Step up to Writing

I would start them out with doing the power (number) 8 sentence paragraphs. Do these until they have them down. Choose topics that are things that are easy. I started with the topic: Things I want to learn this year.

Here are several things I want to learn this year in 3rd Grade

Star idea 1: memorize my math facts

Star idea 2: improve my penmanship

Star idea 3: avoid getting any lights turned in class

Conclusion: Obviosly, I have many things I want to learn

I model this with a paragraph of what I want them to learn, then we write one from the perspective of a 3rd grader. Then when I finally let them write their first paragraph on their own, they are ready and know just what to do.

I show them how to do this informal outline above. I actually get a glue bottle and show them what a transition is. I tell them to glue their ideas together and pick off the transition menu if they want to from the groups of 3 transitions.

By the time they see a paragraph of what you’d like them to learn, and then if you show them a sample of one you make, then make one together, they ready to go.

I go to the teaching store and buy big yellow stars and put a magnet on the back. I use color markers on the dry erase board.

I put up the topic sentence I wrote above in green. I throw up 3 stars. I tell them in this paper they will use 3 or 4 but I model with 3. I go to the tranition menu and write the words above each star

First (yellow star)

Next (yellow star)

Finally (yellow star)

I pick three things I want and write it after the star.

I always do the topic sentece, tranisitions, ideas and the conclusion. Then after all that is filled in I take a red highlighter and do the tell more or E section. THe E section is the hardest for kids. So if the first thing the kid wants to learn is “memorize his math facts” I’ll say, tell me more here. I might add, I want to learn my math facts so I can do long muliplication like my big sister.

After this, I do a cute activity about lunch.

Here are a few things I like to pack in my lunch. First, I like to have a fresh fruit…..etc…..

I have them brainstorm lunch items. Then they write a paragraph about things they pack. Then we write the paragraph. To publish this we put it on a large cut folded paper to look like a lunch box. I even put a latch with a velco flap. Then we decorate the outside of it with Sponge Bob or Hello Kitty or whatever floats their boat. Inside we have 3 or 4 items that they wanted that pop up like a pop up book. This is very cute. Kids love it. IT makes it easy to do the informal outline because they say I want to put in cookies or soda or whatever.

So after we get down the power paragraphs I’d do the occasion position paragraphs. That’s about it for paragraphs at this age in my opinion. Then I’d do the rest of the of state standards like….summary, letter writing, whatever.

I took the whole book and copied it. I reorganized it according to my state standards. I put everything about summary writing in one notebook for example. I put in tabs with things like overheads, reprodcuibles, samples, games, etc…. I have 8 state standards and 8 notebooks. This was the best thing I did. Now, when I teach I have it all at my fingertips. I don’t have those”oh darn, I forgot about this” after I taught it anymore.

Remember, teach how to write with easy no brainer topics that the kids don’t have to think about too much. Then once they know how to write, you will get to good, creative, deep writing. They can’t do it all at once easily and might get frustrated.
Hope this helps.

Michelle AZ

Thanks for the detailed response, Michelle. I appreciate it!

I started out by going over the different parts of an expository paragraph, and the color-coding. I typed out as many paragraphs as I could find in the paragraph section that were at the level my students were at (about 3rd gr.), and had them practice finding and highlighting the green, yellow, and red sentences. I showe them how to transfer those to an informal outline ~ we did the T and the stars. They were motivated when they were able to use the highlighters! I also did the organization game with them ~ the first few times just having them organize the words into the categories they thought were appropriate, then had them match the words to the appropriate color (green, yellow, red) sticker. They enjoyed it!

This is all from my other favorite program called Step Up to Writing. I thought I’d throw it in in case you are looking to improve writing too.

