Mini-Lesson

Non-Fiction Literacy

Mini-Lesson: Grades 2-3

Objective: Students will explore a news-writing basic: The Five Ws and One H.

1. To focus on news content, have students answer questions typically addressed n news writing--who, what, when, where, why and how? Explain that the beauty of the Five Ws and One H is that the questions are always the same: Who is the story about? What is the story about? When and where did it happen? How? Why?

2. Write these questions on the board. Instruct students to start with the "who" and "when" questions, as they typically don't have an innate sense about the logical order of questions. If time permits, pre-teach the logical order of answering the W questions. For example, once students have found the "who" and "what" answer, they can then search more thoughtfully to answer the other questions. They will then be better able to understand the relationship between the questions and the topic itself--i.e. Olympians won medals at the Olympic Games (What) because they had beat out other Olympic athletes (Why) and spending many months of intense training (How).

3. Extend Learning: Have students complete the Five Ws and One H worksheet.

Adapted from the TIME For Kids supplement Using the News to Develop Readers and Writers.