Can a chart rescue poorly written paragraphs?

Do your students have trouble coming up with ideas to put in their paragraphs? Are their paragraphs only one or two sentences long?

Are they a jumbled mess of ideas?

A paragraph is all about one idea. In it, your student will teach something about that idea, explain it, or prove why it is the right one.

In Intro to Writing, Part 4, you’ll find a practical chart to help your student formulate ideas and put them into a credible paragraph.

The tutorial includes one chart filled in with ideas, one paragraph written from the chart, and one empty chart for your student to use over and over again.

Here’s the middle school version of the tutorial. >>

And here’s the high school version. >>

Intro to Writing Series

In Part 1 of Intro to Writing, we all practiced narrowing down a topic. You can find that tutorial here. >>

In Part 2, we brainstormed and organized together. The middle school version is here. >>

The high school version is here. >>

Intro to Writing, Part 3 takes some of the pain out of outlines by using material your students are already very familiar with: restaurant categories and the way grocery stores are organized. Grab it and the free printables here. >>

Part 4 features a tutorial on writing effective paragraphs. In it you’ll find a chart, an example paragraph written from the chart, and an empty chart your students can use again and again for their own paragraph constructions. Find this dandy tutorial for middle school students here. And the tutorial for teens, with an endangered Porcupine Park, can be found here.

Part 5 is a tutorial on point orders, with a link to a video explaining point orders. You can get it here. >>

Part 6 teaches your students how to easily develop thesis statements (main ideas). >> Downloadable tutorial and exercises included.

Part 7 finishes off this series with free tutorials on introductions and conclusions. Separate tutorials for middle school and high school

Enjoy!