How to Teach Expository Writing

Using details to describe a scene or event is one of the most useful life skills a student can learn. Expository writing teaches students to help other people see where they are coming from and to understand the perspectives of others as well.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Start off with several lessons on sensory details. Have students describe five things they can see from their bedroom window at home. Put several different objects on a table in the middle of the room and have students give as many details as possible about their appearances. Come up with some others to get your students to think about how to describe something in writing.
2. Have your students share their writing with a class or a small group. Different students will have different approaches to sensory details and different levels of ability. Sharing will help them get ideas from each other. If time allows, consider doing the assignment with them and sharing your own writing as well.
3. Take the sensory detail activity to the next level. For example, you can build on the bedroom window example above by having your students write a paragraph describing the landscape which is visible from the window instead of just describing separate things which can be seen.
4. Read a humorous essay about an event in an author's life. Discuss what details the author uses and how he make his main point. Reflect on the descriptive adjectives he chooses.
5. Use the essay as the basis for an expository lesson plan. For example, if the essay was about the worst day the author ever had, have each student write about her worst day.
6. Brainstorm ideas for expositor writing with the student. Write them up on the board and let each student chose his own assignment.
7. Demand more from this last expository writing assignment. Because you have allowed each student to choose, they all have a bigger stake in it. Make sure they use good descriptive adjectives, proper spelling and punctuation and, above all, original ideas.

Tips & Warnings

• Progress from more immediate to more distant and from more concrete to more abstract concepts. Early writing prompts should focus on sensory description, while later prompts can answer prompts such as "what is your favorite memory?" or "what does freedom mean to you?"