Organization
Paragraph Form
1. Writing workshop mini lesson Improving Organization.
Students write about an art project they have created to write a paragraph
with teacher modeling. Follow these steps:
1. Prior to the writing lesson, have the children create an art project.
2. Have the children brainstorm ways of describing their projects. Record
their responses on chart paper.
3. Distribute writing paper and ask them to write a topic sentence telling
what they made. (I painted a jungle.)
4. Afterwards, instruct them to write three sentences that tell more about
the project. Tell them to describe their work with more details. (The
trees in the jungle are green. A swinging monkey is in the tree. A yellow
lion is walking in the jungle.)
5. Attach the writing to the art project.
6. Share/Celebrate/Publish the final product (maybe class book).
2. Writing workshop
mini lesson Important Poems
Read the book, The Important Book, by Margaret Brown Wise. If you read
her book this makes more sense. She writes "The most important thing
about pencils (anything) is you write with them. They
have erasers, they help you do your work. And I have 5 with sharpened
points. But the most important thing about pencils is you write with
them. The students can use this poem as a guide to write their own
versions.
3. Writing workshop
mini lesson Safe Topic Sentences.
In grades 2-3, provide the students with a list of safe topic sentences.
Have students choose a topic. Then choose one of the following topic
sentences. Then have student write three sentences providing the details.
I have found that my 2nd graders are very good at writing the "middles"
of stories. However they were not good at writing a topic sentence or
a concluding sentence. In a grad class on reading strategies a fellow
classmate had a poster that she used to guide the students in picking
out a "safe topic" sentence. She had the poster up in the room and kids
picked one whenever they were beginning to write a story. I modeled
how to pick a safe topic sentence MANY many many times before assuming
the kids could/would on their own. After reading a science unit on Magnets,
I had them pick one of the following three safe topic sentences: 1.
Let me tell you about magnets. 2. Have you ever wondered about magnets?
3. I know a lot about magnets.
Then they wrote
three or four sentences about magnets after the safe topic sentence.
I repeated this activity using different subjects many times throughout
the year of 2nd grade. In third the teachers use these heavily for the
first marking period and then the kids seem to internalize them and
really know what a topic sentence is for. The list below are the sentence
"frames" then the kids fill in the missing parts of the sentence with
their subject.
Let me tell you about...
Have you ever wondered about...
Have you ever wondered why...
I like to _______ for many reasons.
I know how to_______. First ...
I think _______ was ______ for many reasons.
I just learned facts about...
Let me tell you how ______ and ________ are alike.
Let me tell you how ______ and ______ are different.
It's fun to ________. First you...
Many changes happen to ________ as they grow.
People used to think ________, but now we know...
_______ was a ________ person.
Paragraph Form Continued...
4. Writing workshop mini lesson Writing a Paragraph with Safe Topic
Sentence. Read informational article provided in scholastic news or
weekly reader. Partner one tells everything he knows about what was
read. Switch. Partner two tells everything she knows about what was
read. Pick a Safe Topic sentence. Write three details from the article
that was read.
