Teaching Paragraph Writing
- Dr. Nicole Caldwell
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
If your child or students are working on paragraph writing, I wanted to share some strategies and printables to help make it easier and more effective. Here are two simple strategies that I frequently use.
Graphic Organizers and Visual Supports
Research Examples: Delano (2007); Asaro-Saddler & Bak (2012).
Overview: Graphic organizers help students visually map out topic sentences, details, and conclusions before writing.
Possible Examples:
“Hamburger” or “Oreo” paragraph templates.
Color-coded sentence strips (e.g., green = topic, yellow = details, red = closing).
Why it may help: Students can see the paragraph’s structure, reducing working memory and organization demands.
Sentence Frames and Scaffolds
Research Examples: Ives, C.A. (2007); Finnegan & Accardo (2018).
Overview: Provide sentence starters or paragraph frames to support grammar and coherence.
Possible Example:
“The main idea is _____. One reason is _____. Another reason is _____. In conclusion, _____.”
Why it may help: Supports expressive language and reduces anxiety around open-ended tasks.
Below, you'll find some activities I've made to support paragraph writing, incorporating elements of the strategies above.
A visual reminder of elements to include when writing a paragraph. For my autistic students who are just learning to write full paragraphs, I've found the specific wording of this checklist to be helpful.
Get the free checklist here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Simplified-Paragraph-Writing-Checklist-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-10634622
A graphic organizer to help students plan their writing about a topic before writing a paragraph. My students often need the additional visual support of having lines to write on on the boxes, and this has helped them keep the form more neat and organized.
When I'm first teaching a student to use this form, something I often do is show a picture of something to write about, use this form to make notes about the topic and some details/observations about the picture, and then write a paragraph based on the graphic organizer.
Get the freebie here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Web-Graphic-Organizer-with-Lines-5657253
If you would prefer a version without lines, you can find that here as a bundle with two other versions of this graphic organizer: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Web-Graphic-Organizers-3-Versions-With-and-Without-Lines-9572740
A simple introduction to the concept of persuasive writing, a practice example, and a graphic organizer to write a persuasive paragraph. Designed with sentence starters and simple text to help support the writing process.
Download it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Persuasive-Writing-Introduction-Graphic-Organizer-Persuasive-Essay-Freebie-12611047
You can get the full packet with three additional pages here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Persuasive-Writing-Introduction-and-Graphic-Organizers-Persuasive-Essay-SPED-12623827
A one-page graphic organizer for writing a paragraph one sentence at a time. Get the freebie here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Organizer-Graphic-Organizer-12366998
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write three paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports. Topics in this freebie are:
What Cats Eat,
Things I Like About Cats, and
Cat Characteristics
Get the packet here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Writing-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-Cat-Theme-12473453
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write two paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports, one about their favorite Halloween costume and one about their favorite Halloween candy.
Get the freebie here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Writing-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-Halloween-Theme-12319354
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write six different paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports, each centered around the theme of trains.
Get the packet here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Writing-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-Train-Theme-10583992
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write six paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports, each focusing on different information about elephants.
Get the packet here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Writing-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-Elephant-Theme-12219997
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write six paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports, each focusing on different information about snakes.
Get the packet here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Paragraph-Writing-for-Autism-and-Special-Education-Snake-Theme-12197829
No-prep printables to support step-by-step paragraph writing for autism and special education. This mini-workbook provides templates to help students write six paragraphs with built-in prompts and visual supports, each focusing on different information about whales.
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