Encourage tinkering with ideas, relationships, connections. Set up situations where students have to find information not readily available in school texts. Provide opportunity for students to design open-ended explorations of the concept. Provide multiple options so students can plan a unique "proof" of learning.

Prewriting activities for "How the Water Got in the Watermelon"

Objective: Pre-writing activities for expository text.

Activity: Using a story web, individual students plan to write a newspaper article detailing how the water got into the watermelon. Students will need to plan who, what, where, and why. In small conference groups, students share their pre-writing ideas and accept suggestions and comments from others. After the web is completed, students will transfer the information into outline form.

Assessment: Quality of webs and outlines and responses to each other's work.