Some students need assistance remembering the elements of a topic sentence. Have your students work together to form an acronym mnemonic device for remembering the purpose of a topic sentence. When students develop their own acronyms, rather than being instructed to remember one someone else wrote, they are more likely to remember and use them. Instruct students to come up with a meaningful, easy to remember word for each letter of the word "topic" or "topic sentence" that helps them remember the elements of a topic sentence. If students need an example, provide one such as "The One Primary Important Concept."
To write an effective descriptive paragraph, the writer focuses on important details. Show students a nature scene. Have them view the picture through a circle formed with their thumbs and index fingers. They then imagine that they are going to write descriptive paragraphs about it. Have them shrink the finger circle, focusing on only part of the scene and then find one object to focus on within that part of the scene. Have them write a topic sentence for a descriptive paragraph about the object and then write the paragraph. For example, students view a beach scene, focus on a family having a picnic and then tighten focus to a smiling child holding a football and a sandwich. The topic sentence: "A smiling child enjoys family time at the beach."
Teach students to use question words such as reporters use to help them write topic sentences for informative paragraphs. Use a newspaper article to show students how the topic sentence of an informative paragraph contains much of the information that answers the questions "who, what, where, when and why." Instruct them to write these five "W" words on paper when planning a topic sentence for an informative paragraph. After each word, students answer that question in a word or phrase. Afterwards, they review their answers and formulate a paragraph topic sentence that incorporates most or all of the answers.
Some visual learners benefit from creating a graphic design when they practice writing topic sentences for paragraphs. The technique can also be incorporated into graphic organizers for paragraphs during the writing process. Ask students to think of the topic sentence as the super-star sentence for the paragraph. Have students draw a large, five-pointed star. In the star center, students write one word indicating the paragraph's focus. In each star point, students write the elements important to expand on the paragraph focus. Students then return to the focus word in the center and write a topic sentence that summarizes the main points to be covered in the paragraph.