Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement; main ideas they want to discuss or describe; supporting details; and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. Students can also click the Review My Map link and preview what they have written, return to the map for revisions, or print the completed map.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/essaymap/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

Alaska Native Stories: Using Narrative to Introduce Expository Text (3-5)
This lesson introduces students to comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction texts, and provides integration of literature into content area instruction. Students listen to a Yu'pik tale told by a Native person living in Alaska, reflect on it, and then use expository text to find facts about an animal in the Arctic.

Blogging With Photovoice: Sharing Pictures in an Integrated Classroom (9-12)
Make the most of your students’ diverse ability levels and experience in a prewriting activity that has them describe an abstract idea using blogging technology and photographs that they have taken.

Exploring Cause and Effect Using Expository Texts About Natural Disasters (3-5)
Understanding the structure of expository texts is an essential aspect of literacy. Students should therefore be introduced to these texts at an early age. By guiding elementary-age students to discover cause-and-effect relationships in books about natural disasters, this lesson helps improve overall comprehension.

Fighting Injustice by Studying Lessons of the Past (6-8)
This lesson engages students in a study of social injustice using the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and the Japanese–American Internment during World War II. Students debate and discuss their responses to assigned readings.

Heroes Around Us (6-8)
In this lesson, students collaboratively define heroism and discover that heroes can be everyday people who perform brave and noble deeds, often in service to others. Readings and reports on the lives of those honored as heroes reinforce the concept that anyone can become a hero.

How-To Writing: Motivating Students to Write for a Real Purpose (3-5)
Students are more motivated to write when their writing serves a definite purpose. In this lesson, students write how-to essays about how to succeed in the fourth grade. The essays are then shared with the next year's fourth graders at the beginning of the school year.

Introducing Shakespeare: Exploring Persona and Character Motivations (6-8)
Students are introduced to the concept of persona and examine how personality is revealed in a drama. To develop a richer understanding of Shakespeare's characters, students research Renaissance society and customs. After watching a scene from a Shakespeare play, students discuss the motivations of key characters and the relationships among them.

Lights, Camera, Action...Music: Critiquing Films Using Sight and Sound (9-12)
Teaching students to "read" media other than text is an important skill that helps boost their critical thinking. This lesson introduces students to film literacy by asking them to contrast a scene's visual impact with the music that accompanies it and by then writing their own scene outline.

Modeling Academic Writing Through Scholarly Article Presentations (9-12)
Through modeling, independent research, and presentation, students will learn and apply critical reading and annotation skills to the genre of the academic essay. In addition to gaining exposure to multiple interpretations of a work, they will embark on a genre study of this advanced essay form.

That's Not Fair! Examining Civil Liberties With the U.S. Supreme Court (9-12)
Students work collectively in groups to examine state and federal court cases that pertain to civil liberties. Each group conducts Internet research and creates a PowerPoint presentation to share the details of the case with their classmates and other invited guests.

Using Pictures to Build Schema for Social Studies Content (3-5)
Student groups analyze images of the Boston Massacre. They study Paul Revere’s engraving of the massacre and compare it to the other images. This activity leads to a discussion on propaganda. Students demonstrate understanding of the Boston Massacre and propaganda through poetry writing, artwork, expository writing, and oral presentations.