Writing Strong Topic Sentences — the Hochman Drill

Quick-sort: teacher reads five sentences aloud; class signals THUMBS UP if it could be a topic sentence, SIDEWAYS if it is a detail.

• Press for WHY a too-broad sentence ('I have a family') makes a weak topic
• Affirm narrowness ('My grandma makes the best pierogies')

A topic sentence is the FIRST sentence of a paragraph, and it tells the reader the ONE thing this paragraph is about. The rule: not too BROAD ('I have a family' is too broad — there's a whole book in that), and not too NARROW ('My sister wears blue socks today' is too narrow — there's only one sentence in that). A topic sentence is in the MIDDLE — narrow enough to write 3-5 detail sentences about, broad enough to need 3-5. Hochman's drill: I'll give you a topic, you write the topic sentence. Then we check.

• Notice — not 'breakfast is good' (too broad) and not 'my abuela puts salsa on chilaquiles' (too narrow, that's a detail). It names ONE breakfast clearly.

  model The best breakfast in the world is my abuela's chilaquiles.

  prompt Topic: my favorite breakfast
• ONE moment — one tooth, one place — that's a Small Moment topic sentence.

  model I will never forget the time I lost my front tooth on the playground.

  prompt Topic: a small moment I remember

• Which is the topic sentence: A) 'Pizza is good.' B) 'Pizza-night Fridays at my house are the best night of the week.'
• Why is B better? (More specific, names ONE thing — Pizza-night Fridays.)

M-2-F-WR-02-A Diagram

Three-bowl Goldilocks diagram: left bowl too BIG (labeled 'TOO BROAD' with example 'My family is good.'), middle bowl JUST RIGHT (green checkmark, example 'My grandma's pierogi-making day is my favorite Sunday.'), right bowl too SMALL (labeled 'TOO NARROW' with example 'Grandma uses flour.'). Print-ready 11x17, primary colors, dyslexic-friendly font.

• Hochman topic-sentence drill: teacher gives 5 broad topics ('my family', 'my school', 'recess', 'my pet', 'fall weather'). Children write a narrowed topic sentence for each.

  scaffold Sentence frame 'The best ___ in my life is ___.' available
• Pair-share: read one of your topic sentences to a partner. Partner says 'Could that grow into a paragraph?' — yes/no with one reason.

M-2-F-WR-02-B Illustration

Triptych illustration: panel 1 — multigenerational Latine family eating chilaquiles at a kitchen table; panel 2 — a child losing a tooth on a school playground (tooth tiny in foreground); panel 3 — autumn leaves on a sidewalk with a kid jumping in. Each panel is captioned with a topic label only (FAMILY MEAL / PLAYGROUND MOMENT / FALL WEATHER). Print-resolution, eye-level shots.

• Write a topic sentence about a small moment from this past summer. (1 sentence only.)

• Highlight your strongest topic sentence in green.
• Tomorrow: Tier-2 vocabulary launch — words for HOW people walk.

• Write three possible topic sentences in your writer's notebook for tomorrow. We may use one for our first paragraph.