Hamburger Paragraph

What is a hamburger paragraph?

A hamburger paragraph is a way of planning a paragraph using the picture of a burger: the top bun is the topic sentence, the fillings are the supporting details, and the bottom bun is the concluding sentence. Children fill each layer separately, then read the layers downwards to get a paragraph that holds together.

It is a generic teaching device rather than anyone's programme — you will find it in classrooms on both sides of the Atlantic under names like the burger paragraph, the sandwich paragraph and the hamburger model, all doing the same job.

What are the parts of a hamburger paragraph?

Layer	What it does	What it sounds like
Top bun	States the point the whole paragraph is going to make.	"Stanley changes most when he starts carrying Zero."
Fillings (2–3)	Evidence and explanation. Each one supports the top bun, not each other.	"On the mountain he …", "This matters because …"
Bottom bun	Answers the question directly, using the words of the question.	"So Stanley's biggest change is …"

The two buns are deliberately similar and that is not a mistake. A paragraph that ends roughly where it started, having earned it in the middle, reads as complete. It is the same idea as the point-evidence-explain structure, laid out as a picture instead of a set of initials.

How do you teach it?

1. Build the layers out of order. Fillings first, then ask what they are all evidence of — that is the top bun, and discovering it is far more useful than being handed it.
2. Write the bottom bun with the question in front of you, and reuse the question's own words. This single habit fixes most under-marked comprehension answers.
3. Read it downwards, out loud. If it sounds repetitive, the fillings are not doing enough work.
4. Take the picture away. Once the shape is secure, do the same paragraph on plain lined paper. The organiser has done its job when it is not needed.

When should children stop using it?

Sooner than most schools do, and it is worth saying plainly. The hamburger is scaffolding, and scaffolding that stays up becomes a cage. Two signs it has outlived its usefulness: paragraphs that all come out exactly three sentences long regardless of the question, and conclusions that restate the opening word for word because the shape demanded a bottom bun and there was nothing left to say.

By upper Year 6 most children should be planning with a single line of notes and writing paragraphs of whatever length the point requires. Keep the organiser for the children who still need it, for a genuinely difficult question, or for the first paragraph of a new text type — not as the default.

Hamburger paragraph example

Question: How does the author make the reader feel sorry for the Iron Man?

• Top bun: The author makes us feel sorry for the Iron Man by showing him broken and alone before we ever see him as a threat.
• Filling 1: He falls from the cliff and is scattered in pieces on the beach, and his own hand has to search for his eye.
• Filling 2: Nobody helps him. The gulls watch and the sea comes in, and he puts himself back together on his own.
• Filling 3: We meet him this way first, so when the farmers later call him a monster, we already know something they do not.
• Bottom bun: The author makes us feel sorry for the Iron Man by letting us see him hurt and alone before anyone else calls him dangerous.

Which year groups is it for?

Years 3 to 6, and grades 2 to 5. In Year 3 use two fillings rather than three and provide the top bun. Year 4 and 5 is where it does most of its work. In Year 6, use it to fix specific weaknesses — missing conclusions, unexplained evidence — rather than as the standard way to plan, and start moving the class off it in the spring term.