What it is. Classic paragraphs are studied for their structure, not admired for their reputation.
Why our test works. Children treat an anthologized paragraph as beyond analysis — it is famous, therefore it is simply good. Asking about ORDER makes it analyzable with the tools they already have from Grade 6's Structure chapter: every sentence is somewhere, and somewhere else was possible. It also transfers directly, because their own paragraphs have the same question in them.
Leans on. Grade 6's Structure chapter asked what a paragraph is FOR.
Watch for. “Because it sounds better” is the beginning of an answer. Ask what the reader would have known too early or too late.
Read and use Classic Paragraphs from The Writing of Literature, pp.15–21. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher reads the key passage of Classic Paragraphs aloud with the book open and models th The class reads Writing Book 7, p.49 — 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: 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 Classic 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 Classic 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 7 to page 49 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 Classic Paragraphs to three sentences of your own, double-spaced.
You close on the exit direction — Read out one sentence that uses Classic Paragraphs. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: A paragraph that has lasted is a paragraph worth taking apart.
“Because it sounds better” is the beginning of an answer. Ask what the reader would have known too early or too late.