Research, Writing, and Blogging in Second Grade #resvt #TCRWP #vsla #vted

Second graders at RES have been working on a nonfiction writing and blogging unit. This is a collaborative unit taught by the second grade teachers and Beth Redford, our library media specialist. First, second graders chose interesting animals, researched them in the PebbleGo online database, and wrote down facts to use in their blog posts.

 Researching facts about bobcats and lynxes

Anacondas have how many teeth?!?

Second, the scholars used their notes to create informational writing pieces about their animals. They used their strategies from Writing Workshop to write introductions that hooked their readers, transitions that kept their readers interested, and conclusions that wrapped up their pieces. They also used what they knew about nonfiction text features to add illustrations, diagrams, and labels to help their readers better understand their animals.

Classroom chart: Ways to write an introduction

 This scholar used the "riddle" strategy

to engage her readers with her introduction

And this scholar used labels in her illustration

to show the life cycle of a turtle

Finally, the second graders used the Blogger iPad app to create posts for the RES Second Grade Animal blog. They typed in the great texts they had written, and then added photographs of their illustrations. Our first blog post from this year is already on the blog! And more posts will be coming in the next few weeks. We are very proud of all our second grade scholars!

Creating blog posts on iPads

The first blog post! You can see these posts live

at http://res2animalblog.blogspot.com/