Using the Jane Schaffer Writing Program 10 Easy Steps to writing a paragraph Hosted by Writin’

1. Created by Deanna Pratt Writin’ Rita Paragraph Power Using the Jane Schaffer Writing Program 10 Easy Steps to writing a paragraph Hosted by Writin’ Rita

2. Hi, my name is Writin’ Rita. I’ll guide you along the writing process and will answer any questions you have. Anytime you see an underlined word, you can click on it to view the definition, synonyms, or more information. Think you missed something? Still a little confused? At any time you can hit the left arrow key to take you back to a previous slide.

3. Why are you writing? The purpose of writing a literary response paragraph is to develop an argument and to support it with evidence from the story, play, poem, or article. In other words, you will form an opinion about the story and use details from the text to prove your point. Don’t worry; it’s easy! Step 1: Know what you are writing about? Let’s Begin: We’ll start with an easy one. Let’s use the story of Cinderella. Click on the word Cinderella to read the story.

4. Step 1: Know what you are writing about Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale. Slow Down! I bet you thought we would begin writing immediately. We have to think about the writing prompt so we know what we are being asked to do. When we first begin writing we need to think of three very important questions: • What format will I be using? • Who is my audience? • What am I being asked to write about? The prompt tells us to write a 2 Chunk Paragraph Click here to learn about 2 Chunk Paragraphs

5. What is a 2 Chunk Paragraph? Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother. It depresses poorCinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs. She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts,” like a fine room or a comfortable bed. Cinderella knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being.Cinderella’s sadness is also caused when her stepmother abuses her, treating her unfairly. She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps,” while her stepsisters enjoy divine meals. She feels discarded by her stepmother because she does not treat her as an equal to her sisters.The stepmother’s rejection of Cinderella causes her sadness. Topic Sentence • Chunk 1 • 1. commentary sentence (CM) that sets up the example. • 2. fact from the text (CD) • Another commentary • sentence that continues to analyze the example (CD). This is 1 CHUNK of information that explains one of the reasons Cinderella feels mistreatedby her stepmother and stepsisters. In this chunk we know she is sad because she is not being taken care of. Chunk 2 This chunk of info explains that her stepmother mistreats her by denying her the same luxuries as her sisters. Contains 2 CMs and1 CD Concluding Sentence

6. Step 1: Know what you are writing about Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale. When we first begin writing we need to think of three very important questions: • What format will I be using? • Who is my audience? • What am I being asked to write about? The prompt tells us to write a 2 Chunk Paragraph Click here to learn about 2 Chunk Paragraphs This is a literary response paragraph for school, so we will use 3rd person formal language. We will NOT use I, me, you, your, my, mine We will NOT use cuz, b/c, w/o, gonna, stuff, or things. We know we are going to prove Cinderella is sad throughout the fairytale, but we still need to develop an argument that states why she is so sad. We need to complete the following statement: Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because___________.

7. Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale. We need to complete the following statement: Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because___________. CD (concrete detail) Information from the story on the surface * the “what * facts * examples * evidence * support * plot references * paraphrases * citations/quotes * plot summary * what the play-by-play announcer would say 1CD: 2CM Step 2: Begin by brainstorming possible CDs a. Use the chart to the left to learn about concrete details (CDs). b. Use the T-Chart below to list some concrete details (CDs) from the story when Cinderella feels sad. CDs What happens in the story? What does the character do? She is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Always write CDs in red. This makes them easy to identify. At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

8. Step 3: Narrow down CDs T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale? CD (concrete detail) Information from the story on the surface the “what facts examples evidence support plot references paraphrases citations/quotes plot summary * what the play-by-play announcer would say 1CD: 2CM CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside. Since we are writing a 2-chunk paragraph we will need to have 2CDs, or 2 examples, in our paragraph. Click on the 2 CDs that have the most in common with each other. She is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Great Job! The first 2 CDs do have something in common. They are both related to the way Cinderella is treated by her stepmother and wicked stepsisters. While the 3rdCD is a fact from the story, it isn’t related to the way her family treats her. We will use CD1 and CD2 as our two examples in our paragraph. Let’s plug them into our outline before we forget! She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

9. Topic Sentence: CM CM CD 1 Concluding Sentence: 2 Chunk Paragraph Outline She was not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.” CM CM CD 2 She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

10. Step 4: Brainstorm CMs T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale? • CM (commentary) • Information from your head • The stuff under the surface • Words with feelings that can be described. • The ‘so what?” why is it important? analysis interpretation evaluation significance of event a character’s feelings why did ____ do that? • what the color commentator would say1CD: 2CM CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Neglected CD2 Ill-treated She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Deserted Abandoned At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Now we need to figure out what they have in common. Their main similarity will be our main argument. What do the first and second CD have in common?. CMs will answer the question: The character feels ____ on the inside.Learn more from the CM chart to the right.

