How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Paragraphs
How to teach writing – Part 1

I will admit that for years I was pretty clueless about teaching paragraphs. I followed the usual party line of TIP TOP. Start a new paragraph for each change of time, place, topic or person. I would repeat this again and again, but I didn’t really get under the surface until I used Alan Peat’s sentence structure approach. Then I looked at how I could adapt this for other aspects of English teaching. So, I tried to name and categorise different paragraph structures and, in doing so, felt a little like a Victorian explorer pinning butterflies to a board.

On a sheet of paper, I drew several boxes and filled them and then some more. I made sheets for non-fiction and fiction. I now use them for all forms of writing with all levels of student. It provides a great starting point for writing and offers students many possible choices. After all, we don’t want students to default to the typical.

Here’s one such example, following the ’No … No … No … No … But, there was …’ paragraph structure:

No life had visited the room. No light had touched its fingers on the delicate wallpaper and fine paintings. No breeze had tickled the faded curtains and frail netting across the boarded up windows. No soul had experienced rest here. But, there was one movement.

When you have a starting point, you can be more playful with the structure. I always love it when a student invents their own.

A year ago. A month ago. A day ago. Today.

A year ago, the beach was hidden from the world. A month ago, a boat arrived and people found this oasis of beauty. A day ago, more people arrived. Today, I discovered what had happened to my sanctuary.

Close, closer, closest.

Close to me was a light. It was flickering gently in the breeze. Closer still were the sounds of people, laughing and chatting. Closest to me was the person I loved most in the world.

Near, far, near, far.

I could hear my friend’s breathing behind me. The enemy was on the outskirts of the city, getting closer to us by the minute. My friend’s eyes showed fear and terror. The footsteps of the soldiers echoed as they entered the city looking for us.