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?*