Writing an Informative Paragraph Organizing the information and putting it all together

What do we want to explain? First, we need to think about the text we just read and what we have learned about the topic. In this case, our topic was about whales. In our informative paragraph we are going to explain what we have learned. In this case, what we have learned about whales. We will use our brainstorming handout to help us with the details we can write about in our paragraph.

Writing the Paragraph- What goes first? The first thing we will need to do is to create the topic sentence. The topic sentence will be the first sentence of the paragraph. This sentence is a broad, general statement that will explain to the reader what the paragraph is about. In other words, the topic sentence tells who or what the paragraph is mostly about.

Creating the Topic Sentence Using the text about whales- let’s look at our brainstorming handout. We have information on what whales eat, how they breathe, that they breach, and how they communicate. We also have some other interesting facts the article revealed in the first paragraph. We don’t really want to give away all this information to the reader yet. Our topic sentence will be a broad, general statement that explains what the article is mostly about. We have already decided the article is about whales. What might we say overall about whales?

Creating the Topic Sentence When I look at all the facts we have gathered from the article, it makes me think that there are a lot of interesting things for people to learn about whales. In a topic sentence we could explain to the reader that there are lots of interesting things to learn about whales. This would be a broad, general statement. Then in the rest of the paragraph we could explain what some of those interesting facts are. A possible topic sentence: There are many interesting things to learn about whales.

What goes next- Supporting Details After the topic sentence (There are many interesting things to learn about whales.) we need to have some supporting sentences. These supporting sentences will contain details and facts from the article we read. These details and facts will explain what kinds of interesting things there are to learn about whales. We will aim for 5-8 supporting sentences. We will use our brainstorming handout to help us write our supporting sentences.

Supporting Sentences Keep in mind our topic sentence: There are many interesting things to learn about whales. First, we could tell readers that whales are mammals that live in the ocean. This way, readers will know what kind of animals whales are and where they live. Our sentence: Whales are mammals that live in the ocean. I think one of the most interesting things about whales from the article is that they are some of the biggest animals alive. We could put that next. Our sentence: Whales are some of the biggest animals alive.

Supporting Sentences Looking at our brainstorming handout, let’s have our next sentence explain something about what whales eat. We could state: Some whales eat krill. The next section on our brainstorming handout has a category for whales breathing. Our next sentence could state: All whales use a blowhole to breathe. Then we could use the last two boxes on our brainstorming handout to add sentences with detail about whales breaching and whales communicating. We could write: Most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth.

What do we have so far? There are many interesting things to learn about whales. Whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Some whales eat krill. All whales use a blowhole to breathe. Most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. Point out to students that the topic sentence is in red. The supporting sentences are in purple.

Supporting Sentences I think maybe we could add two more supporting sentences. If we look back at our brainstorming handout, we have a detail in each of the four main boxes that list a specific kind of whale. What if we explained to our reader that there are many different kinds of whales? Then we could list a few kinds. Our sentences could read: There are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales.

Now what do we have? There are many interesting things to learn about whales. Whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Some whales eat krill. All whales use a blowhole to breathe. Most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. There are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales. Point out to students that our topic sentence is in red. Our supporting sentences are in purple.

A Concluding Sentence The last sentence in our paragraph should wrap up the paragraph. This sentence restates the topic. Our topic was about whales. We focused on explaining interesting facts about whales. Perhaps for our closing sentence we could use some of the headings from our brainstorming chart to help us wrap up our paragraph. To restate our topic we might write: There are many fun things to learn about whales including how they eat, breathe, move, and talk.

Now what do we have? There are many interesting things to learn about whales. Whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Some whales eat krill. All whales use a blowhole to breathe. Most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. There are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales. There are many fun things to learn about whales including how they eat, breathe, move, and talk. Point out to students that the topic sentence is in red. The supporting sentences are in purple. The blue sentence is the concluding sentence.

Linking Words We aren’t done with our paragraph just yet. We want to add a few linking words between some of our sentences so our different details will flow together a little bit. There are many interesting things to learn about whales. First, whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Second, some whales eat krill. Third, all whales use a blowhole to breathe. Fourth, most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Fifth, whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. Last, there are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales. There are many fun things to learn about whales including how they eat, breathe, move, and talk. Help students to understand where you are placing each of the linking words and why. If you do not like the linking words that were selected, you can replace them with different ones of your choice.

Adding a Hook to the start of the paragraph Sometimes writers like to add a “hook” to the start of a paragraph to grab the reader’s attention. A writer will often place the hook as the first sentence, right before the topic sentence. This hook will interest the reader in the paragraph and make them want to continue reading. There are lots of options for what a writer can do when creating a hook. Here are a few ideas: Ask an interesting question about the topic the paragraph will cover State a belief or opinion about the topic of the paragraph Use a sound that connects to the topic Begin with a quotation about the topic Use an interesting fact about the topic This slide (and the following slides) teachers can use at their discretion based on the readiness level of their students. If students are handling the task of creating a topic sentence and are ready to go to the next step, teachers can use these final slides to help students add a hook to the start of their paragraph (it would go before the topic sentence).

Adding a Hook to the start of the paragraph It is important to remember that the hook should connect to what the paragraph is about. Let’s practice a few of these hook ideas using our paragraph about whales. Ask an interesting question about the topic of whales using the article. Did you know that whales drink milk from their mothers? Did you know that some whales have grooves in their throat? Did you know that some whales can talk to one another? Did you know that some whales can communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean water? Stress to students that these interesting questions come from information presented in the article. Also, you can point out that since our topic sentence states “There are many interesting things to learn about whales” that starting the paragraph with a hook about something interesting in the article would flow right into our topic sentence.

Adding a Hook to the start of the paragraph State a belief or opinion about the topic of the paragraph Whales are really fascinating animals. Use a sound that connects to the topic Splash! Woosh! Kerplunk! These are just some of the sounds that whales might make as they jump and play in the ocean. Use an interesting fact about the topic Whales drink milk from their mothers. Some whales can communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean water. Help students to see that for the stating a belief or opinion, this example would flow right into their topic sentence. For the use of an interesting fact about the topic, help students to see these are some of the examples we used in the asking an interesting question kind of hook. In this case, we just changed it from a question to a statement.

Now what do we have? Did you know that some whales can talk to one another? There are many interesting things to learn about whales. First, whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Second, some whales eat krill. Third, all whales use a blowhole to breathe. Fourth, most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Fifth, whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. Last, there are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales. There are many fun things to learn about whales including how they eat, breathe, move, and talk. Help students to see we put one of our hook examples at the start of the paragraph- it is in orange.

Now what do we have? One more example Splash! Woosh! Kerplunk! These are just some of the sounds that whales might make as they play in the ocean. There are many interesting things to learn about whales. First, whales are mammals that live in the ocean. Whales are some of the biggest animals alive. Second, some whales eat krill. Third, all whales use a blowhole to breathe. Fourth, most whales jump out of the water but no one knows why. Fifth, whales talk by making sounds from their blowhole and their mouth. Last, there are many different kinds of whales. Some kinds include humpbacks, blue whales, killer whales, and beluga whales. There are many fun things to learn about whales including how they eat, breathe, move, and talk. Help students to see this is another of our hook examples we came up with and we added it (in orange) to the start of the paragraph.