11. T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale? • CM (commentary) • Information from your head under the surface • Words with feelings that can be described. • The ‘so what?” why is it important? analysis interpretation evaluation significance of event a character’s feelings why did ____ do that? • what the color commentator would say • 1CD: 2CM CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Neglected CD2 Ill-treated She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Deserted Abandoned At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Great job! Cinderella feels sad because she is mistreated, neglected, ill-treated, deserted, and abandoned. She feels this way because she is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts,” and because she is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

12. See the difference between CDs and CMs? CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Neglected CD2 Ill-treated She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Deserted At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned This is information from your head. The stuff under the surface. Words with feelings that can be described. These are facts from the story. They are events that actually take place.

13. Step 4: Time to organize our CMs CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Neglected CD2 Ill-treated She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Deserted At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Remember, our main goal is to complete the statement: Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because_________. This sentence will be our main argument, or topic sentence. It will be the statement that we will prove throughout the paragraph.

14. Step 5: Time to organize our CMs CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Neglected Being neglected, ill-treated, deserted, and abandoned are all examples of being mistreated. Being mistreated is the biggest idea. CD2 Ill-treated She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Deserted At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the paragraph because ______________. To complete this statement, choose the CM that is the biggest idea. In other words, which CM encompasses all of the other words? Let me show you what I mean.

15. Step 5: Time to organize our CMs CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Mistreated Being neglected, ill-treated, deserted, and abandoned are all examples of being mistreated. Being mistreated is the biggest idea. Neglected CD2 She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Ill-treated Deserted At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Now we can complete the statement: Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother. Hooray! We just wrote our topic sentence. Let’s plug this sentence into our outline and learn a little more about topic sentences.

16. Step 6: Write Topic Sentence Topic Sentence 1st sentence of the paragraph Sentence that states what you will be proving * The argument * An opinion *arguable statement * Sentence that takes a side * Controls the content of the paragraph 1/paragraph Not sure what a topic sentence is? Read the blue chart to learn more. Always write your topic sentence in blue. This makes it easy to identify.

17. Good Topic Sentences Topic Sentence 1st sentence of the paragraph Sentence that states what you will be proving * The argument * opinion * arguable statement * Sentence that takes a side * Controls the content of the paragraph 1/paragraph Good example: Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Topic Sentences MUST have: 1. a SPECIFIC argument. This topic sentence offers a SPECIFIC reason Cinderella is sad in the beginning of the fairytale. The entire paragraph will prove that being mistreated by her family is the reason she is so sad is 2. ONE argument This topic sentence offers ONE main argument. We will only be proving Cinderella is sad because she is mistreated.

18. Bad Topic Sentences Topic Sentence 1st sentence of the paragraph Sentence that states what you will be proving * The argument * opinion * arguable statement * Sentence that takes a side * Controls the content of the paragraph 1/paragraph Too Much!! Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated, abandoned, and neglected. Uh Oh! There are 3 arguments in this sentence. Can you find all 3? Having more than one argument in a paragraph makes your paragraph vague and less focused. You are a much better writer than this! Too Little!! Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale. So what? This topic sentence does not have a specific argument. We know Cinderella is sad, but it does not offer one SPECIFIC reason for her sadness. This paragraph does not have an argument to prove. Paragraphs that lack a SPECIFIC argument in the topic sentence will not have focused examples. After all, how can you choose relevant examples if you don’t know what you are trying to prove?

19. Topic Sentence: CM CM CD 1 Concluding Sentence: 2 Chunk Paragraph Outline Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her stepmother and wicked stepsisters. She was not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.” CM CM CD 2 She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

20. Step 5: Still organizing our CMs CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Topic Sent. Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Chunk 1 CM Neglected CD2 Deserted She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Ill-treated At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Now we need to match a CM (commentary) with CD1 (concrete detail) Which adjective best describes how Cinderella feels when she is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts?” I’ll do the first one for you.

21. Step 5: Still organizing our CMs CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. Excellent! Cinderella feels deserted by her stepmother when she is not given the same wonderful food her stepsisters are allowed to have. CD1 Topic Sent. Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Chunk 1 CM Neglected CD2 Chunk 2 CM Deserted She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Ill-treated These are good words, but we will not need them in this paragraph. At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Now we need to match a CM (commentary) with CD2 (concrete detail) Which adjective best describes how Cinderella feels when she is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps”?

