Practicing Paragraphs: Three Ways
It’s November! And the craziest November ever! Does anyone else feel completely exhausted? I’ve had a very hard time encouraging myself to do any tasks today…which is why you all are getting this on Friday afternoon instead of Friday morning. ;) But, no matter how crazy the world around us becomes, the kids are still there, and still need to be taught.
I know that at this time of year, we’re introducing new genres of writing to our students, and expecting them to build on the basics that they (should) know about well-organized paragraphs.
If you find yourself in a room where you feel that you need to give students more practice with paragraphs as they move on to complex genre-writing, I have three different ideas for you to keep in your back pocket as you move through November! These ideas are differentiated by complexity, so pull the ones that fit your different groups of writers, and use accordingly!
Cut a pre-wiritten paragraph into sentences, and let students piece it back together.
One of the most basic ways to expose students to a complete paragraph is by writing one, cutting it up, and letting your students discern where the paragraph begins and ends. This tactile practice is great to reach kinesthetic learners (who maybe aren’t your strongest writers). It also reinforces all of the parts of a paragraph, since students have to actively find the introduction, supporting details, and conclusion.
Cut a paragraph into pieces for students to piece together, and ask them to expand upon the details in the paragraph with their own writing.
Take the activity a step further, by asking students to create expanding details to build upon the details you give them. So, if one of the supporting details of this paragraph here is, “Her family was going to spend the day before the big meal baking desserts together”. Then, a great expanding sentence might be, “Josie’s favorite dessert was the pumpkin pie, so she always made sure to help with that part!”.
Expanding details create flow and a sense of conversation in our writing, but they are hard to teach without a graphic organizer.
Present a topic sentence, conclusion sentences, or one supporting detail, and ask students to create the rest of the paragraph.
For more advanced students, simply give them a topic sentence, and let them take it from there! This is a fun skill group activity during your writing block. Students love seeing the different paragraphs they come up with based off of one topic sentence, but the fact that all of the different details support the same topic is a great lesson for you to teach!
Want pre-made paragraph puzzles?
You can do these ideas with any pre-written paragraph on any piece of paper, but if you’re looking for some sets that are done for you, you can find them in my TPT store!