Tricks for Teaching Effective Paraphrasing in Middle School Language Arts
“Are you apt for sundry hoof dance?”
My sister and I had discovered my parents’ thesaurus in the basement bookshelf. For hours, we looked up synonyms in order to “translate” common expressions and sayings. And for the next several months, whenever Monday-night football came on the T.V., you could hear us sing-shouting, “Are you apt for sundry hoof dance?” instead of “Are you ready for some football?” because the thesaurus said it was the same thing.
Clearly, it was not the same thing.
Michelle knew that, and I knew that, but some of our students actually believe that replacing a few words with synonyms from a thesaurus turns a direct quote into a paraphrase. Others believe that it’s totally o.k. to copy and paste chunks of others’ words if they’re credited. It’s not enough to tell students, “Don’t plagiarize!” or “Paraphrase your sources!” Our students need us to show them how it’s done.
Here’s my favorite way to teach paraphrasing to my middle school students:
Before students arrive, choose a fun quote to use as an example. I like to use movie quotes or lyrics from a popular TikTok song, but any quote can work.
Write 5 different paraphrases for that 1 quote.
a good paraphrase with unique wording and sentence structure, but the same meaning
a paraphrase with identical sentence structure but words swapped out for synonyms
a paraphrase that misrepresents the original idea
a paraphrase with the same words as the original, but in a slightly different order
a paraphrase that skips part of the quote but still has some identical phrasing
Write each paraphrase on an index card or type them on pieces of paper.
When your students are ready, have them arrange the paraphrases from worst to best on the basis of originality and accuracy. Be sure to encourage conversation throughout the process. Getting the “right” answers is much less important than becoming aware of common paraphrasing mistakes and how to avoid them.
If your students need additional practice, you can repeat the activity with a new quote, or you can give students quotes to paraphrase on their own.
If this sounds like fun but you don’t have enough time to create your own paraphrasing cards, I have plenty available here!
Let me know how it goes!
I write about this activity and many others in my FREE pdf download: 144 Teaching Ideas for Every 7th-grade ELA Standard. Check it out!
-Olivia