How to Lose All Your Friends
If you don’t want to have any friends, follow these simple instructions.
First, never smile.
Be gloomy. Be cranky. Frown a lot.
Being gloomy and cranky, and frowning will scare off any friends!
Second, never share.
If you are eating cookie, hide them when your friends come over. You could also stuff them all in your mouth, or you could just run away. When you’re playing with toys, grab all the good ones for yourself. Then throw a tantrum if somebody else plays with one of them. You can also just lock everyone out of your bedroom.
Third, be a bully.
Pick on little kids, Push in front of the lunch line. Play mean tricks on kids.
Fourth, be a poor sport.
When you play tag, and someone tags you, lie, and say they missed. Cheat at cards; if you’re losing a board game knock off all the priced.
Fifth, tattle.
Tell on kids when they run in the hall. When your brother makes a face at you, tell your mom. If your brother is in Time Out, make sure he stays there.
Now, if you still have friends after all that, I have one more lesson. Whine.
Whine when it’s too hot outside. Whine when it’s too cold outside. Whine for treats. That will irritate everyone.
If you follow these instructions you’ll be able to eat all the cookies you want. And you will have no friends to bother you.
Taken from How To Lose ALL Your Friends, BY Nancy Carlson. Puffin Books 1997
Here’s another fun activity to introduce Step. Copy in black and have the kids highlight parts. Make overhead.

Here’s what I do and I bet even though your students are older, they probably can’t put together a good paragraph together yet.
In my opinion, In order to be able to do Step Up the child needs to be able to write a sentence and be able to read.
I start with the 8 sentence paragraph. I teach the 8 sentence paragraph called the Power (number) paragraph. Basically, I teach this same thing until the child has written a handful of good paragraphs. Here’s how I started. (I hope it sounds ok, I’m no expert) I share with them this first paragraph. Then we write the 2nd paragraph below together. Then we brainstorm things students could learn. They choose 3 and finally write their own.
Green=Topic sentence
Yellow= Slow down and give a reason, detail, or fact
Red= Stop and give an explanation, expert opinion, elaboration…tell me more
repeat yellow red or yellow red red or whatever
Green=Go back and restate your topic sentence using but use synonyms.
(You start each yellow with a transition word…..later you teach them that they can bury the transition into the middle).
I have many things I want my students to learn in my class this year as I have high expectations. First, I want students to have many new, exciting experiences in many school subjects such as writing. I plan to give students specific, helpful, tools and strategies to help each student become an excellent writer at his or her highest potential.
Next, I hope each child will gain a sense of pride in his or her work. Students will have opportunities to share projects and assignments at cottage fair with a wonderful audience consisting of parents, family, and fellow students.
Finally, I hope my students learn to use the skills taught not just in the assignments to be turned in for grades, but also in their future life.
When students are given an assignments, it is my hope they will learn the process of how to complete the task so in the future, projects can be completed for many reasons or people such as future teachers, coaches, parents, friends, and eventually bosses.
Clearly, I have many goals, for each and every student in my classroom, which I hope, will be accomplished every last one.
We wrote this together:
This year I hope to improve three things in 4th grade. First I hope to improve my math skills. Over the summer I have forgotten many of my math facts so I am determined to practice each night until I get the cobwebs out of my brain and know them all with ease once again.
Next, I want to learn to write neater cursive. I will try to slow down and stay on the line with a nice neat slant so everybody can read what I write.
Finally, in PE ,I hope to make it the whole year without getting sent to time out. Last year, I had a hard time listening to directions and had to be sent to time out to think about my actions. This year I will try hard to concentrate looking at the teacher without goofing around.
All in all, I am pumped that this year will be the best year of my life, learning and accomplishing all the goals I have.
So I model, we write together, then they write on their own. By the time we get there they are usually ready with ideas. I stick with paragraphs which have content that the child doesn’t have to think about too much. For example, after this paragraph I might do one on something like: Here are a few things I like to include in my sack lunch. Pick 3 transitions.maybe First, Another thing, and then Additionally….. I might then choose a topic like…Several things I do after school, snack, homework, sports,….
I copy lists on colored paper….transitions of yellow,……power number words on green………..conclusion on green etc…..
I started out by not using colored strips but by highlighting boxes on a sheet I adapted. If I can find it I’ll post it. After they got this down pat….I taught the informal outline. At first I thought, well my kids can do fine with this cool adoption….but later I realized the beauty of the informal outline. Now my kids can go from a blank piece of paper right into the complete paragraph. They are no longer scared to start. They just ask….what’s the topic.
So now the kids can write a fairly good paragraph with Power number topic sentence. I then teach the summary burrito fold. I also adapted that one too for the Arizona State standard to include a conclusion statement.
Then I taught another way to do the topic sentence which is the occasion position topic sentence. I review this from time to time. My students will be District tested on this. Just today we watched a short video and I had them do a summary. If we watch a play, we write a summary. If they watched a movie over the weekend we orally do a summary in summary format.
I bought all the videos on how to do Step and found them to help me sort through it better. In fact, I watch the videos once in a while, each time picking up something new because of where I am on my learning curve.
After I did 8 sentence paragraphs, summary, I then went to report, story, and personal narrative. What a difference it made this year.
I will try to show you my adaptations that worked for me. Ask as many questions as you like. I know that Shay uses Step with High school. I am elementary only.
Michelle
POWER NUMBER TOPIC SENTENCE 1.
2.
3.

