The Teacher Says… ‘Write That in Your Own Words.’

As teachers, we are professional paraphrasers! All that time spent in college made us expert note-takers, researchers, and writers. However, we didn’t learn to paraphrase in college because that happened way back in elementary school! Some of our earliest writing memories include the words…”Write that in your own words.” We didn’t know it, and neither do your students…but they’re also on the way to mastering how to paraphrase!

What Is Paraphrasing? Writing in Your Own Words Made Easy

How do you explain paraphrasing without just saying, ‘Write it in your own words.’ Here’s a quick and easy way to help your students understand.

Paraphrasing is a speaking or writing technique used to share the meaning of something spoken or written using your own words. It is your version of the ideas and information expressed initially by someone else.

Once they’ve learned the basics, it’s time to teach them the process of paraphrasing text correctly and preventing plagiarism. That’s where we come in!

Teach Students How to Paraphrase With Us!

This engaging resource includes an interactive teaching slide deck designed to introduce your students to paraphrasing in upper elementary grades. It takes students through the process and checklist they can follow to ensure they use their own words instead of the original author’s. This resource includes:

• Conversation Starter KWL Activity
• Instructional slides on what paraphrasing is and why it is important
• Information on plagiarism and how to prevent it
• A 4-step Paraphrasing Checklist for Young Writers
• Interactive slides to show students examples of sentences written using paraphrasing techniques
• A Summative Assessment slide to review the concept

This slide deck is designed to run in presentation mode and features animations to help your lesson progress.

Download, Project, and Teach!

You’re just a click away from getting your new resources! Use the Download button to download the Editable Google Slides resource file. You’ll be prompted to make a copy. Once that is complete, you’re ready to teach!

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and Teach Starter Collaborator.

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