The class came up with the idea of writing to an expert to ask them questions about reptiles, and they thought a good person/group to write to would be the staff at the Reptile House in Ann Arbor. We started this as a class, and I displayed the letter on the overhead while they came up with the sentences and the questions to ask. This only lasted a short while; most of the students could not stay focused for the writing so we ended up not finishing our letter and read books instead because of time constraints (unfortunately!). This is something I would have liked to finish because I think it was a great idea. Next time I would a letter completed already as a model, and then give the students an outline so that they could each write their own letter. The file with the letter that we had started is right below:
For this organizer, we wanted the kids to come up with the categories on their own. As a class, they decided what the important information would be to find out about reptiles. We also used a very basic outline this time, because their writing was growing to be so strong.