I find that a lot of kids think a paragaph is a group of sentences, but have not thought about why the reader put these sentences together or chose to break where they did. I find that this mini-lesson gets kids thinkig about their choices in a way that giving them a standard outline does not. I also try to talk to kids about one sentence paragraphs. You will need to decide where you stand on this. Yet clearly length and work are not necessarily synonymous.
Some great poems are only five sentences.
Senior writing ideas One excersice that can be really productive with seniors is to tell them to look at one of their hands. For example, I found a graphic organizer of a box in the middle of the page and four rectangular boxes branching out from the center box. Protruding even closer to the margins of the paper are 2 circles that append from each of the rectangles. After a supporting statement is written in a rectangle, the kids think up 2 examples or details that further support that supporting statement. These fo in the circles.