TIDE Instructional Materials
The TIDE writing strategy helps students organize their responses to writing prompts using a simple, powerful structure: Topic sentence, Important evidence, Detail, and Ending. Designed to improve both comprehension and composition, TIDE encourages students to clearly introduce their topic, support it with relevant ideas and evidence, explain those ideas through elaborative detail, and close with a meaningful conclusion.
The TIDE rubric goes beyond the presence of elements—it emphasizes the quality and depth of student writing. Each element is scored across three levels: 0 (Absence), 1 (Presence), and 2 (Sophistication).
- Topic: A sophisticated topic sentence provides relevant context and an engaging hook.
- Idea: A strong idea includes insightful, inferential evidence beyond simple summarization.
- Detail: Supporting details elaborate on the idea with synthesis, explanation, or connections to the main point.
- Ending: A thoughtful conclusion includes a generalization, outcome, or call to action that ties back to the topic.
This strategy supports students in developing structured, idea-rich writing, and is especially effective in helping educators analyze and scaffold students' ability to write with clarity and depth. Instruction using TIDE not only improves writing scores but also boosts students’ ability to analyze, organize, and explain information across content areas.
Use the TIDE rubric to:
- Diagnose strengths and gaps in student writing
- Provide targeted feedback and instruction for each writing element
- Guide students from simply “including” content to writing with purpose, clarity, and impact
TIDE is particularly beneficial for students who need explicit support in structuring evidence-based writing—such as multilingual learners, students with disabilities, or those developing foundational writing skills.
Topic Sentence
The topic sentence is a crucial part of a paragraph, because it introduces the reader to the subject matter of the following text. A clear topic sentence engages the audience and provides structure to the composition.