Module I
Wake Up Your Mind! How to Build & Write Paragraphs For grades 3-8
Module I is all about critical thinking skills!
Does your child stare at the page and say, “I don’t know what to write”? That’s exactly where Module I begins.
Module I is where the Incite to Write Inquiry Process starts. Your child learns to ask their own questions , and those questions become their ideas, their sentences, and their paragraphs. By the end, they can take any topic from a blank page to a finished paragraph to an outline of main ideas for an essay or research paper. And Module I makes writing fun.
The oral, interactive and written strategies and worksheets are uniquely designed to wake up the mind and develop thinking skills, as well as growing confidence in the writing process.
$59, one time. No subscription. Lifetime access.
You've Already Started
If you’ve tried the free Practice Paragraph, the Edit Your Paragraph checklist, or My Favorite Dessert Is Chocolate Cake, you’ve already used three pieces of Module 1.
Chocolate Cake is the first strategy in the Strategies section. The Practice Paragraph and the editing checklist are Worksheets 5 and 6 in a sequence of nine in the Worksheets section. Module 1 gives you everything around them: the oral strategies that build questioning skills first, and the worksheets that take your child deeper, all the way to paragraphs and a focus outline for larger writing projects such as essay, research, and narrative writing.
What Your Child will Learn:
Thinking Skills
- How to strengthen critical and creative thinking skills
- How to generate writing ideas and get curious about the bigger picture
- How to stay in the inquiry and keep an open mind
- How to come up with new ideas when they feel stuck
Paragraph Skills
- How to create a topic sentence and main idea
- How to add supporting sentences and details
- How to elaborate and expand on a theme
- How to stay on topic
- How to write an opinion paragraph
- How to conclude a paragraph
- How to develop flow, sequence, and organization
- How to edit and self-assess their own paragraph
Beyond the Paragraph
Paragraphs are the building blocks for all genres of writing. The skills in Module I prepare students for narrative writing, essay writing, and research papers. Just as important, the strategies in this module make writing fun. They help students grow in confidence and discover how gratifying it is to think for themselves and express their own unique voice. In an age of AI, that matters more than ever.
What's Inside
Module 1 has two parts that work together: Strategies, mostly oral, that build thinking skills, and Worksheets that put those skills on the page.
Part 1: The Strategies
From the Introduction:
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The Incite to Write strategies guide and provide multiple ways for your child to ask questions, answer them, see where they lead, and even explore how many questions they can ask. Starting simply and slowly, and used in conjunction with the Worksheets in Module 1, your student systematically masters deeper levels of inquiry, and in the process, they explore their mind and learn how it works.
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- Done in sequence, and mostly out loud. Most strategies are oral and interactive, so your child doesn’t pick up a pencil until about halfway through. Thinking skills are practiced orally first.
- Fun for the whole family or a full classroom. Siblings at different grade levels can do the same strategies together, each at their own level.
- Made to repeat. The early oral strategies can be used again and again as your child grows.
- Target common problems. The last three strategies tackle specific problems students run into when writing paragraphs.
- A few of the strategies: My Favorite Dessert Is Chocolate Cake, where everyone works together to come up with 30 questions as fast as they can, and Walk the Plank! Question the Captain, which gets students ready to start the Worksheets.
Part 2: The Worksheets
Each worksheet adds one new layer of inquiry. Your child goes from staring at a blank page, to writing a paragraph, to creating an outline on any topic.
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What this sequence looks like:
- Learn the tool: what is a W question?
- Generate W questions for three topic sentences.
- Ask questions, answer them, then tell about an object.
- Answer seven questions about a topic sentence, then write a paragraph.
- Practice Paragraph 1: fully sequenced paragraph writing.
- Edit Your Paragraph: a self-editing checklist and self-assessment.
- Tom’s Pizza: ask and answer one question at a time.
- Practice Paragraph 2: answers spark the next question, generating new thinking.
- Deep Dive Inquiry: cascading rounds of inquiry toward an outline.
Each worksheet starts from a different kind of prompt: an existing sentence, a physical object, a topic sentence list, a single given sentence, a student-chosen topic, even their own paragraph. That way, no single starting point becomes a barrier. The questions are always the way in.
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Who It's For
Homeschool parents
Homeschool parents with reluctant
writers, including families teaching
several children at different grade
levels at once.
Teachers
Teachers who want a step-by-step approach to idea-generation and a thinking-first approach to paragraph writing. Common Core ELA standards are noted on every strategy and worksheet.
Students in grades 3–8
Students in grades 3–8 who freeze at the blank page. Each child can start from wherever they are.
Your Role
Prep is minimal. For some strategies, you’ll fill a colorful bag with small objects or toys. Others use sentence strips, and most of those are provided: just print and cut. A few printable signs are included too.
You’ll do the Strategies together, out loud. You’ll likely find your own critical and creative thinking growing alongside your child’s. For the Worksheets, hand your child the page and step back. They take it from there.
Questions Work: the Evidence
The art of questioning and inquiry is a major focus of many of the exercises. The use of question strategies as a successful and data-driven instruction strategy is backed by numerous Tier 1 ESSA Strong Evidence research studies, which found question strategies have a significant impact on student achievement and promote higher-level thinking skills. See Evidence-Based Research HERE.
Incite to Write was used for six years in federally funded Title I programs across five states, with an average 97% success rate in helping struggling students meet their Language Arts goals.
Module I : Wake Up Your Mind! How to Build & Write Paragraphs
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47 pages of downloadable strategies and worksheets
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57 minutes of on-demand videos
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Videos are 5-18 minutes and show teachers and parents demonstrating several of the strategies during a workshop conducted by Incite to Write creator Carol Aubrey. It is not necessary to watch the videos in order to implement the curriculum.
B O N U S !
Unleash Your Child's Desire To Write
Receive instant access to my 3-part Video Series
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Learn effective strategies to motivate and inspire your child to write
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Discover a new way to look at the writing/learning process
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Transform struggling into inspiration and confidence
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Watch your child’s mind light up
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Expand your own creativity
Video 1 – How to awaken curiosity and thinking skills – 18 minutes
Video 2 – Activities for when your child or students are stuck, stubborn or scared! – 25 minutes
Video 3 – Activities for expanding on a theme and staying on topic – 20 minutes
Module I : Wake Up Your Mind! How To Build & Write Paragraphs
47 pages of downloadable strategies and worksheets
57 minutes of on-demand videos
Unleash Your Child’s Desire to Write!
3-Part Video Series
$59
Questions? Email me at carol@incitetowrite.com
Please note digital downloads are not refundable.
Module 1 is the first of four: Module 2, Grammar Basics · Module 3, Narrative Writing · Module 4, Essay Writing