Writing Paragraphs and Citing Evidence

We have been working on creating paragraphs using topic sentences, supporting details, and concluding sentences. We have a "Paragraph Sandwich" anchor chart in the classroom to help remind the students as we write.

We have begun to use this format to help us write about texts we read. We have discussed character traits, and have practiced writing a paragraph on a chosen character from our read aloud novels, stating one trait in their topic sentence. Students then were asked to cite specific instances from the texts to back up their stated trait. Their supporting details need to be specific instances from the text and should not be general ideas. For instance, students might say the character was mean because he yelled. This would not be as strong as saying that when the children tried to be nice, he would yell at them. To be even stronger, students would need to state that when the children tried to help him to clean up the room, he yelled at them and said "I don't need your help!". The more description they can give about the situation that helps to prove, the better! To end their paragraph, students should restate their topic in another way, and remind the reader what they were saying in their paragraph. For instance, the student may say "The way the character yells at the children, locks them in their room, and won't give them dinner certainly shows that he is a mean spirited person." This statement would restate the topic, that he is mean, and also remind the readers of the proof.

Students can practice writing these types of paragraphs at home. They can write traits about characters in books, shows, movies, video games, or any other media text they can write about character traits!