Wondering how to teach constructed response writing? It’s easy to teach with this hamburger craft. First, kids find text evidence. Second, they write it as detail sentences. Then they answer the question and write a conclusion. To polish the piece, students cite and add transitions.
Mr. Frank Learns How to Teach Constructed Response Writing
Ms. Sneed, tapped her pencil on the table. “Let’s continue planning our fourth grade ELA block, she said to her teaching partner, Mr. Frank. “Today, we’ll continue with fourth grade literature activities, specifically how to teach kids to answer questions.”
“Yeah, our kids are struggling,” he responded. “What can we do to make it more engaging?”
Master Constructed Response with a Hamburger Craft
“Take a look at this,” said Ms. Sneed. She pushed her laptop to the right so Mr. Frank could see. “This free template shows us how to teach constructed response writing. Kids build a hamburger craft to answer a question.”
“Hmm. This would solve some problems,” he said. “For example, kids in my class want to run everything together. Let me restate that. Kids in my class want to run everything together in the first paragraph! They answer then cite and then say, ‘because…’ and add the evidence. A thorough one sentence answer.”
Ms. Sneed chuckled. “Yep. I see that too. With this template, everything is separated. Kids are force to write a separate topic sentence.”
“I love it! Let’s give it a try!”
Start with Simple Stories
Ms. Sneed paged down. “The author shows how to teach constructed response writing with two one-page fables to get started. I like the idea of something short.”
“Uh-huh. Me too. Since they’re printable, kids can mark up the text too. They can highlight pertinent text and annotate.”
“Look at this,” said Ms. Sneed. “We can also create Easel Activities and let kids annotate online.”
“Cool!”
Teach Kids to Cite, Use Transitions, and Conclude
As she paged down a little more, Ms. Sneed pointed out more features. “In addition to a providing a strong structure, this resource teaches kids to cite, add transitions, and conclude. Our kids’ responses will be polished!”
Steps for Building the Constructed Response Burger
Next the teachers looked at the directions for building the constructed response craft. “Yes, this is fun!” exclaimed Mr. Frank.
Voila!
“What a masterpiece!” exclaimed Ms.Sneed. I can’t wait to try this fun project with our kids.”
