Writing a How to Paragraph

1. Behavioral Objective: When asked the four critical features of how to write a How to paragraph, the students will be able to state the critical components featured in writing a How to paragraph from a model presented by the teacher with 100% accuracy for one day. 2. Introduction: We just completed learning how to write a descriptive paragraph. What are the critical components of a descriptive paragraph? Everyone did a great job of paying attention and using the correct format in writing their paragraph. Today, we are going to learn how to write a new type of paragraph. The type of paragraph we are going to learn is a How to paragraph. The expectations for today are to pay attention to the model I am going to present. We will go through all the critical components that are in the How to paragraph. When I finish modeling the process you should be able to state the steps that need to be taken when writing the paragraph. After learning how to write this type of paragraph, you will be able to explain in writing the steps someone needs to complete a task. 3. Description of Lesson: 1. Model the critical features of writing a How to paragraph. (Form 1) 2. Ask students what the critical features of the How to paragraph are. (Overhead is removed and students will be tested on their memory of ideas) 3. Tell students: Some paragraphs describe how to do something. Today, I am going to show you how to write a paragraph for How to make a hot fudge sundae. 4. Show students the Things you need sheet (form 2). On this sheet, we will come up with a list of the things we need to make a hot fudge sundae. Ill show you what I mean. (Come up with a few of the materials without help of students and then have the students help coming up with the rest of the materials and the equipment.) When we come up with these materials and equipment, we write them on the sheet so we can use it later when writing the paragraph. 5. Show student the Steps to Follow sheet (form 3). On this sheet, well brainstorm and write down the steps needed in making a hot fudge sundae. Ill model for you how to think of the steps I need to take. You notice since I am not writing the paragraph yet, I dont have to use complete sentences. When I write the paragraph, I have to make sure that I am writing complete sentences. 6. Now we have to go through the steps we came up with and put them in order. Let me see, what step would I do first? (Do the first few steps without the help of students and then ask for student help) 7. Show and describe the keyword sheet to the students (form 4). Key words are words that will help us move from step to step in the paragraph. For

example we might use first to let the reader know this is the first step. We might use last to let the reader know that they have reached the end of the process. 8. Show and explain the think sheet to the students (form 5). Using the think sheet we will be able to organize our paragraph and it will be easier for me to write How to make a hot fudge sundae. What are the key features that are on this sheet? (Title, topic sentence, steps in order, closing sentence) 9. Show process of taking the items from the information sheet and putting it on the think sheet. I will now begin to take the information from the information sheet so I can write the paragraph. The first thing I do is to write the title. Next I have to write my topic sentence. The topic sentence will be This is how you make a hot fudge sundae. After I have the topic sentence I can begin to put the steps in order on the think sheet. (Model putting the steps in the correct order on the think sheet.) For the think sheet, I want to make sure I am using complete sentences so I can use them for my paragraph. Now, I have to write the closing sentence. The closing sentence for my paragraph is This is how you make a hot fudge sundae. Do you see the key words that I used on the think sheet? (Point out the key words to the students.) These words will help transition from one step to the next so the paragraph makes sense. 10. Show the process from the think sheet to writing the paragraph. Think about what we have done so far today. First, we came up with a topic. Then we came up with the materials and equipment needed. After that I wrote down the steps that I needed to take. Then, I put the steps in order. After that I put everything on an information sheet. So now, I can take the items from the information sheet and start to write my paragraph. The first thing I will want to do is write my title at the top of the page. After I write my title I will want to start the paragraph with using my topic sentence. I now want to write down the stps to follow. I have to make sure that I keep the steps in the proper order and I use the keywords so the reader knows when I am moving from one step to the next. Now that I have all the steps written down, I want to write my closing sentence. Look at that, I have the complete paragraph written. After the paragraph is written, I read it back to the students and point out the critical features that are part of the paragraph. This way it will help them retain the information that we went over in coming up with the paragraph. 11. Review the steps in the process with the students. The first thing I did was come up with my topic. After I came up with my topic, I used the materials equipment sheet to come up with what I need to make the sundae. I then wrote down all the steps I need to take. After I came up with all the steps, I wrote numbers next to them so they would be placed in order. After I had the steps in order, I moved all the steps to the information sheet. When I put the steps on the information sheet, I made

sure that I used keywords so that I would be able to transition from one sentence to the next. I also used complete sentences so I would be able to move the sentences directly form the information sheet right into the paragraph. After the think sheet was completed, I wrote my paragraph by moving the sentences from the think sheet right to the regular paper. 12. Test the students on the steps. Now, we will test you to see how many steps you are able to remember. Take out a sheet of paper and try to write the steps down that you will need to take when writing a How to paragraph. Do your best with this. If you forget a step or two today that is alright. We will be going over these steps some more and by the time we are done with learning the How to paragraph, you will know all the steps you need to take. 4. Measurement: At the close of the lesson, students will be orally examined on the steps of a How to paragraph and then they will be asked to write the steps down on paper and hand it in. This will help determine whether the students have understood the components of a How to paragraph or if they need more modeling before we begin the guided practice. 5. Closure: You all did an excellent job today. Our goal was learning the critical components that make up a How to paragraph and based on your feedback, we all seem to understand the process. Tomorrow, we will have some guided practice on writing a How to paragraph to provide you with reinforcement of what we learned today. 6. Materials: Overheads that will be used so the process of writing a How to paragraph can be modeled for the student (Forms 1-6). 7. Problems that might be encountered: Students may not be able to understand the components right away because this will be a new paragraph format for them. To overcome their lack of knowledge, there will be a great deal of repetition of the steps to help them retain the information. Students also might try to use a process that will be too complicated for them to be able to write a good How to paragraph. They will be instructed that at first they want to choose a topic that will be easy to explain.

BUILDING THE HOW TO PARAGRAPH?

Write a title for the paragraph

Write a topic sentence

Write all the steps in the right order

Write a closing sentence

THINGS YOU NEED

Materials Equipment

STEPS TO FOLLOW _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ __________________________________

ALL THE STEPS IN CORRECT ORDER

TITLE: How to_________________________________ TOPIC SENTENCE: This is how you ______________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ STEPS: First, ___________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Second, _________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Next, ___________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Then, __________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ (use more sentences if needed) CLOSING SENTENCE: This is how you __________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

KEY WORDS
First Second Third Finally Then Next After Afterwards Following Lastly While When