Process & Skills » The Paragraph Book

The Paragraph Book
Strategies for struggling writers
by Dianne Tucker-LaPlount
Grades 5–8

This highly specialized writing intervention series targets middle school students with learning differences who have not been successful in conventional language arts programs. The series’ step-by-step approach builds writing competency from the ground up—students learn to edit, format, and build paragraphs while mastering 4 basic writing strands required in regular English and content area classes and standards-based state tests. By the end of the book, students are writing complete essays. Lively writing, illustrations, and a systematic approach make this series easy to teach and to use.

The Paragraph Book series is especially useful for students with weak writing/motor skills who have trouble with handwriting. Through ample practice with editing marks, students learn the material without becoming worn out or frustrated with the process of writing and rewriting. This method has been tested and shown to work with LD students of varying levels, with ELL students, as well as other students. This series is also beneficial for students with organizational problems; the structured format gives them a framework on which to build. Students who have difficulty spotting errors will also find this program helpful. Special attention is given to looking for missing capitals, dropped endings, missing and double words, etc. This is a great aid to those with weak symbol systems.