The Living Literacy Network

10/31/2025

Check out our new offerings on our website:
https://www.thelivingliteracynetwork.com/about
We’re working with social studies and science teachers to strengthen and 📚📓😎

05/30/2025

New blog posts up!

We share our thoughts on knowledge building curriculum and authoring units of study, and writing instruction.

https://www.thelivingliteracynetwork.com/blog

09/03/2024

Why not with some informational writing? It’s a great way to get to know students while teaching important Our latest shows you how!



https://www.thelivingliteracynetwork.com/blog

04/14/2024

Check this out! Now open for summer registration! Contact us if you have any questions.
Register here -------------> https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/Catalog.asp?D=10057&H=1&P=66571

03/18/2024

We're back! Check out our latest about and Why pick a side when we can learn from one another to create full of competent, joyful, ❤️📖

Over the past few years, there seems to be a much-heated debate and quite the divide over how we should be teaching reading in the classroom. In fact, the conversations have become so polarizing that one feels as if we must wholeheartedly, “choose a side.”

03/22/2023

💡Let’s work smarter!

✏️We support teachers in these methods every day in schools

✏️Find even more ideas in our book: Informational Writing Mini-Lessons:

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

03/20/2023

💡 Don’t forget to celebrate!

✏️You don’t need a huge party for a mini-unit, but a celebration of some kind allows hard work to be acknowledged.

✏️Have students share in some way—favorite parts and passages—to large or small groups. Getting together with another class makes it feel extra special!

✏️Have students give each other positive feedback—I liked, I loved, I learned.

✏️Take a moment for reflection: What did you learn and what’s a goal you can set for our next unit?

💡Over 170 more ideas from coming up with ideas to celebrating them in any informational genre you can think of, as well as grammar and conventions lessons, are in our book, Informational Writing Mini-Lessons:

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

03/15/2023

💡Day 8! 📝

✏️Develop drafts by teaching students the 5 Ws and an H—the who, what, when, why, and how of their topic.

✏️Asking questions of your topic helps you to say more—or to do research.

✏️Students can work in partnerships to ask each other questions as well.

💡Find this, and over 170 lessons for a range of writers from emergent to fluent in our book, Informational Writing Mini-Lessons:

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2ATZIZ1PS8BZ8&keywords=informational+writing+mini+lessons&qid=1678879201&sprefix=informational+writi%2Caps%2C113&sr=8-1

03/14/2023

💡Draft Day!

✏️Have students use their chapters to draft, making sure that each section is focused on that one part of their topic.

✏️Remind students to use what they know about elaboration as they draft—day 4’s preposition lesson, for example.

💡We have over 170 lesson ideas, along with helpful charts to make them stick, in our book, Informational Writing Mini-Lessons!

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

03/13/2023

💡Day 6: Plan with a table of contents!

✏️For younger students, planning can be visual or on special paper.

✏️For older students, connect it to planning for high stakes test writing. They give you paper for planning—here’s how you might use it!

💡Today we’re sharing Lesson 5 from Chapter 5 of our book Informational Writing Mini-Lessons

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

03/08/2023

💡Day Three!

✏️Grab a few mentor texts and show students how they can be inspired by:
📝topics
📝structure/organization (a great way to teach students about how informational texts are organized)
📝craft and elaboration
📝conventions and grammar

✏️Have students add some ideas to their growing list of topics, and choose one to write today in the structure of a favorite author.
✏️They can use an elaboration technique, or even a convention they noticed that author use.

💡This is lesson 17 from Chapter 1 of our book:

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

💡Let us know how your writing is going in the comments!

03/07/2023

💡It’s day 2 of our mini-unit! Another strategy for generating ideas for informational writing from our book, Informational Writing Mini-Lessons!

✏️For this strategy, we’re encouraging students to write about what they know from other content areas.

✏️Research shows us this strategy supports students in their understanding not only of writing, but the topics they’re learning about, as it supports the acquisition of background knowledge.

✏️This is strategy 17 from Chapter 3 of our book, Informational Writing Mini-Lessons.

https://www.amazon.com/Informational-Writing-Mini-Lessons-Go/dp/1078698031/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=33NARP0K7UEV5&keywords=informational+writing&qid=1675516355&sprefix=informational+w%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-13

💡Share how your writing goes with us in the comments!