Explanatory writing is an expository essay that explains and expands on a premise, process, or plot. This guide shows you simple steps for how to teach it, and the metacognitive skills this type of writing develops.
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A few years ago I gave the classic expository writing assignment to my class: “Explain how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” The responses ranged from detailed, step-by-step instructions to the sadness inducing,
“Put the stuff on the bread.”
Have you ever handed out an expository writing assignment only to get some disappointing responses? Teaching explanatory writing doesn’t have to feel like pulling teeth—it’s all about breaking it down into logical pieces. This post will help you teach your students how to write an explanatory essay with confidence and clear structure.
What is Explanatory Writing
Explanatory writing is a subgenre of the broader expository writing genre. Some educators call it informative writing, especially in the lower grades. In an explanatory essay, the students are explaining the thesis or premise of an article, the process of how to do or make something, or the plot of a story.
The premise, process, or plot may include things such as
- Why
- How
- When
- Cause and effect
The difference between the broad expository essay is that the explanatory essay has a narrower focus. It’s there simply to explain or deepen an existing explanation.
This blog post is an example of explanatory writing.
How to Teach Explanatory Writing
First of all, students will need to know how to write a well-structured paragraph. The explanatory essay in lower grades can be one paragraph. However, as students advance through the grade levels, it should become a multi-paragraph essay.
Next, and this is so very important, give your learners a relevant and engaging text in which they’re interested. If they have a less engaging article, or one that doesn’t resonate with them, it will be much harder to teach. Why is that? It’s because they won’t care about the topic.
Third, remember to provide graphic organizers to make notes of important points or steps for their explanation. You can find some free graphic organizers in the Member Vault of this website. In my Explanatory Writing lessons, I include color-coded graphic organizers.
Color Coding the Parts of an Expository Essay
Color coding is magical. You can use it to:
- Teach students the parts of any essay or article
- Have students practice dissecting informational mentor texts or science articles
- Use it to create expository and informative essay outlines
- At a glance, you can see if students have completed each of the color-coded components
- Grade and advise quickly, simply by using colored pencils or markers on the students’ writing
You can choose any colors you want, but the most commonly used colors are in line with the stoplight colors, green, yellow, and red.
- Green: Introduce the topic, thesis, or premise.
- Yellow: Add a fact.
- Red: Explain, expound, give an example, and expand on the fact previously stated.
- Green can be used again for the conclusion.
Other colors to include:
- Orange: Add transition words or phrases, (first, next, last, in the beginning, once this step is completed, etc.)
- Blue: Hook the reader. In the conclusion, blue can also indicate a call-back to the original hook.
Lesson Steps to Teach Explanatory Writing
The first step is to define explanatory writing and what your expectations are. A student friendly rubric is helpful with this task.
The next step would be to read a prompt, and model the thinking process of how to break the explanation down into reasonable steps. Graphic organizers for an informative essay outline are indispensable at this point.
The rough draft comes next. Students can do the initial writing, and then let the writing rest for a day. The following day, with fresh eyes on the piece, and some reflections, they’ll be able to revise and edit.
They can revise their work with ARMS (Add, Remove, Move, Substitute), and line edit with CUPS (Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling), or another system. Students can decide if they included plenty of examples and explanations of facts or steps. They can consider if they’ve used proper grammar and appropriate transitional phrases. After this they can write their final draft.
For a grand finale, have them share their writing with other students in their table groups or in partners. If the student listening can understand and follow the explanation, the writing was a success.
You can get resources for teaching this in upper elementary 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade. You can also get one for writing about how to help out in our communities.
My explanatory writing products all include lesson steps, teacher guides and anchor charts.
The anchor charts come in two sizes. One set is sized for 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, and there are small ones to print and put in student writing notebooks or binders.
Teach Explanatory Writing Multiple Times
As with any other skills, mastering this type of writing takes time and practice. Students can be writing a paragraph a day, or some other type of daily writing for a few minutes in the morning or afternoon. Then, when they approach a more complex task, they’ll be ready to tackle it.
One idea is to incorporate explanatory writing with other subjects. If you just studied the Revolutionary War, perhaps your students could explain the issue of taxation without representation and how it led to revolts.
What if you’re teaching about the water cycle? It’s a perfect topic for students to write an explanatory essay, pretending their audience is someone who doesn’t understand the cycle.
Students can also work in teams, each one describing a step in a process, or explaining one point. How to make a sandwich is a popular topic for explanatory writing. Each student may make a sandwich differently, so this can lead to conversation and collaboration.
Explanatory writing lends itself well to STEM and PBL projects too. Explaining how to do a math problem, or why a certain process or algorithm should be followed will deepen their understanding, and it will allow you to see if they truly grasp the concept.
Another thing to keep in mind is this type of writing is a metacognitive strategy that can engage your students and supercharge their learning.
Summary of How to Teach Explanatory Writing
Explanatory writing is a subset of the expository writing genre. It’s a type of writing that explains a premise, process, or plot.
Teaching explanatory writing begins with an engaging topic or text.
Next, break down each part of the essay into parts. Color-coding and using graphic organizers helps students to learn the basics and then advance beyond them.
Always define your expectations clearly at the beginning. Guide students through the revision process and editing process. A student friendly rubric is a great way to communicate these expectations.
This type of writing is a metacognitive strategy that can be used to deepen your students’ understanding of any topic you’re teaching, from social studies, to math, science, or literature.
Once you’ve taught this several times, you never have to worry about getting the explanatory essay that simply reads, “Put the stuff on the bread.”
Bon appetit!
Get started teaching explanatory writing with these resources:
