Lesson · Grade 4 · English Language Arts
What Makes a Good Paragraph
- Grade 4
- English Language Arts
- 1 min 17 s
- British Columbia
- BC4-EN-18
A short student paragraph about bees is shown first as a muddled draft that opens with a detail, has a stray sentence about a dog, and simply stops, then rebuilt as a good paragraph with a topic sentence, two supporting sentences and a closing sentence, each lit in its own colour. Three boxes on the right name the parts under the rule "one paragraph, one main idea", and a final line explains that the dog is a new idea and so gets a new paragraph of its own.
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In one sentence
The question this lesson answers
What makes a good paragraph?
Here is a student's first try at a paragraph about bees.
Transcript
What the lesson says
What makes a good paragraph?
Here is a student's first try at a paragraph about bees.
It is hard to follow, because no sentence tells the reader the main point.
And the dog is a different idea, so it does not belong in this paragraph.
A good paragraph is about one main idea.
And it usually has three parts.
A topic sentence tells the reader the main idea, usually first.
Supporting sentences give details that explain or prove it.
A closing sentence wraps the idea up.
Here is the same paragraph, rebuilt.
The topic sentence comes first: bees are important to our food.
Two supporting sentences explain how: they carry pollen, and then the plants can make fruit.
The closing sentence wraps it up: without bees, we would have less food.
The dog is a new idea, so it gets a new paragraph of its own.
A good paragraph has one main idea, with a topic sentence, supporting details and a closing sentence.
Curriculum
Where this fits
- British Columbia, Grade 4
English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: paragraph structureBC4-EN-18
- British Columbia, Grade 5
English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: paragraphingBC5-EN-20
- British Columbia, Grade 6
English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: paragraphingBC6-EN-19
- British Columbia, Grade 7
English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: paragraphingBC7-EN-22
This lesson is also listed in Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7.
The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.
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