Introduction+to+Paragraphs

=5th grade, Middle School lesson on writing a first-rate, six sentence paragraph!=

TOPIC SENTENCE, Supporting Sentence, Detailed Sentence, Supporting Sentence, Detailed Sentence, CONCLUDING SENTENCE
1. (Pre-test) Kids get out one index card. Give them the topic: "Write about your locker! GO!" ....for about 5 minutes or less....don't worry about spelling or anything....just write about your locker! (Collect the cards.)

2. Show "Keynote presentation to class"...mentioning how they probably didn't give much thought to a logical order when they spontaneously wrote their locker paragraph. (May need to use spacebar to pause movie, or backtrack a little, as this movie moves quickly...rather than me manually clicking through the slides.) media type="youtube" key="1afAx_b6pAU" height="315" width="420"

3. Finally, the students are ready to begin writing their first 5-paragraph essay: The THREE ITEMS ESSAY. This will be about 3 personal items they have selected which represent themselves, or favorite things about what they do. Students bring these 3 items in a sack to class, and also share them later. We begin with the "body" of the paragraph, writing their first (six sentence) paragraph about their first item. I have them watch the following movie as they set up 6 index cards, writing only one sentence on each card. They repeat this step for the second and third paragraphs.

media type="youtube" key="ZMHtJEHJsic" height="315" width="420" 4. Once the 3 "body" paragraphs about their items have been written on the cards, I check them and have the student write each paragraph on a separate lined paper. (One paper for each paragraph, indenting and bringing all the sentences together.)

5. Finally, we will have a short lesson about the Introductory and Concluding paragraphs. Students will write these and add them on to the body paragraphs of their essay.

6. Post-test: Check students' understanding and application of writing a good paragraph. Have them take out a new index card and, once again, write a paragraph about their locker. Compare to pre-test locker paragraphs at the start of this unit.