3 how to writing ideas & sequence writing strategies for ell students
Our Weather Unit is the perfect opportunity to work on our how-to writing, thanks to severe weather safety! Over the years, I’ve added how to writing ideas and sequence writing strategies for our ELL kids because they need so many real, hands on experiences to help with their language practice.
I have always loved finding new how to writing ideas for teaching how to OR sequence writing because it’s such great language practice for ELLs: order words, sequencing, following directions… and bringing in supplies to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at school helps keep my ELL sweeties (and the rest of the class!) engaged too!
order words & oral language practice
To start off our how-to writing, we needed to give our first graders some good practice with instructions before asking them to write how-to paragraphs about weather. So, we started by talking about order words. We talked about the steps in this free how to draw a shark activity and followed the directions by drawing a shark to match the instructions given. As we drew, I used order words like first, next, then, last, finally, etc…
We charted order words as we used them. Not only does this help with the language development for our ELL kids, but we are orally practicing using transition words so that it’s more natural to use those transitional words in their how to writing.
how to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich
Then, today we were ready to start writing our own how-to writings! So, I brought in one of my old how to writing ideas–an oldie, but goodie: How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We did a think-pair-share at our table groups to identify the first, next and last steps, using our order words anchor chart we had worked on the day before as a reference. See how we are building on each lesson here?
After they told me each step, I followed their directions and we drew a picture of that step. My favorite part of this activity is messing with the first graders a little bit! Without fail, ever single year, someone tells me the first step is to put the peanut butter on the bread. So, naturally, I put the jar of peanut butter on top of the bag of bread…and wait for the giggles!
Then, we talk about how important it is to be specific when you are giving someone directions. And to make sure we are not missing out on any assumed steps! 🙂
No special handout for this tried-and-true activity. Just simply dividing the picture part of their journal into thirds to record a picture of each step.
The pre-writing lesson usually takes a full day. So, once all of our steps are finished, our sandwich is made, and our pictures are drawn, we put away our journals for the day!
Writing a How-To Paragraph
The next day, we were ready to write a paragraph about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We start by reviewing our steps and pictures we drew the day before and practice the oral language of each step using the order words.
Then, we used our snowman how-to anchor chart to guide our writing. Depending on your kids, you can do this together or let them work on it independently.
DISCLAIMER: You know that time you laminated and it leaked nasty water stains or whatever that junk is on your cute poster… yeah… GRRRR! The struggle is real, y’all. What is that nasty stuff even?!?
Because this is our first time doing a how-to paragraph in first grade, we wrote this paragraph together. First, we wrote the topic sentence together using the snowman anchor chart as a guide. Then, we reviewed each step, practiced saying the sentence together in a think-pair-share routine, and then wrote the sentence together in our journals.
They did so well doing this together so I can’t wait for our next how to writing ideas, including writing about how to brush our teeth on Thursday!
You can find the How To Writing anchor chart template in my informative writing anchor charts!
