An Expository Writing Prompt About Landforms

When it comes time to teach students a new text type, it’s important to provide scaffolds that assist in teaching students the structural components of the genre in question. As students become more familiar with these features, scaffolds can be downgraded and eventually withdrawn altogether.

This information report template has been designed by our expert teacher team to help your students write an expository text about landforms. The resource contains four Letter-sized pages in landscape orientation. Each page includes two mini-book pages (eight pages in total). This printable information report template includes:

• A title page
• Description
• Classification
• Climate
• Wildlife
• Activities
• Fascinating Facts
• Conclusion

The booklet contains space for both written and visual information (such as drawings and labeled diagrams).

This resource downloads as a printable PDF and an editable Google Slides document. If you wish your students to complete the activity digitally, simply delete the writing lines and add in a text box for your students to type in.

This information report template is the perfect resource to use when introducing your students to the report text type and its structural features.

Using This Expository Writing Prompt

This information report template can be used in various ways when exploring expository writing with your students. Here is one suggestion from our teacher team that you may wish to consider:

1. Introduction to Report Writing – Start by introducing the concept of report writing to your students. Explain that expository writing is a type of writing that explains a particular topic using facts. Provide some examples of topics such as animals, plants, countries, special events or natural phenomena.
2. Exploring Landforms – Explain the concept of a landform to the students. You might like to show images of landforms such as mountains, valleys, plateaus, plains and canyons. Have students name some landforms that are familiar to them, such as those in their local area or those they have visited on vacation.
3. Choosing a Landform – Once students have a good understanding of what landforms are, it’s time for them to choose one to research! Alternatively, choose a landform for the whole class to research as a shared or small group activity.
4. Researching a Landform – Provide or guide students to age-appropriate resources to inform their research into their chosen landmark. Have students record their information in their notebooks as dot points under relevant subheadings.
5. Writing a Report – Once the students have completed their research, have them complete the landforms information report template. 

Download and Create This Informational Text Template

Use the dropdown menu on the Download button above to access either the quick-print PDF or the editable Google Slides version of this resource. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides template before accessing it.)

To assemble the mini book, follow these simple steps.

1. Download the PDF version of the reader by clicking the Download button.
2. On your printer, select double-sided printing. Be sure to flip on the short edge.
3. Compile the pages, making sure the first page is at the bottom of your pile. 
4. Fold your collection of pages in half to make a book.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter collaborator.

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