Conclusive sentences serve to sum up the central idea in a paragraph. A strong conclusive sentence should be a brief summary of the whole paragraph. It is similar to an introduction, but instead of setting a base for the rest of the paragraph, it provides the reader with a sense of closure. It links the information in the paragraph with the main points and the controlling ideas.
Fourth graders should look at conclusive sentences almost as if they were reverse topic sentences. The topic sentence and the conclusive sentence hold the main idea together. If a student had written a paragraph on his favorite "Harry Potter" character, the topic sentence might read, "Ron Weasley is Harry's best friend throughout the Harry Potter books" to open on the main points of the paragraph. The conclusive sentence should look something like "Ron Weasley remained a loyal, honest and supportive friend to Harry" which closes the paragraph nicely, in a way that sums the content up for the reader.
Tell students that the conclusion solely functions as a summary of the main point of the paragraph and works to bring the paragraph together neatly while leaving the reader with a lasting impression. New information should never be added to conclusive sentences.
When learning how to write conclusive sentences, it is useful to present students with a subject and three or four facts relating to the subject. Ask students to summarize these facts in one sentence for practice. For example, if the body of the paragraph includes information about a German Shepherd's color, size and personality, the topic sentence might be "The German Shepherd is a large breed of dog," where the conclusion sentence might look like "The German Shepherd is an intelligent and beautiful animal."