The Conclusion

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In the previous lessons in this Writing a Perfect Paragraph series, found under Related Lessons in the right-hand sidebar, you learned about the parts of a paragrpah including topic sentences and new ideas with explanations and examples.

In this lesson, you will learn about the final component of a paragraph: the conclusion.

Think back to the first lesson in our series, or review with Related Lessons. Discuss with your parent or teacher what you remember about the conclusion.

Did you remember that:

• the conclusion is the final sentence of a paragraph?
• the conclusion is where you restate the main idea from the topic sentence, using different words than you used in your topic sentence?

Watch Concluding Sentence from Kindergarten Crew. You will learn one additional IMPORTANT question you must ask yourself when you write the conclusion. Discuss what you learned with your parent or teacher. What was the important question?

SO WHAT?

When writing the conclusion, writers ask themselves, "So what?" to make sure the conclusion not only restates the topic sentence, but steps it up to hammer the point home for the reader.

Take a look at the example below:

• Writer's topic sentence "My favorite book is Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."
• Writer's first attempt at the conclusion "I love Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume."
• Writer asks himself "So..."
• Writer's second attempt at the conclusion "I love Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume because the characters are cool."
• Writer asks himself "So what...."
• Writer's third attempt at the conclusion "I love Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume because I can relate to the characters, especially Peter Hatcher, whose younger brother Fudge drives him crazy."

Did you notice how the conclusion changed and developed as the writer asked himself the questions, "So?" and "So what?"? Which conclusion grabbed you because you could relate to it?

In the Got It? section of this lesson, you will practice writing conclusions. Are you ready to get started? Let's move!