Hamburger Paragraphs!

                

        After reading the classes All About Me projects I was able to pull out some working points for the class to focus on to improve their writing. I sent the assignment home to be signed by a parents and I am looking to get them back to keep in their portfolio.

       This week we talked about the main idea of a paragraph and ensuring everything we include in our writing is relevant. Students read a paragraph about marsupials and had to decide what sentences did not belong. Young writers can get easily side tracked in their paragraphs. After this week I hope they will be able to recognize when that is happening!

                We also wrote topic sentences and talked about how they connect to the concluding sentence. I used the image of a hamburger to illustrate the role of the topic sentence and the concluding sentence.

                                   

Transition train!

   

    It was very clear that the students in my grade 7 classes needed practice with transition words. We talked about how transition words could be looked at like links, or couplings, between train cars. Transition words provide the connection between the sentences, just as the coupling on a train provides the connection between its cars.

                                            

The students connected sentences with transition words and were give a table of examples of transition words to use going forward in their writing. We also talked about COHERENCE in their writing. COHERENCE is a smooth movement from one idea to the next in a paragraph. Transition words as well as planning out the arrangement of the ideas will help with  COHERENCE in their writing.

Next week!

1. We will be talking about types of sentences. Talk about what that     might mean with your child.

2.  We will be writing another paragraph that I will read looking for      improvement on the specific concepts I have covered.

3.  Look over transition word list- can you add more? Show me    

     Monday!!