Expository Writing Teaching Resources

Whether you call it expository writing, informational writing or writing informative texts in your classroom, it's important for students to learn to write in a manner that shares straightforward information on a certain topic to educate their reader. It's a skill that will serve them well throughout their education and well into adulthood.

Getting your students started with informative writing this school year? The Teach Starter team of teachers has put together everything you need to teach this core writing type to your elementary writers, including printable worksheets, writing prompts, writing templates, and more.

Each resource in this collection has been thoroughly reviewed to ensure it's ready to be used in your classroom, and you'll find editable options so you can make the adjustments you need to meet state-level standards and meet your students where they are.

New to teaching this type of writing or looking for a handy refresher? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a definition you can use explain what you mean when you introduce expository or informative writing to your students.

What Is Informative Writing or Expository Writing? A Kid-Friendly Definition

We have always found it is helpful to have a definition handy when we are introducing the different genres of writing to our class. Here's one the ELA teachers on our team use for expository writing:

Expository writing is a type of writing that is created to educate the reader with facts.

This type of writing goes by a number of names, so maybe your district calls it something else. Here's a look at just a few of the names it may be called:

Expository writing
Informational writing
Explanatory writing
Informative Writing

Informative Writing vs. Persuasive Writing — How to Explain the Difference to Your Students

Informative writing is just one of the many writing styles your students will learn in elementary school, but it's important to establish the clear differences between them.

Take persuasive writing, for example. Like informational writing, it requires becoming educated on the topic a student is writing about, and it involves using facts in writing.

On the other hand, a persuasive writing essay is written to convince the reader of something. In higher grades, it transitions into opinion writing because it takes a side on a topic rather than remaining impartial.

That's not true of an expository writing piece, which takes a "just the facts, Jack" form.

What Are the 5 Elements of Informative Writing?

As you dive into teaching informational writing, there are 5 elements you'll want students to focus on explaining to the reader. They're often called the 5 Ws:

Who
What
When
Where
Why

Students may also include a sixth element, which explains "how" something happened.

5 Informative Writing Examples to Share With Your Students

You may want to start your students off on your informational writing unit with examples to help familiarize them with this sort of writing. Fortunately, informational writing is found all around us in daily life.

Students have almost surely read more than a few examples of expository writing along the way, but they may not have known what to call it.

Some examples that students will likely recognize include: