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Show examples of paragraphs with strong topic sentences and weak topic sentences. Students should understand the importance of having a strong topic sentence and making the paragraph's point clear right at the beginning of the paragraph.

Give students paragraphs without topic sentences and, working in groups, ask students to generate possible topic sentences. Share with the group after completing the task.

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This ESL writing exercise tries to get students writing creatively by identifying which topic sentences are interesting and which topic sentences are boring.
Download lesson as pdf
Introduction to Topic Sentences

When you write a formal essay in English, you need to follow some rules. First, you need to start your essay with a good topic sentence. A topic sentence introduces the paragraph. It tells the reader what your essay will be about. Most importantly, your topic sentence should be interesting. If your topic sentence is not interesting, the reader will not want to read your essay.
Here are some topic sentences written for essays about students' grandfathers: My grandfather had more stories than a children's library. Of all the people I have ever met, no one has impressed me as much as my grandfather. When I see an old man walking down the street, I often think to myself, "I hope his life was as interesting as my grandfather's life." When I was a child, I thought my grandfather was superman. I have always looked forward to seeing my grandfather. The topic sentences above are all interesting, and they make the reader want to keep reading. However, the topic sentences below are too boring: My grandfather is a nice man. I love my grandfather. My grandfather makes me very happy. Below are topic sentences written by students about their pets. Read the sentences, and write "I" if the sentence is interesting, and "B" if it is boring.
1. _____ My pet bird brings wonderful music to my life.

2. _____ I like cats, and my pet cat is a very good cat.

3. _____ Although my pet cat sleeps all day long, I'm always glad that she is in my house.

4. _____ My pet dog has eaten my homework, destroyed my shoes, and bitten my friend, but still I can never get angry at her.

5. _____ My dog is so cute, and everyone likes him.

6. _____ After having a pet rabbit for one year, I can understand why most people don't want to have these animals as pets.

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ESL Writing: Introduction to Topic Sentences -

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This ESL writing exercise tries to get students writing creatively by identifying which topic sentences are interesting and which topic sentences are boring. Download lesson as pdf Introduction to Topic Sentences When you write a formal essay in English, you need to follow some rules.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Summary:
Part 1, Lesson 1 addresses organization. This page deals with topic sentences.

Lesson 1: Organization

This lesson addresses organization. Questions about organization make up 15 percent of the questions in Part I of the GED Language Arts, Writing test. Studying this resource will also help you think about organization in relation to the GED Essay. It will also improve your writing skills in general. Topics included in this resource are as follows: topic sentences, relevance of ideas, order of ideas, and transitions.

Topic Sentences

Every paragraph should include a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the paragraph. A topic sentence also states the point the writer wishes to make about that subject. Generally, the topic sentence appears at the beginning of the paragraph. It is often the paragraph's very first sentence. A paragraph's topic sentence must be general enough to express the paragraph's overall subject. But it should be specific enough that the reader can understand the paragraph's main subject and point.

On the GED, you may be asked to choose a better topic sentence for a paragraph. Sometimes, a topic sentence may be entirely missing from a paragraph, and you will be asked to choose one for it. When choosing a topic sentence, remember these guidelines:

The topic sentence should identify the main idea and point of the paragraph. To choose an appropriate topic sentence, read the paragraph and think about its main idea and point.

The supporting details in the paragraph (the sentences other than the topic sentence) will develop or explain the topic sentence. Read all the supporting details in the paragraph and think about the ideas they discuss.

The topic sentence should not be too general or too specific. When considering the options, look for a topic sentence that is general enough to show the paragraph's main idea instead of just one of its details. The answer should be specific enough that the reader understands the main idea of the paragraph.

Topic Sentence Exercise

Write a topic sentence for the following paragraph.

During the 1990s, I really enjoyed watching Friends on television every Thursday night. I really wanted Rachel's haircut-I think every girl wanted Rachel's haircut back then! Rachel's haircut went really well with the Guess Jeans that were so popular in the 1990s. I remember all the advertisements for Guess and Calvin Klein Jeans that were in each month's Sassy magazine. I don't think Sassy magazine exists anymore, but it was one of the most popular magazines for young women in the 1990s.

Click here for exercise answers.

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.

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Students should practice skills learned in this unit while discussing what they may be doing in the next two years. Students should interview their partner about future plans and write the answers down in a short summary statement. Students should be prepared to share with the class.

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Choose a short, level-appropriate story for students to read. Using some of the sentence starters below as guides for the answers, ask students to create questions for a partner about the text. Students can use the sentence starters to answer.

Ensure that students answer questions related to the topic of the reading content as a pre-reading activity, and either annotate or take notes about the passage while they are reading.

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50 Sentence Stems for Reading Critically
by Terry Heick

I love sentence stems for many reasons, not the least of which is their ability to function as cognitive 'training wheels' for developing minds.

