended audience. Students select a topic to blog about, whether it has to do with a hobby, interest, talent, or advice they would like to share. Students then study published blogs with similar formats and topics so they can gets ideas about formatting and tone. They also gather information, examples, facts, and quotations they want to incorporate into their blog post. Drafting involves concentrating in on introducing the topic, the main body of the blog, and a concluding section. As they work their blog post through the revision process, students focus in on precise language and smooth transitions before bringing their revised draft to a student sounding board, editing for conventions, and authentically publishing their blog post.

What is included in the blog post writing unit?

• Unit Plan: an overview of the 14 minilesson statements, each aligned to a Common Core State Standard for informative/explanatory, sequenced to guide students through the writing process from start to finish.
• Detailed Minilessons: 14 fully-scripted writing minilessons for the teacher so that they can explicitly walk students through the gradual release of responsibility (minilesson statement, modeling, have-a-go, application, share) in each minilesson. The minilessons take students through each part of the writing process (genre immersion, pre-write, organize & outline, draft, revise, edit, publish & share). *Download the preview to see the specific minilessons covered throughout this unit.
• Mentor Text: Two mentor text blog posts, written by me, to reference throughout the writing process. The mentor texts were written to exemplify each minilesson and be used as a tool for modeling and a reference during writing conferences/guided writing.
• PowerPoints: Each lesson contains a presentation of the lesson with the different steps of the lesson laid out (minilesson statement, modeling, have-a-go, application, share) for a great visual throughout each minilesson to help the lessons flow. These come in PDF and in editable form.
• Question Prompts for Writing Conferences: Question prompts specific to each minilesson to use in writing conferences and/or guided writing each day to reinforce the concept being taught are included. These questions make it seamless to hold writing conferences that will make a huge impact on students' writing.
• Student Handouts and Reference Guides: Student materials (prewriting sheets, graphic organizers, outline, reference sheets to assist with specific minilessons, handouts with prompting questions to guide revision, etc.) needed for each minilesson are included. A student "Editing Guide" is also included to assist students during the editing phase with capitalization, spelling, homophone, punctuation, commas, and sentence types reference sheets.
• Rubric Options: Rubrics are designed to assess the specific genre and type of writing in the writing unit. There are different rubric options included so teachers can use the rubric that works best for their purpose.
• Grade 6 CCSS-Aligned Rubric
• Grade 7 CCSS-Aligned Rubric
• Grade 8 CCSS-Aligned Rubric
• Minilesson-Based Rubric: does not mention specific CCSS standards and is based on the minilessons taught in the writing unit
• Just Feedback Rubric: designed to get students reading and thinking about feedback.
• Students Self-Assessment Rubric: where students assess before the teachers assess.
• Detailed Proficiency Rubric
• Sentence Level Writing Activities: Sentence level writing activities are included to help you guide your students through writing sentences with appositives, compound sentences, complex sentences, sentences with items in a series, and more. These can be used as a class starter during the writing unit. Having students practice sentence level writing will improve students' writing conventions and sentence variety.

***All lessons, student handouts, and rubrics come in a PDF and Microsoft Word version so teachers can use the materials in a way that best suits their teaching style and students’ needs. Additionally, all presentations are included as Google Slides and all students handouts are included as Google Docs for ease of use in Google Classroom.

Looking for a year-long writing curriculum? Look no further.

There are eleven writing units in total. Each persuasive, informative/explanatory, narrative, and research writing unit is designed to meet all of the standards for that genre. Each unit is designed to bring a unique spin to the overall genre of writing. Teachers can create a year-long writing curriculum based on the writing units they think will best meet the needs of their students. Teachers who teach solely writing will most likely be able to teach more writing units across the year than teachers who teach reading and writing within the same class period to students. Regardless, the writing units are purchased separately and can be put together to create a year-long curriculum covering all of the writing standards from the Common Core State Standards. Download the preview to see example scope and sequences tailored to represent different middle school teaching situations.

There are 3 purchase options for the writing units:

1. Purchase all eleven units and save $27 (20% off) by purchasing the Middle School Year-Long Writing Workshop Curriculum Bundle. This bundle includes awesome extras to help manage, assess, and thrive using a Writing Workshop all year.

2. Purchase the writing units as a mini-bundle and save $9.60 (20% off). Each mini-bundle includes four writing units (1 persuasive, 1 informative/explanatory, 1 narrative, 1 research). There are three mini-bundle options, each containing a different variety of writing units. Choose the one that works best for you and your students.

-6-8 Writing Workshop Units Bundle (Option 1)

-6-8 Writing Workshop Units Bundle (Option 2)

-6-8 Writing Workshop Units Bundle (Option 3)

3. Purchase the writing units individually to meet your writing instruction needs. The 11 writing units are linked below.

-Deleted Scene-Narrative Writing

-Blog Post-Informative/Explanatory Writing

-Product Review-Persuasive Writing

-Ask Anything-Research Writing

-Narrative Nonfiction-Narrative Writing Unit

-Literary Analysis-Informative/Explanatory Writing

-Important Issue Letter-Persuasive Writing

-Memoir Vignettes-Narrative Writing

-Quote to Live By-Informative/Explanatory Writing

-Book Recommendation-Persuasive Writing

-Children's Book-Narrative Writing

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