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Writing Step by Step: Developing Paragraphs by Asking Questions

Many students struggle with organizing their writing. Roman numeral outlines seem to work with about half of all students. In contrast, Mary Lou Ward's approach using "visual maps" for organizing worked with all my writing students.

Writing Step by Step is a teacher's manual with these reproducible "maps" to help children (and parents) organize thoughts and put them easily into paragraph form. Models of different strategies are given, showing how to brainstorm, develop ideas, organize, and construct paragraphs.

The methods can be applied to many types of expository writing. The first part of the book is directed to lower grades. The second part of the book, directed toward older students, continues beyond basic paragraph writing to teach how to develop more difficult compositions including steps in a process, comparison and contrast, problem/cause, and cause/effect. Ideas from both sections can be used according to the needs of each child, regardless of age.

Writing Step by Step makes it so easy to write coherent paragraphs, then lengthier pieces. This is the best tool I know of that helps overcome the stumbling block of organization in teaching our children writing skills.