Paragraphs 2

Paragraphs 2

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Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about choosing a topic sentence to describe the main idea of a paragraph.
A topic sentence introduces the main idea in a paragraph. It usually appears at the start of a paragraph.
 
The paragraphs below are all missing topic sentences. Read each paragraph and then choose the best topic sentence.  

Question

a)  Famous artists

___________________________________________________________________. McCahon (1919-1987) is renowned for his symbolic paintings of landscapes, often on large canvases and annotated with words and numbers.  He is one of the few New Zealand artists with an international reputation. Exhibitions of McCahon’s work have been held in London and Australia, as well as throughout New Zealand.

Choose the best topic sentence from the following options and then write it at the start of the paragraph.

    • New Zealand artists are famous around the world.

    • Colin McCahon is one of New Zealand’s most well-known artists.

    • There are three reasons why Colin McCahon is famous.

Question

b)  Soccer Teams

______________________________________________________.  The first eleven soccer team won the Super 8 tournament in Timaru and came third in the National Tournament. Rawhiri Taylor was named in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Soccer Team. Teams at all levels have done well in local competitions and all players are to be congratulated on their commitment to the sport.  Belstone School can be proud of the soccer team’s achievements.

Choose the best topic sentence from the following options and then write it at the start of the paragraph.

    • Belstone School is finally making a name for the quality of its soccer teams.

    • All the school sports teams have played well this year.

    • Rawhiri Taylor was the star soccer player this term.

Question

c)  School Uniforms

Have you ever thought about the benefits of wearing a school uniform?_______________________________________________________________________
When you wear a uniform, you look the same as everyone else at your school, and that can help you feel as if you belong.  If you go on a school trip, people can recognise what school you are from because of your uniform. This helps you stand out from the students at other schools and also gives you a feeling of school pride and belonging.

Choose the best topic sentence from the following options and then write it as the second sentence in the paragraph.

    • School uniforms help to create a sense of belonging and school pride.

    • Uniforms make you look the same as other people.

    • It is important to wear a uniform whenever you go on a school trip.

Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online with auto-marking.
 
This resource is ideal for students to complete independently after working with the teacher on Paragraphs 1.
Students identify the most appropriate topic sentence for each of three different paragraphs, from a range of possible alternatives.
Levels:
4, 5
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
organisation, paragraphs, topic sentences
Description of task: 
Students choose the most appropriate topic sentence for a set of supporting sentences.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students’ ability to create texts to meet the writing demands of the New Zealand Curriculum.

Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • choose effective content, language, and text structure
  • organise their writing into paragraphs in which the ideas are clearly related
  • use organising devices such as topic sentences

as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
 

Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Using writing to think and organise for learning, set 4
Using writing to think and organise for learning, sets 5-6
Writing meaningful text: text features, set 5
Writing meaningful text: text features, sets 5-7
within the Writing Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
This is one of a group of five resources about paragraph structure. The resources focus on identifying and writing topic sentences, supporting sentences, and summary sentences. The resources also support students to compose paragraphs for a range of writing purposes: to describe, to explain, and to persuade. 
This group of resources was trialled with groups of students in Year 7 and Year 8. 
 

Paragraphs 2

This resource focuses on topic sentences. Students choose the best topic sentence for a paragraph, from a range of alternatives.

The table below shows the difficulty level of each task, based on the results of the trial.
 
Task Student response Y7/Y8
a)
Famous artists
Students identify the correct topic sentence - very easy
b)
Soccer teams
Correct topic sentence - moderate
c)
School uniforms
Correct topic sentence - easy
Diagnostic and formative information: 
Task Student response Y7/Y8 Next steps
a)
Famous artists, soccer teams, school uniforms
Some students chose a topic sentence that was related to a detail in the paragraph rather than one that would provide the main idea of the paragraph as a whole (for example, ‘Rawhiri Taylor was the star soccer player’).
 Choose a selection of paragraphs from different text types. Delete the topic sentences. As a group, work on writing a topic sentence for each one to reflect the main idea of the paragraph.
Students can then work individually to write and re-write topic sentences, using paragraphs from their own or others’ writing. 
 
The following ARB resources are about paragraphs and paragraph structure: