Writing Paragraphs guides your students through the process of writing paragraphs in the major modes: narrative, explanatory, and persuasive (argument). Instructions, activities, examples, interactives, and downloads help students gain new writing strategies and skills. You can also present this unit right from your interactive whiteboard.
Students start by thinking about the three parts of a paragraph: topic sentence, body sentences, and ending sentence. Afterward, students experiment with writing their own paragraphs for different purposes.
Prewriting and Writing
- Narrative writing tells a story, real or imagined. Students learn about narrative writing, read a narrative paragraph, and write their own examples. The unit guides them in selecting a topic, gathering details,and using a time line to organize them.
- Explanatory or expository writing explains or informs. Students learn about explanatory writing, read an explanatory paragraph, and create their own. The unit helps them select a how-to topic and use a flow chart to organize steps in the process.
- Persuasive or argument writing seeks to convince readers about a position or opinion. Students learn about persuasive writing, read a sample persuasive paragraph, and write their own. The unit helps students come up with an opinion and complete a reason chart to think about that opinion.