When you teach your students how to write paragraphs, what exactly are you teaching them? In short, paragraph instruction involves three basic paragraph concepts: 1) Unity, 2) Coherence, and 3) Emphasis. These three concepts are the three traits of paragraphs. All of the concepts and rules teachers teach their students about paragraphs target one of these three traits. Furthermore, all paragraph exercises you find on worksheets and in curriculums target these three traits.
Let’s take a quick look at these three traits:
1. Unity: A well-written paragraph is a unified whole. It has oneness. To create this unified whole, we build our paragraphs around a central main idea.
2. Coherence: A well-written paragraph is clear and understandable. It’s coherent.
3. Emphasis: A well-written paragraph emphasizes what is most important in the paragraph while also highlighting the paragraph’s internal structure. For example, when we place a clear topic sentence as the opening sentence of a paragraph, it immediately emphasizes the paragraph’s main point.
Now that we understand what paragraph exercises teach, let’s explore what they are and how and when we teach them.
What Are Paragraph Exercises?
Paragraph exercises teach students how to write a single isolated paragraph. We call these paragraphs “isolated paragraphs” because they do not connect to anything. Nothing comes before the paragraph, and nothing comes after. Every paragraph is isolated.
Isolated paragraphs certainly have their place in teaching writing, but they are just a small piece of the teaching-writing puzzle. As you will find out later, isolated paragraphs are not a perfect building block.
How and When Do We Teach Paragraph Exercises?
Teachers have four basic choices for teaching paragraph exercises: 1) worksheet exercises, 2) curriculum exercises, 3) exercises across the curriculum, and 4) paragraphs in multi-paragraph writing. Please consider how much time and energy you should devote to each of these four categories. (I have my say later.)
The time and energy you devote to each of the four categories will depend on three things: 1) your understanding of paragraph and multi-paragraph writing, 2) your students’ age and writing skill, and 3) your knowledge and skill in teaching writing.
To be clear, your best starting place is Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay. Your students won’t truly grasp paragraphs until they grasp multi-paragraph writing. Using Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay, you will teach your students both paragraph and multi-paragraph writing quickly and easily and in a way that makes sense to them! I guarantee it!
Ten Types of Paragraph Exercises
Remember: Whether you are using worksheets, curriculums, or doing it yourself across the curriculum, you will do a better job of teaching paragraphs if you understand what you are doing and what the exercise is attempting to teach. After reading and reflecting on these ten paragraph exercises, you will be a paragraph-exercise expert!
TWAC (Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum) Note: In most of these exercises, I point out how teachers can implement the exercises across the curriculum. You will see that I frequently mention “using a textbook paragraph.” This will be far easier if you have a digital version of your textbooks from which you can draw.
Let’s begin!
Paragraph Exercise 1: What Doesn’t Belong?: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence) Students receive a paragraph that has a couple of sentences that don’t belong. Students are asked, “Which sentence or sentences do not belong in this paragraph?” (TWAC Note: Teachers can use a classroom textbook paragraph and add in one or two details that do not belong and possibly one that is debatable.)
Paragraph Exercise 2: Which is the Best Topic Sentence?: (Teaches: Unity / Emphasis) Students are shown a group of sentences in paragraph form or as a list, along with a separate list of possible topic sentences. Students are asked, “Which sentence can be used as the topic sentence for this group of sentences?” (TWAC Note: Once again, teachers can use a textbook paragraph simply by removing the author’s topic sentence and by writing a couple of sentences that don’t work quite as well. Another version of this exercise that teachers can do with their students across the curriculum is to remove a topic sentence from a textbook paragraph and have their students write their own topic sentence for the paragraph and compare them to the author’s original.)
Paragraph Exercise 3: Which of These Sentences Belong? Where Do They Belong? (Teaches: Unity / Coherence)
A. Unity: Students receive a paragraph and a small list of additional sentences. Students are asked, “Which of these additional sentences can be added to or belongs to the example paragraph?”
B. Coherence: Students are asked, “Where exactly should the sentence or sentences be added?” (TWAC Note: Once again, teachers can use a textbook paragraph as long as they are willing to write a few extra sentences.)
Paragraph Exercise 4: Paragraph Scramble and Paragraph Arrangement: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) Students receive a paragraph that has been “cut up” into individual sentences. Students place the sentences in a coherent and logical order and then write out the paragraph. (TWAC Note: Once again, teachers can use a textbook paragraph. Teachers can also use this exercise to illustrate different types of paragraphs and various paragraph patterns.)
Are you an elementary or middle school teacher? Have you taken a look at Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay on the homepage? It’s the fastest, most effective way to teach your students organized paragraph and multi-paragraph writing… Guaranteed!
Paragraph Exercise 5: Graphic Organizers: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) The teacher passes out a graphic organizer and has students fill in the blanks with ideas and content. The two main types of graphic organizers are mind maps (webs) and outline formats. After students fill in the graphic organizer, they write out their paragraph on a separate sheet of paper. Once again, the graphic organizer strategy can also help illustrate the different types of paragraphs and various organizational structures. (TWAC Note: Teachers can easily do this exercise in the content areas across the curriculum, including as a class activity on the front board.)
