How I Teach Paragraph Writing to ELs

I have been using a book by Margaret Wise Brown for many years to teach paragraph writing to students. We begin by watching the video or reading the book.  Sometimes I will stop during the reading and ask the students what they think the author will say is important about the object.

After we hear the book, I ask students to pick something they think is important. We begin listing on chart paper some of the ways the object is important. I then introduce the sentence frame: The important thing about ________ is _____________. Google translate may be used to help create the sentence frame in Spanish or other languages if available.

I then use a tri-folded half-sheet of paper to create our own mini-book. On the first page, we write our important statement. On the following pages, we list additional things that are important about the object, one statement per page. On the last page, we add the word but. The word but is added to show that a paragraph begins and ends with the topic sentence.


This story would be read: The important thing about erasers is that they erase. They come in many colors. They are soft. They get warm when you use them. They leave little crumbs when they work. They come in many different shapes. But, the important thing about erasers is that they erase.

The students would then write their important book as a paragraph.  Later, we discuss how the concluding sentence may be written in a different way. We refer back to our important books as we write future paragraphs.