Power paragraphs

I've been spending time lately with my KS4 and KS5 groups looking at how to make the final paragraph of an extended writing task more powerful. It's been really to useful to read on this platform how colleagues elsewhere use a variety of techniques to do this and I have used many of them. I just had to 'sell' the idea to the students.

In one of a few relatively sleepless nights prior to an Estyn inspection, an idea came into my head. I get the students to think about their favourite piece of music and then to tell the class why this is so. What emerges is that the final verse and chorus tends to be more powerful than the rest of the tune and it leaves a longer lasting impression on the listener. Just to help them along with this idea I gave them a blast of Thunderstruck by AC/DC to prove my point.

The penny drops - make the ending powerful and it leaves a good impression on the examiner who may be reading the work after a long day in school. I've called it a Power Paragraph approach and I am liking what I am seeing in recently completed pieces of work from students of all abilities. When linked in with connectives such as I believe that/It depends on/ However etc it is a great way of 'papering' over some cracks that may appear in the main body of the student's work but leaving a good impression.

Of course I encourage evaluation and decision-making throughout the students' work but this really can be the cherry on the cake!

(Could be used in terms of favourite film/book/computer game as well)