22. Writin’ Rita Beleive it or not, we're almost finished!

23. Step 7: Web Off the Word for Commentary Sentences This WOW chart (Web Off the Word) will help us with our commentary (CM), or analysis. This is usually the hardest part for new writers, but this chart makes it a piece of cake! We already know our main argument. We are proving that Cinderella is sad because she is mistreated. We will write mistreated in the center circle. Mistreated

24. Step 7: Web Off the Word for Commentary Sentences Using the same words over and over again can get boring. Let’s think of synonyms, or words that have the same meaning as Chunk 1 CM and Chunk 2 CM Chunk 1 CM: Deserted We also already know our CM Chunk 1 and CM Chunk 2 because we labeled them on the T-Chart. Click here to review the T-Chart abandoned ignored Mistreated abused discarded Chunk 2 CM: Neglected

25. Step 8: Write your commentary She knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being. It saddens Cinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs. Now write 2 sentences of your own explaining what it means for Cinderella to feel neglected. Click on the empty clouds when you are finished. Now write 2 sentences explaining what it means for Cinderella to feel deserted. Let me show you what I mean… Chunk 1 CM: Deserted See, we used various words to add variety to our word choice. abandoned ignored Mistreated abused discarded Chunk 2 CM: Neglected Cinderella’s stepmother abuses Cinderella by treating her unfairly. She feels discarded by her because she does not treat her as an equal. View T-Chart Review

26. Topic Sentence: CM CM CD 1 Concluding Sentence: 2 Chunk Paragraph Outline Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her stepmother and wicked stepsisters. Cinderella feels her stepmother and stepsister ignore her and her needs. She feels discarded by them because they do not treat her as an equal. She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.” CM CM CD 2 Cinderella’s stepmother abuses Cinderella by treating her unfairly. She knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being. She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

27. Step 9: Web Off the Word for the Concluding Sentence Concluding Sentence Last sentence of the paragraph Sentence that wraps up the argument you proved. 1/ paragraph Mistreated Ill-treated Neglected Concluding sentences need to repeat the argument in the topic sentence without repeating it word for word. Use the web to brainstorm some synonyms. You can use some of the words we thought of earlier. Deserted Rejected

28. Step 10 : Pull it all together Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother. It depresses poorCinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs. She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts,” like a fine room or a comfortable bed. Cinderella knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being.Cinderella’s sadness is also caused when her stepmother abuses her, treating her unfairly. She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps,” while her stepsisters enjoy divine meals. She feels discarded by her stepmother because she does not treat her as an equal to her sisters.The stepmother’s rejection of Cinderella causes her sadness.

29. Let’s review the steps we took to complete this paragraph You can use this list when you are writing your own paragraphs. • Step 1: Know what you are writing about • You must be familiar with the content before you can form an educated opinion. • You must understand the writing prompt. • What is it asking you to write about? • Who is your audience? • What is your purpose? • Step 2: Brainstorm possible CDs • Think of facts from the story that are related to the writing prompt. • List them on the left side of the T-Chart in red ink. • Step 3: Narrow down CDs • For a 2 chunk paragraph, choose 2 CDs that have a something in common. • Label CD1 and CD2 in red ink on your T-Chart • Eliminate all CDs that are not related. • Step 4: Brainstorm possible CMs • List all words that relate to the way the character feels about the CDs (events from the story) that you listed on the T-Chart. • List these adjectives on the right side of the T-chart in green ink

30. Step 5: Organize CMs • Choose the CM that is the biggest idea (the adjective that encompasses the other words). Label this TS, for topic sent • Choose a CM that best describes each CD. Label the first: Chunk 1 CM and label the second: Chunk 2 CM. • Step 6: Write topic sentence • Write a arguable sentence answering the writing prompt that includes the CM you chose to use as the argument for the topic sentence • Label this in blue ink on your outline. • Step 7: Main CM Web Off the Word • Write your main CM (the adjective you used in the topic sentence) in the center circle of the WOW chart. • Brainstorm four synonyms for the word. • Use these words when you are writing your commentary sentences. • Step 8: CM Sentences • Write Chunk 1 CM and Chunk 2 CM in the rectangles on the WOW chart • Use the 4 synonyms from the center circle to write 4 sentences that comment, or analyze, CD1 and CD2 • Label these sentences in green ink on your outline.

31. Step 9: Web Off the Word for Concluding Sentence • Brainstorm synonyms for the argument in your topic sentence. • Write a concluding sentence that wraps up your paragraph and restates your argument without repeating the topic sentence word for word. • Step 10: Put it all together • Follow your outline when writing your paragraph.

32. Important Terms Review CD (concrete detail) Information from the story on the surface the “what facts examples evidence support plot references paraphrases citations/quotes plot summary * what the play-by-play announcer would say 1CD: 2CM • CM (commentary) • Information from your head • Words with feelings that can be described • The ‘so what?” why is it important? analysis interpretation evaluation significance of event a character’s feelings why did ____ do that? • what the color commentator would say • 1CD: 2CM Concluding Sentence Last sentence of the paragraph Sentence that wraps up the argument you proved 1/ paragraph Topic Sentence 1st sentence of the paragraph Sentence that states what you will be proving The argument opinion arguable statement Sentence that takes a side 1/paragraph

33. Writin’ Rita Hooray! You are finished.

34. T-Chart Review CDsCMs (concrete details)(commentary) What happens in the story?The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside. CD1 Topic Sent. Mistreated She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.” Chunk 1 CM Neglected CD2 Chunk 2 CM Deserted She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.” Ill-treated These are good words, but we will not need them in this paragraph. At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Abandoned Back to Web Off the Word