Teaching Students That “A Paragraph Is a Unit of Thought”

 

Once I talked on the Language Lady Facebook page about how many times I had said “A paragraph is a unit of thought” in three days of teaching. (Too many to count!) And promised a post about designing paragraphs, paragraph breaks, and general paragraph help. Here you go!

Dividing paragraphs is one of the most challenging aspects of writing for young writers and adults alike (along with many other challenging aspects!). That is why when people who do not write a lot write a full page with no paragraph breaks. That is also why middle school writers start writing and have no idea when to indent–so they randomly pick a spot (“Hmmm….looks like I’ve written enough to change paragraphs now…”) and indent.

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day 97: poetry handbook

More for National Poetry Month ((https://languagelady365.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-83-national-poetry-month-part-i-of.html ).

If you are interested in learning more about writing poetry or improving the poetry you do write, you might want to obtain the poetry handbook described below. I like trying different kinds than I normally write (which are nearly alwyas rhymed verse of fairly “normal” rhyme schemes–ABAB, AABBCC, ABCB, etc.). A handbook such as this one helps me learn about other styles–and challenges me to give them a try!

There are many handbooks out there–but the one below received rave reviews, is not too long, and is written by an award-winning poet.

Amazon.com Review: This slender guide by Mary Oliver deserves a place on the shelves of any budding poet. In clear, accessible prose, Oliver (winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry) arms the reader with an understanding of the technical aspects of poetry writing. Her lessons on sound, line (length, meter, breaks), poetic forms (and lack thereof), tone, imagery, and revision are illustrated by a handful of wonderful poems (too bad Oliver was so modest as to not include her own). What could have been a dry account is infused throughout with Oliver’s passion for her subject, which she describes as “a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind.” One comes away from this volume feeling both empowered and daunted. Writing poetry is good, hard work.

 
 

https://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Handbook-Mary-Oliver/dp/0156724006

Tomorrow–tips on getting started writing or teaching poetry.

day 82: homework help—final sentence writing help

A few more ideas for encouraging/helping your child with sentence writing, then we’re on to something new!
  1. If your child is hesitant to write because of penmanship difficulties, either teach him how to type (use a typing program for young kids) or write for him as he dictates to you. He needs to see that penmanship difficulties do not mean that he is unable to write. Writing is thinking. Penning is art.
  2. Try having him write sentences about things you are doing. For example, have him write a sentence each day in a journal about that day or every Saturday about the weekend.
  3. Or have specific things listed at the top of a journal for him or her that he/she writes about:
    1. Monday: Weekend
    2. Tuesday: Food
    3. Wednesday: Book
    4. Thursday: Animal
    5. Friday: Person
    6. Saturday: Movie
  4. Have him write a sentence under a picture, similar to captions. These pictures may be ones that he has drawn or colored or cartoons or pictures from a book.
  5. Make a list of nouns and a list of verbs. Have him write a sentence using one word from the noun list and one word from the verb list. For example:
NOUNS                                               VERBS
Dog                                                     run
Boy                                                      jump
Girl                                                     catch
Radio                                                  blare
Cow                                                    ate
For more sentence writing help, along with help in other areas of language arts, for the second/third grade level (i.e. already reading well), check out the sample of the our books, “Character Quality Language Arts,” Level Pre A (https://www.tfths.com/samples.php ). There is a full month that you may use with our child free of charge. Happy writing!

day 81: homework help—more sentence help

Just a couple of most posts about sentence writing for our “Homework Help” feature this month—then back to more tips and tricks for all readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers! Below is a list of other sentence writing ideas for you and your student/child:
  1. If your child likes the feeling of creating through writing, but doesn’t think he can write sentences, you may want to try one of the following:
    1. Have him copy sentences that you write for him or sentences out of one of his favorite books.
    2. Write sentences for him with a light colored highlighter and have him write over the highlighter with his pencil.
    3. Write “fill in the blank sentences for him.” When I was in teacher’s college, these were called “cloze sentence” (for those who want to google to find out more). This is where you write sentences but leave blanks for him to fill in key words. This way you have started the sentences for him, but what happens in the sentence and to whom is still his creation. (There’s a site that lets you build these and print them for your kids/students at https://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/fill-in-the-blank/ .)
  1. If he can’t think of anything to write about in his sentences, ask him questions that he must answer in sentence form. “What is your favorite animal?” “What is your favorite color?” etc.
  2. If he is having trouble writing “real” sentences (i.e. write fragments or dependent clauses instead), have him say it aloud and ask him more questions. For example, if he says “Blue” (to the favorite color question), say “Blue what?” If he says “favorite color,” continue to coach him. “Try this…Blue is…can you make that into a complete sentences instead of just words?” (Coaching is a huge part of teaching writing!)
  3. If he likes to write stories, have him dictate sentences to you (or alternate giving sentences—he then you) that you pen for him.
  4. Finally, have him write a sentence a day to get used to sentence writing. We had journals for our kids that they copied verses and quotes in—one a day—to help them get a feeling for sentence writing.
Tomorrow—final homework help for sentences. Thanks for joining us!

day 75: homework help week–helping kids learn sentence writing

Welcome to Homework Help Week at Language Lady 365! We are going to interrupt our regular posts to provide help to parents (and teachers) in helping their children/students with language arts, reading, writing, and grammar homework.

Roadmap for the week:

1. Starting with some reading help! Reading is the inverse of spelling in the same way that addition is the inverse of subtraction. Build a strong reading background, helping  your student to reach “reading fluency,” and a love for learning, and you will go a long way way in helping him or her in language arts in general–and all learning eventually.

2. Then sentence writing, including…

a. Penmanship vs writing
b. Beginning sentence writing
c. Copy work
d. Reading and writing connection
e. Writing “from his brain” and from a source for little ones

Thanks for joining us!

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