Merit Online Learning User Guide for Teachers – Paragraph Punch Step by Step

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Paragraph Punch

Step by Step

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Teacher Orientation to Paragraph Punch Structure or "Anatomy of the Program"The following pages show the steps students work through to write their paragraphs.

“My Progress” across the top of the screen indicates the section on which the student is working.

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INTRODUCTIONIntroduces a specific type of paragraph - one that presents reasons, details, example, cause and effects, or sequence tosupport the topic of the paragraph.

First students will see a series of introductory screens.

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TOPICAfter being reminded about the text size buttons, students are given several writing prompts and are asked to choose oneas the focus of their paragraph.

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TOPICStudents personalize the topic they have chosen.

Students are asked to enter their own personalized subject, which will be the topic of their paragraph.

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PRE-WRITINGA series of questions encourage students to brainstorm about the topic they have chosen to write about.

Tips are available if the student wants

help.

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PRE-WRITINGThe program places students' answers in the Pre-Writing Notepad.

The program places students' answers

in the Pre-Writing Notepad.

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PRE-WRITINGStudents are encouraged to think about the topic and list all of their ideas.

After students have answered the pre-

writing questions they are asked if they

have more ideas to add.

The program engages advanced

students by encouraging them to add

more ideas on the topic.

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WRITING - OPENING SENTENCEThe program provides a sample opening sentence.

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WRITING - OPENING SENTENCENext, students are asked to finish an incomplete topic sentence as an exercise.

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WRITING - OPENING SENTENCEAfter viewing a sample sentence and completing another possible topic sentence, students write an original openingsentence to introduce their paragraph.

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MORE PRE-WRITINGStudents look at their opening sentence together with their pre-writing items.Students are asked if they wish to list more pre-writing items to support their main idea.

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MORE PRE-WRITINGStudents review the pre-writing items for relevance to the opening sentence.

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WRITING - BODYStudents write sentences for the body of the paragraph.

The Pre-Writing Notepad reappears with

the Writing Notepad next to it. The

student's opening sentence appears in

the Writing Notepad.

Students begin the body of the

paragraph by choosing an item from the

Pre-Writing Notepad. Then they use

this item in a sentence, which is saved

in the Writing Notepad.

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WRITING - BODYStudents write sentences for the body of the paragraph.

Students are encouraged to write

complete sentences. The sentence

must begin with a capital letter, have

appropriate end punctuation, and

include at least two words.

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WRITING - BODYStudents write sentences for the body of the paragraph.

Students continue to choose items and

write several sentences to complete the

body of the paragraph.

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ORGANIZINGStudents decide which sentences to use and in which order.

The Writing Notepad containing the

student's sentences appears on the left

half of the screen. A Paragraph

Notepad with the student's topic

sentence is on the right half of the

screen.

Students transfer sentences from the

Writing Notepad and arrange them in

the Paragraph Notepad, deciding which

sentences to use and in which order.

All the sentences do not have to be

used, but at least four must be chosen

for the student to proceed.

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ORGANIZINGStudents review their work in paragraph form.

In the second step of the Organizing

section, students see their work for the

first time in paragraph form in the

Paragraph Draft Box.

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ORGANIZINGStudents add transitional words.

Students are encouraged to add

transitional words to help the sentences

flow smoothly from one thought to the

next. The program includes examples

of how to connect ideas in different

ways.

From this point on, students may print

their work. (The printout will show the

section of the program from which the

work was printed.)

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WRITING - CLOSING SENTENCEThe program provides a sample closing sentence.

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WRITING - CLOSING SENTENCENext, the program provides an incomplete concluding sentence for students to finish as an exercise.

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WRITING - CLOSING SENTENCEAfter viewing a sample sentence, and finishing an incomplete sentence, students write an original closing sentence to endtheir paragraph.

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REVISING - OVERVIEWStudents review their whole paragraph in the Paragraph Draft.

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REVISING - OVERVIEWThe program guides students in the use of the Add, Change text, Remove, or Move buttons.

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REVISING - OVERVIEWA series of screens asks students to check their work and suggests places to use the editing tools to make changes.

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OPTIONS MENUStudents are presented with optional lessons to help them improve their writing.

The Options Menu contains four

subsections: STYLE, SENTENCE

STRUCTURE, GRAMMAR AND

PROOFREADING.

Each subsection contains lessons

designed to help students improve their

language arts skills.

The record-keeping program lets the

teacher know which subsections the

students have completed.

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STYLEStudents are encouraged to review their choice of nouns, adjectives and verbs and sentence variety.Examples show how changes can make paragraphs more interesting to read.

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SENTENCE STRUCTUREThe program reminds students about common sentence structure problems, such as incomplete sentences, comma faultsand parallel structure.

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GRAMMARCommon grammatical errors, such as lack of agreement between subject and verb and misplaced modifiers, are called tothe students' attention. Tips show examples of the errors and ways to correct them.

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PROOFREADINGStudents revisit what they have written and check and their spelling.

In the first proofreading screen, students

see their work in paragraph form in the

Paragraph Draft Box.

After reading their paragraph students

review their use of capital letters and

apostrophes.

On screen 5 of Proofreading students

are provided with a spell check tool.

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PROOFREADINGStudents revisit their paragraph for spelling errors. Spell check is available here as a review tool.

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PUBLISHINGStudents are given the opportunity to continue revising their work before publishing.

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PUBLISHINGStudents have a final opportunity to review their work before saving it.

The Publishing Menu has three choices:

Review:

Review the revising sections again.

Spell check:

This is a final opportunity to review

spelling.

Save:

This saves the student’s work to the

student’s online portfolio.

After students save their paragraphs the

Publishing Menu changes allowing them

to print out their completed work.

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PUBLISHINGAfter students save their work they are congratulated and presented with new choices in the Publishing Menu.

After the students' paragraphs are

saved, students are presented with

these options:

Print:

The student’s work appears in a

browser window for printing. Name and

date appear at the beginning of the

printout.

Word Processor:

Copies the student’s work to the

Clipboard so that it can be pasted into a

word processor document.

New Topic:

This button allows students to start a

new topic without going back to the

Learning Center.