Orientation to the Power Paragraph

One of the first steps that a teacher must take to help foster a student’s writing development is to make sure that they understand the dynamics of paragraph structure.  Whether you teach History, Government, Science, or English, teaching students how to write quality paragraphs in any context can easily be done by implementing the “Power Paragraph” program.  A “Power Paragraph” can be defined as a paragraph that is grammatically correct and consists of these specific elements: a topic sentence, appropriate transition words, pertinent facts, supportive examples, and finally, an effective conclusion.         Before you can start teaching the "Power Paragraph", you must first get oriented with its various elements as follows:

10 Easy Steps

STEP 1: Orientation to the "Power Paragraph"

STEP 2: Make Power Poster

STEP 3: Example Paragraphs

STEP 4: Power Statements

STEP 5: Marking the Pieces

STEP 6: Brainstorming

STEP 7: Drafting

STEP 8: Refining and Final Draft Activities

STEP 9: Assessment

STEP 10: Further Exploration

INDEX of Student Handouts

Power Topic: The Power Topic is the topic of your power paragraph.  This is the topic that you will be writing about throughout your entire paragraph.  You MUST not switch topics within the paragraph.  All sentences must be related to your Power Topic. Power Statement: The Power Statement is the first sentence in your paragraph, also known as a topic sentence. There are three parts to a Power Statement.           1. A START WITH WORD always begins the Power Statement.                      2. The POWER INTRODUCTION introduces your reason for writing. It comes after the START WITH WORD and is followed by a comma.           3. The POSITION comes after the comma and states what you will prove in your paragraph.            Example            Student Handout Transitions: The Transition is needed each time you introduce a new reason/detail/fact.  The Transition will help your sentences flow and will eliminate choppy sentences.           Student Handouts            Details/Reasons/Facts: The Detail/Reason/Fact is a claim made about the position.  You will have three Details/Reasons/Facts in your "Power Paragraph".  Examples and Quotes: The Examples and Quotes will be the evidence that you use to back up your Detail/Reason/Fact.  Examples and Quotes will provide the support you need in your paragraph to make your argument effective. Conclusion: After all three of your Details/Reasons/Facts have been supported with Examples and Quotes, you must write a Conclusion.  The Conclusion will finish off your "Power Paragraph".

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Michael Garcia Secondary Education Major: English Arizona State University mogwi04@hotmail.com