As in journal response prompts to respond to a text, the stems below are created to help students better understand what they're reading. Because the focus is on critical thinking and critical reading rather than mere 'talking,' I left out more obvious stems like 'I agree...' or 'I disagree...' or 'I like...' or 'I dislike...' because-well, because opinions are useful primarily in discussing affections and preferences but less useful in critical thinking and critical reading.

That's not to say that they don't serve a purpose but rather that they're not to mention obvious and are a fairly natural reflex for even early readers who will either like or dislike or love or be bored by texts. This implies, of course, that the point of reading is recreational. While it certainly can and generally should be enjoyable, there are as many reasons to read as there are to know and do.

Liking and disliking and agreeing and disagreeing, of course, matter. Emotion can be a cause and effect of understanding. But ultimately. critical reading is a matter of gather knowledge to better understand contexts, seeing ideas from multiple perspectives, is avoiding logical fallacies and other failures of reason in order to make sense of a text.

See also The Definition Of Bloom's Taxonomy

I separated them into categories. Note that there's obviously overlap between the categories (e.g., some of the stems that help students 'talk about themselves as readers' are similar to some of the stems that help students 'talk about the topic').
Critical Reading: 50 Sentence Stems To Help Students Talk About What They Read Stems that help students talk about themselves as readers
Here, I noticed that...

This reminds me of...

When reading I noticed that my thoughts/emotions ...

While reading this, it's helping me to ... so that ... (think reading strategies, etc.)

This text has change me by ...

If I ... then the text could ...

... stood out to me because ...

My experience about or knowledge of ... affected my reading by ...

I might be biased about ... so ...

I'm generally pretty good about ... when reading things like this.
Stems that help students talk about the topic
I wasn't aware that ...

I knew that ... but didn't know that ...

Recently, this (the topic) has...

The most important part about ... is ...

It's important to see that ...

This makes me want to read or learn more about ...

This topic is important/doesn't seem to be important in light of ...
Stems that help students talk about the author & author purpose
The overall purpose of this text seems to be to ...

The author has also written ... which helps me understand that ...

The audience of this text is likely ... but could also include ...

... would agree/disagree with ...

The author is saying...

The author is implying...

The author seems to be trying to ...

And underlying assumption of ... is . ...

The author is comparing ... to ...

The author is using ... to ...

The author is emphasizing ...

The author is implying that ...

The author seems to believe that ...

Here, the author is beginning to ...

It sounds like the author is saying ...

The author is returns to the idea of ...

The author seems to want the reader to notice, see, or believe that ...

The author doesn't seem to realize or know that ...
Talking About The Text
The title helps me see that ...

The overall mood of the text is ...

I'd describe the tone of the text as ... because ...

... is fact and ... is opinion ...

Themes I've noticed so far include ...

The front and rear cover suggest that ...

The ideas are organized by ... which has the effect of ...

The overall structure of the text suggests ...

The most important information or ideas in this text seem to be ... and I know this because ...

The problem with this line of reasoning or argument is ...

The author's writing style is ... which ...

(See also New York Times Style Guide, for one example of how some aspects of 'style' have formal guides while others is simply a kind of aesthetic or personal choice by the author.)

Overall, the text seems to be saying that ...

There is sufficient/insufficient reasoning/evidence to support ...

If the text were ... then ...
Critical Reading: 50 Sentence Stems To Help Students Talk About What They Read

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50 Sentence Stems for Reading Critically

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50 Sentence Stems for Reading Critically by Terry Heick I love sentence stems for many reasons, not the least of which is their ability to function as cognitive 'training wheels' for developing minds. As in journal response prompts to respond to a text , the stems below are created to help students better understand what they're reading.

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Choose a listening sample from the link below. Before listening, ask students to tell you what they know about the topic. While they listen to the sample, students should take notes on the main idea. After listening twice, use the following as discussion questions:

1. What’s the subject of the passage?

2. What problem are they discussing?

3. What does the speaker think about the topic?

Allow students to talk about the questions with a partner first.

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ELLLO - 50 High-Beginner Listening Lessons

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50 free ESL listening lessons for beginner students featuring naturally spoken English. ESL students and teachers can access free listening lessons that come with audio, script, quiz and vocabulary support.

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Students can listen to the audio and complete the multiple choice/selection questions as they listen. Students will hear language about making future plans.

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Listen to the conversation about plans for the weekend and do the exercises to practise and improve your listening skills.

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by Claudia Pesce 275,603 views

No, your student is not hesitating about what he/she did. They are making an intonation mistake. Just like when they ask a question that sounds like a statement: " Did you correct our exams." How about students who say hotel instead of hotel?

Intonation and stress mistakes are common, particularly when we have students who come from countries whose language is not stressed like English. But there's no need to dwell on the differences between English and your students' native language. Simply go over the common rules and characteristics of English pronunciation and give them plenty of exercises to practice stress and intonation. Here are some to get you started!

Try These 7 Excellent Exercises to Improve ESL Intonation and Stress

1. Word Stress

Placing stress on the wrong syllable is a pretty common pronunciation mistake among ESL students. Try giving them this exercise. Prepare a chart as a hand out or make one on the board depending on whether you want to work with your students individually or as a group. The chart should have three columns if you're working with three-syllable words. At the top of each, write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to represent each syllable, but in each column one of the numbers should be underlined to show the syllable that is stressed.

Give your class a list of three-syllable words ( telephone, magazine, religion, etc...) and ask them to place each in the corresponding column.

2. Word Stress - Cuisenaire Rods

This is probably the ideal way to teach children about word stress. Cuisenaire Rods come in different lengths; each rod can be used to represent a syllable. Use the longer rods to represent the stressed syllable. Hand out several rods to each group of students and call out words they must represent, one rod for each syllable. To reinforce what they've learned, ask them to write down each word and underline the stressed syllable.

3. Sentence Stress

Try this matching exercise to practice sentence stress. On one side of the worksheet write several sentences of varying length. On the other side, the sentences represented by a series of numbers; underline the number for the word that is stressed. For example:

Mix up the order in which the sentences appear on the left side. Say each sentence out loud, emphasizing the stressed word. Students must then match each sentence with its representation in numbers.

4. Sentence Stress - Cuisenaire Rods

Just as you use Cuisenaire Rods to practice word stress, you can use them to teach sentence stress. This time each rod represents a word. Divide your class into groups and hand out several rods to each. Make sure the rods are of equal length except for one which should be longer. Say a sentence out loud and show them which word is stressed by representing it with the longer rod. Next, say another sentence and have students show which word is stressed: I didn't buy a car. Say the same sentence but shift the stress to another word: I didn't buy a car. Discuss with your class how the stress affects the meaning of the sentence. Have them copy each sentence and underline the stressed word.

5. Sentence Stress - Focusing on Context

Give your students a series of sentences to read. This time you will not be saying them out loud. They must figure out which word is stressed based purely on the context. For instance:
I was so angry at John. He forgot to call me on my birthday. He said he had remembered, but that it was too late to call.
There may be more than one correct answer; differences in which words students choose to stress may be a good lead in for a discussion.

6. Rising or Falling?

Give your students a series of questions they must evaluate. Tell them that they must indicate whether each has a rising or falling intonation.

Did you remember to buy the milk? (rising)
Where did you buy that? (falling)

See if students can see a pattern (yes/no questions have rising intonation; wh- questions have falling intonation).

7. Intonation and Feelings

For students to convey the right intonation, they must first understand it. Try an exercise in which students can see that the intonation, not the words, is what conveys real meaning. Make this a multiple choice exercise. For each question, write a short sentence or phrase. Below it write several options students may choose from.

I have something to tell you.
How does the speaker feel?

1. happy and excited

2. sad and worried

3. nervous and worried

Now, read each sentence/phrase out loud. Make sure you convey the right feeling. For instance, say, " I have something to tell you" in a way that conveys that it is a serious matter that worries you, and you're nervous talking about it. Students listen to each one and circle the right feelings.

Practicing intonation will help students not only communicate more effectively, it will also help them understand situations better.

Practice intonation with your class, and there won't be any misunderstandings about what they really mean.
How do you practice stress and intonation in class? Share below!
P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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7 Excellent Exercises to Improve ESL Intonation and Stress

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by Claudia Pesce 275,603 views No, your student is not hesitating about what he/she did. They are making an intonation mistake. Just like when they ask a question that sounds like a statement: " Did you correct our exams." How about students who say hotel instead of hotel ?

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Author Emma Pathare, Teacher, Trainer, Dubai

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Why word stress is important What word stress is Some ‘rules’ of word stress How I help my students In the classroom Conclusion Why word stress is important Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the reasons why:

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Many verbs in English are followed by the infinitive with to. Some of these verbs take the pattern:

Others verbs take the pattern:

Two very common verbs - and let - are followed by the infinitive without to. They take the pattern:

The verb dare can be followed by the infinitive with or without to:

verb + to + infinitive

Some verbs are followed by the infinitive with to:

Common verbs with this pattern are:

verbs of thinking and feeling:

verb + noun + to + infinitive

Some verbs are followed by a noun and the infinitive with to:

Common verbs with this pattern are:

* Note that warn is normally used with not:
The police warned everyone not to drive too fast.

verbs of wanting and liking:

Many of the verbs above are sometimes followed by a passive infinitive (to be + past participle):

I expected to be met when I arrived at the station.
Theywanted to be told if anything happened.
I don't like driving myself. Iprefer to be driven.
Level: intermediate
make and let

They made him pay for the things he had broken.
The doctormade me wait for almost an hour.
Theylet you go in free at the weekend.
Will youlet me come in?

But the passive form of make is followed by the infinitive with to:

dare

The verb dare is hardly ever found in positive sentences. It is almost always used in negative sentences and questions.

When it is used with an auxiliary or a modal verb, dare can be followed by the i nfinitive with or without to:

But when there is no auxiliary or modal, dare is followed by the infinitive without to:

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Learn about verbs that are followed by the infinitive and do the exercises to practise using them.