Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 24

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson .
Experienced
Modify Instructional Strategy:
When modeling, acknowledge the
fact that students may have less
of an everyday connection with
their topics. Regardless, the topic
still needs to be relevant to the
student’s life in some way. As an
example, if a student is writing a
feature article about what it feels
like to serve in the military, in the
very least, the student should
have a friend or relative whose
experience has affected his
thinking. If a student cannot ?nd
a connection, the topic is likely too
abstract to tackle effectively in the
short time devoted to the unit of
study.

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Teacher Model
?? Review the topic and angle you selected in the previous
lesson.
?? Think aloud about whether your topic will make a good
feature article by answering the following questions:
o Why is this topic interesting to you?
o Will you be able to ?nd information about your
topic? Where?
o What personal knowledge or experience do you
have related to this topic?
o Is this topic narrow enough?
o What would the purpose of the article be: what do
you want people to understand about your topic?
Who is your audience?
?? Model the process of prewriting on your feature article
topic, taking into account your answers to the questions.
Narrative
My feature article topic is, Big families can be dif?cult for
kids growing up. Now I need to test the quality of my topic by
answering a few important questions. First, why is this topic
interesting to me. The topic is interesting because it is one that I
know something about and one that is important to lots of other
people. Secondly, will I be able ?nd information on the topic?
I know that I can ask experts and everyday people about this
issue. I have looked up this topic on the Internet before and I
have seen that it is covered on sites about child development
and family life. Doctors and educators write about this topic.
Third, I need to think about whether or not my topic is narrow
enough. When I started, I thought I would write about “big
families” but I realized that the topic was too broad. It was not
speci?c or unique in any way. I have narrowed down my topic to
be more particular to my experience so it is a little different than
what many others might write about. I am going to ask myself
the rest of the guiding questions and then write a re?ection in my
writer’s notebook to keep me focused as I go forward.

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