Moves Authors Make in Informative/Explanatory and Opinion/Argument Writing with Mentor Text
For me conclusions are the most annoying part of the paper to write. I feel good about the lessons I have on introductions and body paragraphs, but by the time we got to conclusions in my classroom our steam was gone.
These lessons sounded like, “Restate your thesis and summarize your points but don’t be repetitive and try to get three sentences. Good luck.”
After spending some time reflecting and researching, I now have a better solution.
Handout and Teaching Tips
You won’t make all these moves in each essay, but this handout provides students with options, allowing them to choose the ones that make sense for their paper.
While your class is reading any texts, stop and point out the way the author concluded. If their way wasn’t one of these listed, add it to the list.
Your students will need to see you model how to write a conclusion. Be sure to think aloud about all the steps happening in your head as you decide what to write, especially the choices around avoiding being repetitive.
I love this “Relevance Funnel” graphic because it shows that during the introduction and conclusion, our essays need to be relevant to a wide audience, while the body paragraphs are very specific to the topic. When my students wrote essays without an authentic audience, I told them to pretend they were writing this for their beloved PE teacher. The intro needed to be relevant enough to appeal to and hook her, while the conclusion needed to explain the relevance so she understood why it mattered to her.
Hopefully this list helps you and your students feel more confident about writing conclusions. As a reminder, the amount of sentences students need to write depends on what they have to say and the expectations of the genre. Don’t be afraid of a one sentence conclusion.
That’s how this post is going to end.
See the entire series on writing:
These resources are for opinion/argument and informative/explanatory essays, geared towards grades 3-8.
- The Writing Process Explained in Memes
- 5 Types of Writing on the Mississippi State Test
- ChatGPT? Might as Well
- 18 Hook Ideas with Mentor Text
- Writing Introductory Paragraphs
- Writing Body Paragraphs
- Choosing the Best Evidence
- Revising
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