This course is a fundamental series of lessons in how to construct a paragraph, which is the building block of any essay, letter, email, or story. Students who can write good paragraphs are situated to write clear and effective longer pieces of writing. Students write a baseline paragraph in this course and then revise it several times as they learn new skills related to paragraph writing through scaffolded, guided practice.
This course includes:
- 12 units.
- 12 worksheets and reference sheets with answers where applicable.
- Practice exercises in lessons.
- 42 video lessons.
- Nearly 4 hours of instruction.
Course Goals
Students will be able to:
-identify four different types of paragraphs.
-identify the structural elements of a solid paragraph.
-apply what they know about the structure of paragraphs to write their own paragraphs.
-use a thesaurus tool to improve their word choice.
-identify sentence fragments.
-write clearer sentences.
Target Audience
This course is intended for any student (primarily middle schoolers) of any age who needs to improve their paragraph-writing skills.
Course Requirements
Students taking this course will need to have a solid understanding of how to effectively construct different types of sentences and know how to identify a paragraph in a longer piece of writing, such as in a book.
Course Topics
Section 1: Course Introduction and Overview
Course Introduction
Paragraph Overview
Examine a Paragraph, Outlines, and Paragraph
Paragraph Example Examination
What’s Wrong with This Paragraph?
How to Write an Outline
Breakdown of Paragraph Structure
Baseline Paragraph Activity
Baseline Paragraph Activity
Topic Sentences and Introductions, Sentence Fragments
Topic Sentences
Making Intros and Topic Sentences Interesting
Making Intros and Topic Sentences Interesting II
Revise Introduction and Topic Sentences
Sentence Fragments
Supporting Information
Supporting Information Overview
Reasons and Explanations
Details and Explanations
Facts and Explanations
Revise Paragraph with Supporting Information
Linking Words
Linking Words
Linking Words Practice
Adding Linking Words to a Paragraph
Word Choice and Writing Clearer Sentences
Word Choice
Improving Word Choice in a Paragraph
Writing Clearer Sentences
Conclusions
Conclusions
Writing a Conclusion for Your Paragraph
Identifying Paragraphs with Errors
Identifying Paragraphs with Errors
Rewrite Paragraphs with Errors
Different Types of Paragraphs
Expository How-To
Narrative Expository
Explanatory and Descriptive Expository
Argumentative I
Argumentative II
Argumentative III
Reassemble an Expository How-To Paragraph
Reassemble an Explanatory Expository Paragraph
Reassemble an Argumentative Paragraph
Reassemble a Narrative Paragraph
Revise Baseline Paragraph and Practice Other Types of Paragraphs
Write a Last Version of Your Baseline Paragraph
Write Other Paragraphs from Baseline Activity
Reflection and Farewell
Reflect on What You Learned
Farewell