Picking Up the Pieces
In this lesson students examine how a breaking news story is constructed, first by predicting what facts and details must appear in what order, and then by assembling the story from cut-up pieces

Analyzing Author Style Using Sentence Combining
They will combine their sentences with sentences from an essay and discuss what sentence combining strategy or strategies they used and observe how to vary their sentences

Focus in Writing
This brief lesson will help students recognize when a paragraph loses focus and will help them understand the concept of focus
 

PowerPoint Presentations  Sentence clarity and combining presentation

Paragraphing (length consistency)   This page provides students with information about the consistency of paragraph length

The Paragraph  This page provides writing students with information about the paragraph, including unity and coherency

Organizing Your Argument   This PowerPoint presentation reviews the elements of an organized essay, including the introduction, the thesis, body paragraphs, topic sentences, counterarguments and the conclusion

OWL Online Writing Lab  Lesson on Transitional Devices

Teaching Plot Structure Through Short Stories  After viewing a PowerPoint presentation on plot structure, students identify the significant events that shape the structure of a familiar fairy tale, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” using an online graphic organizer

Suggestions for English Language Learners:                   

ESL Ideas      (B=Beginning, I=Intermediate, T=Transitional)
(B) Using a list provided by the teacher, students highlight transitional words in a newspaper article or other writing.  (I, T) Students identify orally or in writing the beginning, middle, and end of a story they have read or written.
(I, T) Students use pictures to create a story sequence of events. Students can draw the pictures or the teacher can cut out pictures and have the students place the pictures in order.
(I, T) Students list the steps in a procedure or science demonstration.  Transitional students can also make sentences or paragraphs about the procedure or demonstration.
(I, T) Students locate comic strips (preferably from the Sunday paper) and cut them into separate frames. Students exchange groups of comic strip frames and place them in the correct sequential order. Students then read the newly sequenced comic strip to the class to check for correct order.
 

© 2005 Mobile County Public Schools
 MCPSS is not responsible for the content of links beyond the initial levels
  in this site and does not officially endorse any software or other products mentioned 
on the linked sites.