Topic Sentence: (several, a few, a number, a myriad, a couple, a number,)

1. REASON, DETAIL, OR FACT (First, One thing, At first,One, A good, First of all, Initially)

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence, events, everyday life

2. REASON, DETAIL, or FACT (Second, Secondly, In addition, Also, another)

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence, effective illustrations

3. REASON, DETAIL, or FACT (Finally, At last, The best, After that, Equally important )

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence

CONCLUSION: (Obviously, In conclusion, All in all, Certainly, To sum it up, Truly, Surely, Definitely)

When I first introduced Step I spoon-fed them with a sheet similar to this until they got the hang of it several times. I just had them circle one word in each parenthesis and finish thought after filling in the 1,2,3, mini outline at the top of the page. For the reds, or the E’s, the child doesn’t circle a starter word but gives an example of the previous yellow. This is the hardest part I found.

Each section was in a rectangle holding the sentence inside not shown here.. I had the student use highlighters to trace the outside of the boxes. Some still use highlighters to this day, others get it without.

After I used this template a few times, I then taught the informal outline. I have them fold their paper not quite in half so there is more room on the right of the paper. To the left I have students make 3 or 4 yellow stars depending of course on the topic. I say put a transition word over the yellow star. Pick a transition off the transition menu on the yellow paper. They are nicely grouped in units of 3 or 4 words. The child writes the 3 or 4 ideas under the yellow star which I call the “big star ideas”. The child then uses the red dashes (the e’s or explains, examples, elaboration, expert opinion ) on the big side of the folded paper. Students then put a topic sentence at top and conclusion sentence at the bottom. At first I have the child go back to the topic sentence and circle a few key words and use synonyms to restate the topic. I forgot to mention I have them trace a line on the folds of the paper like a big T. Topic above, conclusion below all the stars with dashes. Some stars might have one red dash, others have 2 or 3 dashes, thus it is flexible and I get out my toy accordion from Target and play it.

I went to the teacher store and bought some large yellow stars, I put magnets on the back for my magnetic dry erase board.

I quickly do informal outlines. Green highlighter=topic I then throw up 3 or 4 stars saying “these are my big star ideas”
I use the red highligher to add the examples, elaboration etc..

You can even buy a bunch of yellow stars and write transitions right on the stars (or make them but I can’t do stars to well)

I write the transition right above the yellow stars.

I used to think the kids could skip the informal outlines but now I’m sold on them. When we read stories in reading…I’ll now ask….what are 3 star ideas about that sory,…or what are 4 star ideas about that article,. Great for speeches too. “you need 4 big star ideas in your speech”

Tell them what you’re going to tell them = green
Tell them transition and tell them
Tell them what you told em again = green but use different words starting with the conclusion menu and later teach them to busy the words.

This works nicely with reports as well. I use colored notecards.

You might think I’m nuts but I even bough a 3 drawer tub with green, yellow, and red drawers at Target for 20 bucks to put all my Step up stuff in it.

