Duration 20–30 minutes
Grouping Individual
Strategy Skills
Materials
- Student's draft writing
- Paragraph summary worksheet
Teacher Instructions
- Students take their draft writing and number each paragraph.
- For each paragraph, students write a single sentence: "This paragraph is about..."
- Students review their summaries to check: Does each paragraph have a clear focus? Are any paragraphs trying to do too much? Are there gaps in the argument or narrative?
- Students revise paragraphs that lack focus or that duplicate content.
- Students check that their paragraphs flow logically from one to the next.
Teaching Tips
- This is an excellent editing technique for essays, reports, and extended responses.
- If a student can't summarise a paragraph in one sentence, it probably needs to be split or rewritten.
- Use this before peer review so students can identify their own issues first.
Student Handout
Summarise each paragraph of your draft in a single sentence. This will help you check focus and flow.