Friday, September 6, 2019

Stoplight Writing

Our class has been working on Stoplight writing for a few days.  However, up until this point, it has just been individual students sharing individual sentences. I decided that this week it was time to take the plunge and do our first Stoplight paragraphs as a class. However, I decided that the only way for both my students and myself to learn was to just do it, so we did.

I knew that it would be important for my students to have a model to follow for putting together this essay, so I used the model that I had been teaching my students in writing.  Below is a picture of it that is now hanging up in our writing area. So let's get started on Stoplight Paragraphs!
Image result for stoplight writing blogger

What does a stoplight paragraph look like?

1. Topic Sentence
2. Reason 1
3. Supporting Evidence/Detail
4. Reason 2
5. Supporting Evidence/Detail
6. Reason 3 
7. Supporting Detail/Evidence
8. Conclusion Sentence







Step 1:

The first part of the Stoplight System is
Green= Topic Sentence
Green means GO!
Write your topic sentence!


  • Show the topic of the paragraph 
  • Everything else must connect to it 
  • One of your reasons



Step 2:

Yellow= Reasons

Yellow means SLOW DOWN. 
Write a detail that supports your topic sentence.
These details MUST connect to the topic sentence! 






Step 3:

Red= Supporting Evidence

Red means STOP!
Make sure you add additional evidence/details for each of your reasons
Additional evidence could be examples or explanations of your reasons



Step 4:

Green= Conclusion

Finish off the conclusion. 
Restate the topic sentence using different words.

  I believe in this writing strategy 100%. This has worked for my students to become better writers and formulate paragraphs and even essays! If you had not tried this strategy before or your teacher friends please do. This strategy has improved my students' state tests and hopefully your students to. Thank you for reading this! If you liked this please share it with your friends. NOTE: When introducing the four steps above make sure your students use transitions. I will put up the full lesson plan of this in-depth below when ready!

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