I have in there a glue bottle with yellow transitions on it. When I model transitions, I go over to my Yellow glue bottle and say,” I don’t want to just throw my ideas on the paper, I need to glue my ideas together with the transitions”

I have a photo of meat laminated for the meat…or the E”S

I have a heart I painted green…green for the Topic sentence

I have a present wrapped in green ribbon to wrap up the writing. I found a box with stars on it too at Target. The kids really get it. I had a lady come see me. She was amazed when the students started going over all the parts of the paragraph using the right terminology.

POWER NUMBER TOPIC SENTENCE 1.
2.
3.

Topic Sentence: (several, a few, a number, a myriad, a couple, a number,)

1. REASON, DETAIL, OR FACT (First, One thing, At first,One, A good, First of all, Initially)

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence, events, everyday life

2. REASON, DETAIL, or FACT (Second, Secondly, In addition, Also, another)

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence, effective illustrations

3. REASON, DETAIL, or FACT (Finally, At last, The best, After that, Equally important )

Expert opinion, elaboration, examples, evidence

CONCLUSION: (Obviously, In conclusion, All in all, Certainly, To sum it up, Truly, Surely, Definitely)

When I first introduced Step I spoon-fed them with a sheet similar to this until they got the hang of it several times. I just had them circle one word in each parenthesis and finish thought after filling in the 1,2,3, mini outline at the top of the page. For the reds, or the E’s, the child doesn’t circle a starter word but gives an example of the previous yellow. This is the hardest part I found.

Each section was in a rectangle holding the sentence inside not shown here.. I had the student use highlighters to trace the outside of the boxes. Some still use highlighters to this day, others get it without.

After I used this template a few times, I then taught the informal outline. I have them fold their paper not quite in half so there is more room on the right of the paper. To the left I have students make 3 or 4 yellow stars depending of course on the topic. I say put a transition word over the yellow star. Pick a transition off the transition menu on the yellow paper. They are nicely grouped in units of 3 or 4 words. The child writes the 3 or 4 ideas under the yellow star which I call the “big star ideas”. The child then uses the red dashes (the e’s or explains, examples, elaboration, expert opinion ) on the big side of the folded paper. Students then put a topic sentence at top and conclusion sentence at the bottom. At first I have the child go back to the topic sentence and circle a few key words and use synonyms to restate the topic. I forgot to mention I have them trace a line on the folds of the paper like a big T. Topic above, conclusion below all the stars with dashes. Some stars might have one red dash, others have 2 or 3 dashes, thus it is flexible and I get out my toy accordion from Target and play it.

I went to the teacher store and bought some large yellow stars, I put magnets on the back for my magnetic dry erase board.

I quickly do informal outlines. Green highlighter=topic I then throw up 3 or 4 stars saying “these are my big star ideas”
I use the red highligher to add the examples, elaboration etc..

You can even buy a bunch of yellow stars and write transitions right on the stars (or make them but I can’t do stars to well)

I write the transition right above the yellow stars.

I used to think the kids could skip the informal outlines but now I’m sold on them. When we read stories in reading…I’ll now ask….what are 3 star ideas about that sory,…or what are 4 star ideas about that article,. Great for speeches too. “you need 4 big star ideas in your speech”

Tell them what you’re going to tell them = green
Tell them transition and tell them
Tell them what you told em again = green but use different words starting with the conclusion menu and later teach them to busy the words.

This works nicely with reports as well. I use colored notecards.

You might think I’m nuts but I even bough a 3 drawer tub with green, yellow, and red drawers at Target for 20 bucks to put all my Step up stuff in it.

I have in there a glue bottle with yellow transitions on it. When I model transitions, I go over to my Yellow glue bottle and say,” I don’t want to just throw my ideas on the paper, I need to glue my ideas together with the transitions”

I have a photo of meat laminated for the meat…or the E”S

I have a heart I painted green…green for the Topic sentence

I have a present wrapped in green ribbon to wrap up the writing. I found a box with stars on it too at Target. The kids really get it. I had a lady come see me. She was amazed when the students started going over all the parts of the paragraph using the right terminology.