What it is. Paragraphs that explain, describe or argue are built differently.
Why our test works. Children write every paragraph the same way whatever it is for. Naming the JOB first is what makes shape a choice — and it is the direct preparation for the essay work that begins in Grade 6, where a piece contains several kinds at once.
Leans on. Lesson 18.
Watch for. Have them label three paragraphs from a real text before writing one.
Read and use Different Kinds of Paragraphs from Paragraph Town, pp.75–75. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher reads the key passage of Different Kinds of Paragraphs aloud with the book open an The class reads Writing Book 5, p.60 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U7 set 1, U11 set 1, U12 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher reads the key passage of Different Kinds of Paragraphs aloud with the book open and models the move it teaches on one sentence. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class applies the move from Different Kinds of Paragraphs to two sentences together, checking against the book's own example. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 5 to page 60 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: In your notebook: apply Different Kinds of Paragraphs to three sentences of your own, double-spaced.
You close on the exit direction — Read out one sentence that uses Different Kinds of Paragraphs. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Different jobs, different shapes.
Have them label three paragraphs from a real text before writing one.