From topic sentences to full timed essays and self-marking.
Intended learning: define the paragraph as one developed idea; recognise broken paragraphs.
Teaching: Symptoms of broken paragraphs: two ideas competing, evidence with no claim, analysis that repeats the quote in fancier words.
Take your last essay's weakest paragraph; list what it contains vs needs.
Intended learning: convert topic labels into contestable mini-theses.
Write five topic sentences for one set text on one theme; rank them weakest-to-strongest and justify.
Intended learning: choose minimal quotes and weave them grammatically.
Teaching: Best evidence: short, loaded, precise. Under 10 words where possible. The quote serves the argument — never hunt quotes first.
Evidence bank: 12 micro-quotes from your text tagged by theme.
Intended learning: write explanation that analyses effect, not paraphrase.
Teaching: Test: delete your explanation — if the paragraph still makes sense, you had none. Explanation must say something the quote cannot: effect on reader, link to thesis, mechanism of technique.
Aim 1 sentence evidence : 2–3 sentences analysis. Most B-band essays invert this.
Expand three bare quotes into fully explained sentences using the effect-verb bank.
Intended learning: craft links that advance (not repeat) and signposts that guide.
Teaching: Weak link = "This shows power is important." Strong link = "Thus the play locates corruption not in crowns but in the silence beneath them — the same complicity the next scene will monetise." Old-to-new sentence principle applied across paragraphs.
Rewrite three weak paragraph links into advancing ones.
Intended learning: build L3-level theses from any question type.
Thesis ladder worksheet: write L1, L2, L3 versions of one answer; feel the difference.
Intended learning: draft 3-sentence introductions and evolved-form conclusions fast.
Collect five strong published essay openings; note their opening move type.
Intended learning: structure discursive pieces around a controlling idea with voice.
Teaching: Discursive: open with scene/anecdote, wander through perspectives, land on earned insight. Reflective: situation → choice → evaluation → forward look. Voice > formula, but cohesion still required.
Mind-map one issue: anecdote entry, three perspectives, exit insight.
Intended learning: plan whole essays in 5 minutes using the plan grid.
Teaching: Plan grid: Question words | Thesis | Body 1/2/ claims + evidence tags | Conclusion move. Practise until planning is automatic.
Complete three 5-minute plan grids on three questions; swap with a partner to test clarity.
Intended learning: produce a full timed essay then mark it against NESA-style criteria.
Mark your essay 20/20-style; identify the two lowest criteria; schedule targeted drills from Lessons 2–6.
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