As students move through school, the writing demands increase quickly. Your child will need to learn how to write well-structured sentences and later paragraphs, essays, and research papers. Writing can be challenging for many students, but the tips below can help your child become a much stronger writer.
Sentences
Students should begin by learning how to write a well-structured sentence containing a subject and predicate. These sentences can be simple, like:
Sam jumped.
Ella cried.
Taylor called.
Make sure your child uses a capital letter at the start of each sentence and ends their sentence with a proper punctuation mark. You can even have them draw a box around the capital letter at the start of the sentence and circle the punctuation mark at the end. Once your child has grasped how to write a simple sentence, you can encourage them to expand their sentences with adverbs and adjectives, like:
Sam jumped high.
Ella cried yesterday.
Taylor called today.
You can also teach them different types of sentences, including declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. Additionally, you can teach them to write compound and complex sentences to further expand their writing.
Simple Paragraphs
Once students have learned to write well-structured sentences, you can teach them how to write simple paragraphs. Simple paragraphs consist of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a conclusion sentence. A simple paragraph might look like the following:
There are many different items you can eat for breakfast. First, you can eat pancakes with syrup. Next, you can eat cereal. Finally, you can eat scrambled eggs. I love breakfast!
Students can include their opinion in their conclusion sentence. Using this format, they can learn how to write different types of simple paragraphs, including example, process, reason, and compare/contrast paragraphs. They should always brainstorm, write, and then self-check their work.
Extended Paragraphs
After students have learned how to write an effective simple paragraph, they can learn how to write an extended paragraph. An extended paragraph consists of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, three supporting details sentences that support each detail sentence, and a conclusion sentence. With this format, students are essentially stretching out their writing while maintaining its organization. They can still learn how to write example, process, reason, and compare/contrast paragraphs - but in the form of an extended paragraph. You should still encourage your child to brainstorm, write, and self-check their work.
Five Paragraph Essays
Your child will now likely be ready to learn how to write a five paragraph essay! Five paragraph essays consist of an introduction paragraph (which contains an opening, lead-in, and thesis statement), three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph.
For the introduction paragraph, you can reach your child various ways to begin their writing, including a quote, general statement, opposite statement, or story. You can teach them that a thesis statement contains an opinion and a plan. You should give them lots of practice writing different thesis statements.
If your child continues to struggle with writing, you may want to try writing tutoring to help them further develop this skill. Writing will continue to play a vital role as they move through school.
