- Transition words between paragraphs for kids how to#
- Transition words between paragraphs for kids series#
Once students learn a concept, we’re never really finished with it. I try to avoid this by choosing the paragraph topic for them but once in a blue moon, I let students choose. I have found over the years that for many students, an open-ended assignment of “Write a paragraph about anything you’d like” means that they often spend MOST of their time trying to decide what to write. I also make sure to give students a specific assignment of what to write in the beginning. Also, I try to make them fairly interesting, so they’ll enjoy the writing process a bit more.Ī few of my favorite topics include My Favorite Place, My Favorite Sport/Hobby, and My Best Friend (or one of my best friends for those who have too many to choose just one!). For example, writing one on Disneyland or Hawaii is not going to work for many students who haven’t been able to go there. I make sure to choose my paragraph topics carefully, so they are familiar to ALL students. I always have students make a t-chart ( see the post on topic sentences for an explanation) on the back of their paper or on a separate sheet of paper before we start to organize their ideas and to pre-plan it out. Now that my students have a really good foundation for transitions, it’s time to put all of this together and have them actually write their own paragraphs.
This process for each component of paragraph writing has made a huge difference for my students. They also do a number of worksheets that ask them to add a transition that makes sense or to circle the best transition for a particular sentence or paragraph.Īll of this practice reinforces the concept of using transitions before asking students to write on their own. Independent Working Timesīefore students actually write paragraphs with the correct use of transitions, I have them look at some paragraph examples to find as many transitions as they can find. This oral practice (visual too, as I sometimes speed write it as they tell me ideas) is a great way to practice using transitions. When we get to the supporting ideas especially, we discuss which set of three transitions would work the best for where we want to take our paragraph.
Transition words between paragraphs for kids how to#
So, how we “Talk Through” a paragraph is that I start a simple paragraph…like How to Take Care of a Dog or How to Succeed in School, and students help me by “feeding me” the sentences as we build the paragraph together. There will come a time when it’s their turn to write, of course.
I often make a deal with my students when we do certain practice or modeling activities that if they stay with me, stay tuned, stay on task, AND participate, that they won’t have to do the actual writing part…this time, for the modeling part that is. One of the ways I try to keep their motivation high is to sometimes do writing lessons or “work”, without students actually lifting a pencil. I may love it and I try to get them excited about it too, but even if I do cartwheels about what we’re doing, it’s still about as fun as brushing teeth for some students. I know that sometimes students see writing as a chore. Talk Through the Paragraph Using Transitions Once they’ve worked on this for a while, we go over their answers and try to make a class list of as many new transitions as possible.ģ. Of course, I would like to expand their little brains with additional ones, but overall, I’d say many students in upper elementary are off to a good start.īefore I give examples and do any real modeling of transitions, I like to have students work in pairs to come up with a list of possible transitions on their whiteboards. Some students have a pretty good foundation for basic transitions in writing by the time they enter my class for 4th/5th grade. So, how exactly do I teach transitions for paragraph writing? Well, compared to teaching conclusions…it’s a breeze! 🙂 1. They also help readers understand the paragraph’s organization. These tiny words and phrases can make a big difference in paragraph writing. If you’ve been following along, you know that we’ve discussed Topic Sentences, Supporting Ideas and Details, and even Conclusions…Īnd now we’re going to do a little more advanced work by adding transitions to our paragraph.
Transition words between paragraphs for kids series#
This is the last of four in my series on Teaching Paragraph Writing.
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