Kelsi Long

Dr. Cook

Teaching Composition

19 April 2017

Expository Writing Annotations

Cummins, S. and Quiroa, R. E. Teaching for Writing Expository Responses to Narrative Texts.

The Reading Teacher, 65.6 (2012): 381386. International Literacy Association. Web. 17

April 2017. KML

This article discusses how to engage elementary English students in expository written responses

to the narrative texts that they read. Elementary students read many narrative texts, and it is vital

that they are able to distinguish between narrative writing and expository writing when

composing their responses to their readings. The key method that was explained in this article

was to show the students pictures for instance, one photo was of an older couple, and the class

inferred that they were about to get married. Why? Because the lady was wearing a wedding

dress. How do you know it is a wedding dress? Because it is white. This exercise served as a

positive warmup to introduce expository writing to students, for it reinforced the idea to the

students that they must have textual evidence to back up their claims in their expository writing.

I personally love the idea of utilizing pictures to get a classroom conversation going about

expository writing; its something fresh and new that I think students would be really engaged

with. Could this be easily confused with argumentative writing? Possibly; however, if the teacher

makes clear the distinction between writing styles amidst the lesson then students should be fine.
Dymock, S. Teaching Expository Text Structure Awareness. The Reading Teacher, 59.2

(2005): 177181. International Literacy Association. Web. 17 April 2017. KML

Although this article states that it focuses more on the comprehension side of expository writing,

I would argue that the same lesson can be used to teach how to effectively compose expository

writing. As we have learned in our readings throughout this course, reading and writing go hand

in hand. If a student is taught how to better identify and comprehend expository writing, they

will automatically become more skilled in writing expository pieces. The focus of this article is

how to identify expository text structure. Dymock divides expository structures into two types:

descriptive and sequential. Within the descriptive structure exists lists, webs, and matrix

(compare/contrast charts), while sequential text structures include the string pattern- a

chronological description of events. By learning these common expository structures, not only

will students be able to better identify and comprehend expository writing, but they will be better

equipped to write their own expository pieces. I plan to utilize this strategy in my own

classroom, but with all writing genres. By teaching them comprehension skills for each

individual genre they will naturally become better authors of those genres as well. What are

some effective activities and strategies to utilize when introducing these lessons to students?

Perhaps have the students create charts, lists, webs, matrixes of their own regarding a book we

have recently or are currently reading? I will keep brainstorming more teaching ideas for this.

Montelongo, J., Herter, R. J., Ansaldo, R. and Hatter, N. A Lesson Cycle for Teaching

Expository Reading and Writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53.8 (2010):

656666. International Literacy Association. Web. 17 April 2017. KML

This article discusses the method that two English teachers used to teach expository writing to

their middle school students attending summer school. They utilized a four-part series consisting

of units on the following: vocabulary words, text structures, modified sentence completion

activity, and rewriting text. The vocabulary words unit encourages students to interpret

unknown words through the use of context clues exercises, while the text structures unit

introduces generalization, sequences, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and

solution and problem and solution one at a time. Furthermore, the modified sentence

completion activity allows students to choose sentences from a bank, fill in the missing words

in the sentences, and determine which sentences relate to one another to form a paragraph. Once

they have fit the connecting sentences together to make a coherent paragraph, they must identify

the sentence that serves as the main idea of the paragraph. The rewriting text portion asks

students to rewrite paragraphs in their own words. Over the course of a five-week period, test

scores improved by over 30% following the intervention. The teachers rotated turns teaching the

different components throughout each day, building on what the students had already learned

each day. Overall, I believe this to be a solid method of teaching expository writing to students,

for it incorporates the reading side of writing too and reinforces how reading and writing are so

powerfully intertwined. I wonder: would the results show a less significant increase if the study

had been taken over a longer time span? It seems like in 5 weeks, of course kids are going to

show incredible growth. They havent had time to forget anything yet; the material is still fresh

in their minds.