Demonstrate the Skill :
Explain how to construct a topic sentence:
The limited topic
The writer’s attitude toward the limited topic
Give students examples of topic sentences:
Eating too much fast food (the limited topic) is harmful to health (the writer’s attitude).
ESL teachers (the limited topic) need to be patient and creative (the writer’s attitude). 4/21/2009 By Jen-Wen, Wu, TESOL Porgram, CSUSB 2 Demonstrate the Skill How to Write a Topic Sentence
Provide Guided Practice :
Students work in pairs to come up with a topic sentence.
Students write down their topic sentences on the blackboard.
The teacher guides the whole class to read through every topic sentence on the blackboard and ask students to identify the limited topic and the writer’s attitude as well as to give suggestions to improve poorly-developed topic sentence. 4/21/2009 By Jen-Wen, Wu, TESOL Porgram, CSUSB 3 Provide Guided Practice How to Write a Topic Sentence
Review the Skill :
Ask students to explain what is a topic sentence and the two main elements of a topic sentence.
Give students a short paragraph without a topic sentence. After reading the short paragraph, each student has to come up with a topic sentence based on the short paragraph.
Students share their topic sentences by speaking them out. 4/21/2009 By Jen-Wen, Wu, TESOL Porgram, CSUSB 4 Review the Skill How to Write a Topic Sentence
Apply the Skill :
Give students a topic on the blackboard.
Ask students to make a topic sentence, assuming they are required to develop a paragraph later based on the topic sentence they write. (What the topic sentence can be?).
The teacher walk around the classroom to help and guide students. 4/21/2009 By Jen-Wen, Wu, TESOL Porgram, CSUSB 5 Apply the Skill How to Write a Topic Sentence