Paragraphs 1

Paragraphs 1

Online interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about identifying the parts of an effective paragraph.

Question Change answer

a) These sentences have been jumbled up.  Drag them into the right order to make a paragraph.
  • paragraph-1-option-5.png
  • paragraph-1-option-4.png
  • paragraph-1-option-2.png
  • paragraph-1-option-3.png
  • paragraph-1-option-1.png

Question Change answer

b)  Here are some words about parts of paragraphs. Match each one with its definition by dragging the definition into the appropriate space.
Image counting main image

Question Change answer

c)  Highlight the topic sentence, supporting sentences, and summary sentence in this paragraph.

  1. Click on the sentence type.
  2. Then click in the paragraph and drag to highlight this type of sentence.
  3. Highlight each sentence in turn.
  • Topic sentence
  • Summary sentence
  • Supporting sentences
One way of making New Zealand roads safer is by designing road signs that are clear and easy to understand. Many signs used on New Zealand roads use symbols and shapes rather than words. For example, a sign showing a left-turning arrow with a bold line through it means that turning left is not allowed. Because they do not rely on language, the symbols can be ‘read’ by many different people, such as international visitors to New Zealand. Using commonly-recognised symbols on traffic signs helps to ensure safety on our roads.

Question 1Change answer

d)  Choose one topic from the list below and write a paragraph about it.  Remember to include a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a summary sentence.

  • A country you would like to visit
  • A gift you would like to receive
  • Your all-time favourite movie
  • A skill you would like to master

Question 1Change answer

Read through your paragraph carefully. Use the following questions to help you edit your paragraph.

Have I written a clear topic sentence that tells the reader what the paragraph will be about?
Have I written one or more supporting sentences that provide detail about my main idea?
Have I written a summary sentence that rounds off the paragraph and refers back to my main idea?

 

Task administration: 
This resource is ideal for teachers to work through with a group of students before students work independently on the other resources in this group: Paragraphs 2, Paragraphs 3, Paragraphs 4, and Paragraphs 5.
  • In the first task, the sentences of a paragraph are jumbled up. The task is to put the sentences in the correct order so that the paragraph has a logical structure and a clear flow of ideas. 
  • The second task is about matching features of a paragraph with their definitions. This could be used to review what you did in the first task.
  • Using the same paragraph as the first task but with the sentences in their correct order, the third task requires you to identify the topic sentence, the supporting sentences, and the summary sentence of that paragraph.
  • In the fourth and fifth tasks, students select a topic and write and review their own paragraph, applying the features of a paragraph explored in the previous tasks.
Levels:
4, 5
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
paragraphs, organisation, topic sentences
Description of task: 
Students identify the topic sentence, supporting sentences and summary sentence in a given paragraph. They then write their own paragraph, working to include these elements.
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
  • create content that conveys ideas relating to the topic with some details
  • 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 1

The table below shows the difficulty levels of the various tasks, based on the results of this trial.
Task
Student response Y7/Y8
a)
Ordering a jumbled paragraph – road signs
All sentences in correct order – difficult
Topic and/or summary sentence correct - moderate
b) 
Matching labels and definitions
All five definitions correct – moderate
c)
 
Identifying parts of a paragraph – road signs
All sentences correctly identified – moderate

Topic and summary sentences identified correctly - easy
d)
 
Constructing own paragraph
All elements of paragraph included – topic sentence, supporting sentences, summary sentence – moderate.
Diagnostic and formative information: 
Task Student response Y7/Y8 Next steps
a)
Ordering a jumbled paragraph – road signs
Many students were able to identify suitable topic and summary sentences, but found it difficult to arrange the supporting sentences so the paragraph flowed logically.
 
Work as a group to re-order the sentences in this or other paragraphs. Discuss the effect of various choices.  Each student could suggest an order and present it to the other group members, giving reasons for their choice. As a group, decide on the order that you think works best.
Direct students’ attention to the words within a paragraph that provide cohesion – words that act as links between sentences, such as pronouns, connectives, repeated words, or use of synonyms.
b)
Matching labels and definitions
Some students confused the definitions for specific parts of the paragraph (topic sentence, supporting sentences and summary sentence) with the more general definitions (main idea, paragraph).
 Discuss the terminology associated with paragraphs, beginning with the more general and moving to the specific. For example, begin by discussing what a paragraph is (a group of sentences about the same main idea). Then move to discussion about the main idea before looking at the specific parts of the paragraph. Use a variety of paragraphs from different text types as reference points during the discussion. 
c)
 
Identifying parts of a paragraph – road signs
Most students were able to identify topic and summary sentences. Some highlighted only parts of sentences or only one of the three supporting sentences.
 Work with a variety of paragraphs from different text types. As a group, can you identify the supporting sentences?  What different kinds of information and structures do writers use to provide supporting details?
Delete the topic sentence, the supporting sentences, or the summary sentence from paragraphs of text. Can students fill in the gap with an appropriate sentence or sentences?
d)
Constructing own paragraph
Some students wrote topic sentences that were a mixture of topic sentence and supporting sentence, for example ‘I would really like to visit Italy and Rome because I would really like to go the Colosseum where the gladiators fought the bulls’.
 Co-construct a paragraph as a class: different groups could try writing the topic sentence, a supporting sentence, or a summary sentence. Put the paragraph together and, as a group, decide how to edit the paragraph so there is a logical flow of ideas. Focus on ways of linking sentences, for example by using pronouns, connectives, repeated words or synonyms.
Students could then work in pairs to construct and review paragraphs. 
The resource, Thinking about How Language Works, provides useful additional information for teachers about aspects of language.  Part two, connecting and tracking ideas in text, is particularly useful when thinking about cohesion and flow within paragraphs.
 
The following ARB resources are about paragraphs and paragraph structure: