As we continue to work through the writing process in fourth grade this year, we have talked many times about drawing the reader into our writing. One of the ways to do this is to create good “leads” or topic sentences. We want to lead the reader into the rest of our writing by sharing with them what our topic is and by making it interesting.
In class, we talked about four different types of leads.
- Action Lead – A paragraph that starts out with some sort of action taking place. The reader is able to step right into the middle of what is occurring in your writing.
- Dialogue Lead – The paragraph begins with conversation taking place. This gives us an introduction to characters right away.
- Setting Lead – A setting lead allows the reader to figure out when and where the story is taking place right at the beginning of a paragraph.
- Setting the Stage Lead – A setting the stage lead helps to introduce what the paragraph is going to be about through anticipating what may be happening in the future.
In order to better understand each of these types of leads, students were given the topic of a snow day. They were asked to start a paragraph about a snow day using one of these types of leads. We used a website called Spicynodes to make a web showcasing the different types of leads about this topic. The Spicynode is completely interactive. You can click on the different types of leads, student names, twist it, turn it, and even make it full screen to make it larger.
*What leads did you find easiest to write?*
*What leads did you find most difficult to write?*
*Which lead do you think would capture a reader’s attention?*
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think the writing we did was really long and tiring. I know that we all need practice but It is just so hard. I think a dialogue lead would catch the readers attention. My favorite lead is the dialogue lead. I like it because it starts a conversation.
From,
Jenna
Dear Jenna,
I agree. It was very tiring and very long. It wasn’t that fun because we did it a lot of it. My favorite lead is a dialogue lead because I love to talk and write it.
From,
Ariel
Dear Mr. Avery,
I came across your blog while I was visiting Mr. Salsich’s class blog. I really love the spicynodes site you used…I will certainly use it to my Grade 4 class this week. Thank you for sharing. The students in 4WS have also learned about writing effective Leads We call them BOLD BEGINNINGS. My class and I enjoyed your post because we liked comparing your lead strategies to our Bold Beginning strategies. We discovered that they are exactly the same thing. Great post…keep up the wonderful writing.
From,
Mrs. Webb-Scheers
The Classroom Connection
http://kwebb.edublogs.org
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think the most likely one to catch the readers attention would be the setting lead. What do you think the most likely one would be? Have a nice day 🙂
From,
Amanda ♥
Dear Class,
We’ll be spending some more time on the different types of leads. We’ll definitely focus some more on the setting the stage lead!
Everyone did a great job coming up with their lead for the snow day though. It’s funny how we did leads about that and then had a snow day just a couple days later!
Keep up the great work!
Your teacher,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think an action is the easiest to write. It lets you just tell something that you do or just use a verb. I think a dialogue lead is the one that gets the reader’s attention. I mean it just gets you thinking .
Sincerely,
Marshall
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think an action is the easiest to write. It lets you just tell something that you do or just use a verb. I think a dialogue lead is the one that gets the reader’s attention. I mean it just gets you thinking .
Sincerely,
Marshall
Dear Mr. Avery,
The hardest lead for me to write would have to be the setting the stage lead. I think that some of the other ones are much easier to do. The action lead is definitely the easiest one. It’s really easy to talk about somebody doing something.
From,
Amanda ♥
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think that all of the different kinds of leads are cool. It’s cool how you make them swirl and move. Everyone did a great job with their examples.
From,
Ariel
Dear Mr. Avery,
The action lead was the easiest. I think it’s very easy to describe somebody doing something. I think it helps the reader become interested in the story.
From,
Kaylee
Dear Mr. Avery,
I think “setting the stage” lead is the hardest. Sometimes it can be tough to build the anticipation for the reader.
Sincerely,
Marshall
Dear Mr. Avery,
One of the questions is what do you think is the easiest lead to write. The easiest one for me is the setting. It’s really easy to describe when and where something is taking place.
From,
Amanda ♥
Mr. Avery’s class –
Such a great learning tool. I love the blog.
From ,
Ann
Ann,
Thank you so much for writing in to the blog. We love hearing from family members. We hope you’ll continue to come back, visit, and partake in our discussions we have!
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
” I can’t do this!” exclaimed the class. “It’s very easy. Just think of your writing and add diologue,” said Mr. Avery. He showed the class an example and everyone said, ”Oh, now I get it.” They are still practicing right as we speak. That was an example of a diologue lead. Hope you enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
Natalie S. ♥
Natalie,
I love how you created your own example right on here! I think it’s great when students take what they’re learning in class and can use it at other times. Keep up your great work!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
What a terrific tool you have discovered! It is interesting to click around and explore the different leads.
I notice that dialogue leads are used quite a bit in novels. It’s a good way to hook a reader.
I could see using this SpicyNodes with my third graders. We do a lot of classifying and categorizing…that would be fun!
Thanks for a great tool!
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
This was the first time that we ever used Spicynodes. We thought that it was cool because you could touch it and spin it around. We liked how you can click on something and it will take you to something new.
We really like how you used the heart in your name for the o. We all wanted to know how to make it as well, so we looked how you wrote it. ♥
Thank you for your comments!
Mr. Avery’s Class
Plympton, Massachusetts
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
I ♥ to add HTML codes to my comments to fancy them up sometimes. This link has more HTML symbol codes. If you scroll to the bottom of the post I linked to…there are lot of fun symbols!
Happy Blogging!
Mrs. Y♥llis
California
Dear Mr. Avery,
I would say that the setting the stage lead is the hardest. The easiest one is probably the action lead or the dialogue lead the easiest. The one that catches the readers attention is the dialogue lead.
From,
Jenna
Dear Mr. Avery,
I find the setting the stage lead the hardest. I find the action and the dialogue lead the easiest. It’s much easier to start with conversation or an action. That’s just me and my opinion.
Sincerely,
Natalie