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Teach sentence openers and textual cohesion with this comprehensive teaching bundle, designed to explicitly show students how authors use sentence beginnings to connect ideas, maintain focus and guide readers through a paragraph. Combining a detailed lesson plan, comprehensive teacher slides and differentiated student activities, this curriculum-aligned resource provides everything you need to confidently teach textual cohesion while lightening your planning load.

Built around the I Do, We Do, You Do model, this lesson sequence provides a scaffolded pathway from explicit teacher modelling to guided analysis and independent application. Students explore how sentence openers introduce, revisit and develop a topic, creating cohesive paragraphs with a clear flow of ideas.

Through model texts, collaborative discussion and structured learning experiences, students identify sentence openers, analyse how they create cohesion across sentences and investigate how pronouns, connectives, noun groups and purposeful language choices strengthen paragraph writing. Students then apply their understanding by constructing cohesive paragraphs using effective and varied sentence openers.

What's included in this teaching bundle?

Lesson Plan (PDF)

• A complete lesson sequence aligned to the Gradual Release of Responsibility framework
• Clear learning intentions and success criteria
• Explicit teaching focused on sentence openers and textual cohesion
• Teacher modelling, guided discussion and formative check-ins
• Reflective exit ticket to assess understanding and guide next-step teaching

Teacher Slides (PowerPoint)

• Comprehensive, ready-to-teach presentation exploring sentence openers and cohesive writing
• Explicit teaching of how sentence beginnings guide readers and connect ideas
• High-quality modelled examples demonstrating cohesive paragraph writing
• Guided analysis of authentic texts and cohesive paragraphs
• Explicit teaching of pronouns, connectives, noun groups and other cohesive language choices
• Structured practice constructing cohesive paragraphs using purposeful sentence openers
• Embedded check-ins for understanding throughout the lesson

Differentiated Student Activities (PDF)

• Three double-sided scaffolded printable worksheets with increasing levels of challenge
• Activities progressing from identifying sentence openers and topic connections, to analysing how sentence beginnings create cohesion, and finally constructing cohesive paragraphs using purposeful and varied sentence openers
• Clear worked examples and guided practice tasks supporting gradual independence
• A focus on identifying sentence openers, maintaining a clear topic, and using pronouns, noun groups and connectives to strengthen cohesion
• Answer sheets for every level to support efficient marking and targeted feedback

This complete teaching bundle supports students to move beyond simply identifying sentence openers, developing the analytical skills to explain how authors create cohesion and guide readers through a text. Ideal for upper primary classrooms, it provides a structured, engaging and curriculum-aligned approach to strengthening reading comprehension, text analysis and purposeful paragraph writing.

Formats: PowerPoint and PDF

Aligned to Australian Curriculum: Understand how texts can be made cohesive by using the starting point of a sentence or paragraph to give prominence to the message and to guide the reader through the text (AC9E5LA04)

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