Paragraph Exercise 6: Scaffold Paragraph Writing with a Prompt and Word Bank: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) The teacher presents students with a prompt and a selection of words (a word bank). Students use the words to create a paragraph that addresses the prompt. Please Note: The prompt and the word bank should guide students and help students create a paragraph that contains a certain amount of unity, coherence, and emphasis. (TWAC Note: Teachers can easily do this exercise in the content areas across the curriculum, including as a class activity on the front board.)
Paragraph Exercise 7: Scaffold Paragraph Writing with a Picture Prompt, Prompt, and Word Bank: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) Students write from a picture prompt. Teachers can limit the writing scope by using one aspect of the picture: e.g., “tell what’s happening” or “describe what you see.” Teachers can also use a word bank to further emphasize unity, coherence, and emphasis. (TWAC Note: Teachers can easily do this exercise using a graphic from a textbook or story book.)
Paragraph Exercise 8: Scaffold Paragraph Writing with a Template or Frame: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) A frame or template is a complete, well-written, coherent, unified paragraph but with various words, phrases, or content strategically removed. (TWAC Note: This is easy to do across the curriculum, as teachers can use any textbook paragraph they choose.) Teachers can use these templates and frames to teach and scaffold various paragraph skills and concepts:
A. Teachers can use them to teach different types of paragraphs: e.g., narrative, summary, argument, etc.
B. Teachers can use them to teach patterns of logical thinking: e.g., sequence, cause-effect, compare-contrast, writing from sources, etc.
C. Teachers can use them to teach strategies designed to create coherence: e.g., organization, transitions, pronoun reference, keyword repetition, synonyms, and parallel structure.
Paragraph Exercise 9: The Hamburger Paragraph: (Teaches: Unity / Coherence / Emphasis) Be sure to read Hamburger Paragraphs Don’t Work. When you read that article, you will see why hamburgers don’t teach unity, coherence, and emphasis. To be fair, hamburgers can be effective as an engaging lesson or two, but they don’t work in the long run. Many students end up learning the hamburger paragraph year after year and never learn to write. The hamburger is not a real paragraph-writing solution.
Paragraph Exercise 10: Paragraph Titles: (Teaches: Unity) This is basically main-idea paragraph instruction. Students are presented with a paragraph and asked to either write a title for the paragraph or choose a title from a list of possible titles. This is an excellent exercise because studies show that topic sentences in expository text are far less common than we teach our students. In narrative stories, they are even less common. (TWAC Note: This is easy to do across the curriculum. In fact, teachers can do it straight out of their textbooks. Teachers select a paragraph or an entire page of paragraphs and have their students do one of two things: 1) Students write one or more titles for the paragraphs, or 2) Students are presented with a list of a few possible titles for each paragraph and select the best ones.)
A Final Note on the Benefits and Consequences of Isolated Paragraph Exercises
I’ve never read a book on teaching writing that devotes an inordinate amount of time to paragraphs. To be clear, I do not see teaching paragraphs the same as I did when I began teaching. Many new and confused teachers think, “If I can just get my students to write one good paragraph…” That’s not how teaching writing works.
Early in my teaching career, I wasted a good deal of time on paragraph exercises that did not improve my students’ independent writing—i.e., their REAL writing. When these struggling third and fourth grade ELL students wrote independently across the curriculum, the paragraph rules and the paragraph theory seemed to fly out the window.
After a couple of years, I realized that “the one good paragraph theory” or the “building block theory” was a farce. In short, that’s not how people write. We never start writing with the intention of writing a single paragraph. Our goal is always to communicate our message. And keep in mind that every paragraph in multi-paragraph writing is both a whole and a part of the whole composition—at the same time. This is why we have the writing process!
Anyway, my frustration and persistence resulted in Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay. It’s the fasted, most effective way to teach your students organized paragraph and multi-paragraph writing… Guaranteed!
Today, most of my isolated paragraph instruction focuses on paragraphs within the context of a whole composition. However, I also teach isolated paragraphs, but I primarily do it to teach specific ways of thinking or specific paragraph patterns—i.e., common thought pattern (e.g., sequence, cause, effect, pro, con, PPE, etc.).
Put simply, I teach students to think of every paragraph in the context of the larger picture. We create (at least) TWO LEVELS in most of our writing. The only time we don’t create TWO LEVELS is when we write a single isolated paragraph.
Two Levels of Beginning, Middle, and Ending
1. Beginning, middle, and ending in the paragraphs.
2. Beginning, middle, and ending in the whole composition.
Two Levels of Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis
1. Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis in the paragraphs.
2. Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis in the whole composition.
Keep in mind that most everything you teach your students about writing isolated paragraphs connects to teaching whole compositions. Put simply, you are teaching the same concepts: 1) beginning, middle, and ending, and 2) unity, coherence, and emphasis.
