Teaching Tips for Starter Paragraph Punch

Sample One (1) Hour Assignment – best done over two or three 20 to 30 minute blocks of time.

• Direct students in the Merit Online Learning platform to go to “Writing” and choose a Starter Paragraph Punch-Details topic that interests them (such as A Favorite Food or An Imaginary Creature).
• Tell students to follow the program’s directions to write and review a complete paragraph.
• The program’s built-in hints and tips make it easy for most writers to organize their thoughts and write clear, concise sentences and paragraphs.
• Student writing is automatically bookmarked in the Merit Online Learning system.
• If a student does not complete their writing in one sitting, they may return to where they left off or start over.
• The Publishing step has three options: Review, Spell Check, and Save.  Selecting Save permanently saves student writing in the Merit Online Learning system.
• If work is permanently saved, then students may make an unlimited number of revisions using the Post-Published Edits tool in the Online Portfolio.
• Once work is permanently saved, students may also redo a topic without overwriting previous work.
• Encourage students to make edits.  All capable writers make edits.
• Instructors may view student work, at various stages of development, in their own Merit Online Learning dashboard.

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