Writing Conclusions for Elementary School Students!

Throughout my tutoring experience, I have found that many students of all ages have difficulty writing conclusion sentences. A good activity for elementary students is to give them a topic sentence and then tell them they need to write a conclusion that expresses the SAME IDEA but use DIFFERENT WORDS. They should NOT add new information (ie details) in their conclusion. It is extremely important to give them examples.

Topic:  Winter sports are lots of fun.

Conclusion:  I always look forward to participating in winter sports.

Topic:  Last summer, I went to Hawaii with my family.

Conclusion: I enjoyed spending time with my family in Hawaii.

Here are some other topics your student can try:

Topic: Students should not wear uniforms at school.

Conclusion:______________________________________________

Topic: It is important to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables if you would like to have a healthy diet.

Conclusion:______________________________________________

Topic: I will never forget my first day of fourth grade.

Conclusion: ______________________________________________

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Editing Checklist for Essay Writing

I believe it is important to provide students with an editing checklist to make the revision process less scary! For example,

Did you use at least three transition words in your supporting detail paragraphs?
Did you start your introduction with a hook?
Is your thesis the last sentence of your first paragraph?
Do all your supporting paragraphs 1-3 support your thesis?
Do you explain the significance of your quotes?
Did you use proper punctuation and capitalization?
Are all words spelled correctly?
Do you have a conclusion sentence at the end of every paragraph?

You get the idea. This way it is a visual, specific way in which they can learn HOW to edit. Believe it or not, often students have never been taught how to revise their papers and what to exactly correct during the revision process.

I would be happy to provide a copy of the editing checklist if you would to visit my website at http://www.beachcitiestutoring.com

Less is Sometimes More When It Comes to Homework

When it comes to math homework, practice is important, but if a student understands the concept after 5 to 10 problems they do not need 40 problems to practice. This can be counterproductive as they may not do the work at all or feel so overwhelmed by the work that they become frustrated that they develop a negative attitude toward math and homework in general. As a teacher, I strongly believe in not assigning busy work as students will resent it. Instead, checking students' knowledge of concepts by short quizzes following short homework assignments is more effective because they can feel successful and if you can assess areas of weakness to focus on. Tailoring homework to the students' needs is definitely the sign of perceptive teacher.
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