Paragraph Writing Playbook: 6 Strategies to Elevate Your Upper Elementary Class

Are you ready to transform your upper elementary students into confident and skilled paragraph writers? By focusing on the fundamentals of strong sentences, students can seamlessly progress to paragraph construction and, eventually, multi-paragraph writing. 

But how do we break down the paragraph writing process in a way that will help all of our students be successful? Let’s explore six comprehensive strategies to support your students on their journey to becoming proficient writers.

1. Provide a Clear Paragraph Framework:

First, students need to know and understand what a paragraph is and how to structure it. Before students delve into the complexities of essay writing, emphasize the importance of crafting a well-structured paragraph. Clearly communicate that a paragraph is a cohesive group of sentences centered around a specific point or idea. Offer a simple yet effective outline for their paragraph writing journey, breaking it down into three key components:

• Topic Sentence: This serves as the anchor, communicating the main idea of the paragraph.
• Supporting Details: Encourage 3-5 sentences that provide information or details related to the main idea.
• Concluding Sentence: This final sentence succinctly restates the main idea, offering closure to the paragraph.

By providing this straightforward structure, students can build a solid foundation for more complex writing tasks.

2. Teach the Art of Outlining:

I really think this is a step of the writing process we do not spend enough time on with our students! We often have students brainstorm and jump right into drafting. But what if we encourage them to plan ahead by deciding on the ideas they want to convey and the most effective order for presenting them? That’s exactly what an outline does!  

Since our students already have a framework for the structure of a paragraph, we can easily help them create an outline before they begin writing.

• You can give students a template for their outline that has boxes or lines for each sentence type.
• This is something you can create or this is something they can create.
• Or better yet! You can also grab a free sample of our paragraph writing routine at stellarteacher.com/paragraph.

The most important thing to remember is that we don’t want to SKIP brainstorming, we just want to add outlining to the writing process. Outline can be considered a more advanced brainstorming effort. 

When you teach outlining, you are helping students understand it’s okay to take their scattered ideas of a brainstorm, add a little detail, and provide organization – without having to go into full writing mode!

3. Offer Examples for Topic and Concluding Sentences:

Initiating and concluding a paragraph can be challenging for students. Provide concrete examples of different types of topic sentences to ease the writing process. Inside the Stellar Literacy Collective, we have a weekly paragraph writing routine that we share with members and within that routine, students learn how to write different types of topic sentences:

• A sentence derived from the four sentence types.
• A sentence with an appositive.
• A sentence with a subordinating conjunction.

For instance, if students are exploring the benefits of reading books, they can experiment with these varied approaches to create engaging and informative topic sentences. 

• Question: What are some of the ways that reading books can help us learn and grow?
• Appositive: My favorite hobby, reading books, is a great way to learn new things and expand our imagination.
• Subordinating Conjunction: Since reading books has many benefits, it is an important activity for people of all ages.

4. Teach Explicit Revision Skills:

Revision often takes a back seat to editing, but its role in enhancing word choice, sentence structure, and idea communication cannot be overstated. Dedicate focused time to teaching explicit revision skills, concentrating on one skill at a time to prevent overwhelm.

And to help our students experience success with this step, we want to teach them explicit revision skills. This means that we are focusing on just ONE revision skill at a time. You might have a student that needs help WITH A LOT, but it’s our job to remember that we can only tackle one thing at a time. 

Also, remember that revising is different from editing. 

• Revising focuses on word choice, sentence structure, and clarity. 
• Editing focuses on spelling, grammar, and punctuation. 

5. Practice Paragraph Writing Beyond the Writing Block:

Finally, the last suggestion I have for helping students with paragraph writing is to have them write paragraphs outside of writing. Our students will continue to struggle with writing if we are not intentional about giving them opportunities to write outside of explicit writing instruction. 

Here are a few suggestions:

• During reading, have students write a paragraph to summarize a story or share their thoughts on a beloved book.
• In math, challenge students to write a paragraph explaining how to solve a specific type of problem.
• In science or social studies, link paragraph writing to the content being studied, fostering a deeper connection to the subject matter.

These diverse writing experiences not only enhance proficiency but also showcase the versatility of paragraph writing in real-world contexts.

6. Join the Stellar Literacy Collective:

Okay – I’m going to throw a sixth thing in the mix! You can elevate your teaching experience by becoming a part of the Stellar Literacy Collective. When you join you will gain exclusive access to paragraph writing routines designed to align with the strategies shared in this podcast. This membership offers more than just resources; it provides a supportive community and a wealth of tools, including weekly lessons and student materials. To learn more about the membership, send us an email at [email protected]! 

Think about your next steps…

1. If you feel inspired by this blog, check out Episode #166: How Can I Help My Students Become Stronger Paragraph Writers? to dive even deeper into the five strategies covered in this blog post!
2. If you feel like your students need to build a stronger sentence-level writing foundation before diving into paragraph writing, check out our blog series on sentence-level strategies!
3. Join us inside The Stellar Literacy Collective, where you will get access to a resource library filled with reading and writing resources that you can use to help your students become more confident readers.