How to Teach Elaboration in Fourth Grade Writing

When fourth graders write a story or report, they often leave out many important details. They stick to the basic facts and often do not elaborate on important points. This is a hard skill to teach students, but it is possible and a fun lesson, too. Fourth grade students can learn to elaborate with specific details to enrich their stories or specific facts to support their opinions. Read on for a lesson on how to teach elaboration in fourth grade writing.

Things You'll Need

• Chart Paper
• Markers
• Pencil
• Paper
• Scissors
• Tape

Instructions

1. Write a rough draft of a story or a report on chart paper either before class starts or as a whole class lesson. Make sure you just get the basic facts down.

2. Ask a student or students to read your report aloud. When the student is finished, ask the class what else someone would want to know about astronauts and the moon if he was reading this report. Make a list on a separate piece of paper of other facts that students feel should be added to the paragraph/report.

3. Tell students you are going to use elaboration to improve the report/paragraph and to tell the reader more facts and details about the topic. It is important to provide specific details when writing a report, and elaboration helps to accomplish this.

4. Decide where you want to elaborate. Show students how to cut the paragraph apart at that spot. (You are actually cutting your chart paper into two sections, so you can add the elaboration where it goes.) On another sheet of paper, write down the part you want to add. Use tape to secure the original paragraph to the new elaborated section.

5. Repeat step 4 as many times as you need to in order to finish with a detailed, informative report. You can involve students by having them come up and cut the paragraph where they think more elaboration is needed and have them help you with the taping.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you have finished with the whole group lesson, have students repeat these steps with a piece of their own writing.

• Don't try to cram in too much information at once. Keep it simple.