Meet TIES — Topic-Sentence, Information, Evidence-with-Citation, So-What

Teacher displays one body paragraph from Pinkney's Sit-In; children identify the 4 TIES bands.

• Project the excerpt
• Mark topic-sentence in purple, information in blue, evidence-with-citation in orange, so-what in green
• Name each band

Today you meet TIES — the 4-band routine for informational body paragraphs. It's the informational sibling of fall's CREEL. Every body paragraph develops ONE CATEGORY of your research topic. The bands: TOPIC-SENTENCE (purple) — names the category the paragraph develops. INFORMATION (blue) — expands on the category in your own words (uses your paraphrased notes). EVIDENCE-WITH-CITATION (orange) — a specific fact, quote, statistic, or example with signal-phrase attribution to the source. SO-WHAT (green) — explains why this category matters for the research topic; ties it back to the research-thesis. The SO-WHAT is the band G4 researchers most often skip — they assume the evidence speaks for itself. It doesn't. Watch teacher build a TIES paragraph for category 1 (Early Life) of the Sojourner Truth report: 'Sojourner Truth was born into enslavement in upstate New York around 1797. (TOPIC-SENTENCE) Her early life was shaped by enslavement, separation from her family, and the Dutch language she spoke as a child because her enslavers were Dutch. (INFORMATION) According to Patricia McKissack in her biography Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?, Sojourner was sold four times before she was nine years old. (EVIDENCE-WITH-CITATION) This category of her early life reminds us that her famous voice for freedom was forged in the experience of her own captivity. (SO-WHAT)'

• Notice EVIDENCE-WITH-CITATION uses a signal phrase ('According to Patricia McKissack in her biography...'). SO-WHAT explains why the EARLY LIFE category matters — it ties to the larger thesis about her voice.

  model See narrative — full 4-band paragraph with each band color-coded on the board.

  prompt Teacher builds a TIES paragraph for category 1.

• What does the SO-WHAT band add that evidence-with-citation doesn't?
• Where in the TIES paragraph does the signal phrase appear?

M-4-S-WR-06-A Chart

Reproduction of MG-3 at 11x17: 4 stacked bands (purple/blue/orange/green) with the Sojourner Truth Category 1 worked example shown beneath, each sentence color-coded to its band, signal phrase highlighted yellow. Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-3 Chart Physical / non-image

TIES body-paragraph anchor chart: a 4-band stacked card — TOPIC-SENTENCE (purple, anchor icon — 'this body paragraph's category for the research topic'), INFORMATION (blue, book icon — 'what the sources tell us about this category'), EVIDENCE-WITH-CITATION (orange, magnifying-glass with quote-marks — 'a specific fact, quote, statistic, or example with signal-phrase attribution to the source'), SO-WHAT (green, lightbulb icon — 'a sentence that explains why this category matters for the research topic'). Worked example below: 'Sojourner Truth was born into enslavement in upstate New York around 1797. (TOPIC-SENTENCE) Her early life was shaped by slavery, separation from her family, and the Dutch language she spoke as a child. (INFORMATION) According to Patricia McKissack in her biography Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?, Sojourner was sold four times before she was nine years old. (EVIDENCE-WITH-CITATION) This category of her early life reminds us that her famous voice for freedom was forged in the experience of her own captivity. (SO-WHAT)' Print-ready 11x17.

• Use the color-coded sentence-strip kit (purple/blue/orange/green) to build body paragraph 1 (CATEGORY 1) for YOUR research thesis. Write each band on its colored strip, then transcribe onto paper.

  scaffold MG-3 anchor; sentence-strip kit per pair
• Share with partner. Partner names each band by color.

  scaffold Sentence frame: 'Your topic-sentence is ___. Your information is ___. Your evidence-with-citation is ___. Your so-what is ___.'

M-4-S-WR-06-B Illustration

Reference image of a Grade-4 TIES paragraph (handwritten) on a research topic 'golden lion tamarin habitat' with each sentence underlined in its band color (purple/blue/orange/green) and signal phrase highlighted yellow with author name circled. Print-ready 8.5x11.

• Color-annotate your body paragraph 1 with the 4 colors.
• Move status-tile to DRAFT.

• Star your strongest band.
• Predict: tomorrow we meet signal phrases more deeply.

• At home tonight, draft body paragraph 2 (CATEGORY 2) using TIES. Bring tomorrow.