The Structure of a Paragraph (homework help)

You may have seen a new addition on our weekly homework sheet: writing a paragraph in response to a prompt. Writers organize their writing into paragraphs to help their readers understand what they’re trying to communicate. Every week I’ll be asking the students to write a paragraph, to give them practice at this skill. Below is the chart we made in class about how to structure a paragraph. I’m posting it here in case your child needs a reminder at home when he or she is doing that homework.

Please understand that this is a recipe for writing a clear, straightforward paragraph, and as such it’s a useful structure to teach children when they’re learning to organize their thoughts or information into main ideas and supporting details. It’s not the only way to write a paragraph, and in fact, writing intended for older students and adults will often be structured in other ways. While I want the students to practice this structure so that they can do it when it’s appropriate (such as on the State tests), it’s certainly not the only way they should write.