Connectors

To transform a list of sentences into a text you need to show the relationship between one sentence and the next, or the previous ones, by means of logical connectors. These links express relationships of cause and effect, addition, contrast, etc.

Look at this example from a composition by one of the students in the A-level class and decide which connectors should appear in each gap. You can drag your mouse pointer across each gap to see the connector (gaps with the same colour are of the same type, so you can sometimes replace one connector with another):

Opinion Contrast Addition Cause Condition Summarising

I think the flipped classroom is an interesting concept. In_my_opinion, the best thing about it is how it allows students to learn at their own pace. While in an ordinary class a student has to learn something in about fifty minutes or so, with the flipped classroom he can spend all the time he wants with the lesson. On_the_other_hand, if a student understands the lesson in ten minutes, he does not have to waste time learning something he already knows. To_add_to_that, doing homework becomes easier because the teacher can help you if you get stuck in an exercise.

However, the flipped classroom method is not perfect. One of its shortcomings is that the teacher needs to find good videos explaining the subject, which might be difficult and take a lot of time. Also, the method is useless if the student does not watch the videos at home. Teachers can control whether a student is physically in the classroom or not, but they can't control what the students do when at home.

Overall, I believe the flipped classroom is a method worth trying, despite its shortcomings.

Pay attention also to word order:

The first words in a sentence are the topic of that sentence (i.e., what the sentence is about).
The last words in a sentence usually contain the most interesting or new information.

The information is arranged in a similar way in a text:

The first sentence in a text usually informs the reader of the main topic of that text, so the topic of the first sentence is often the topic of the whole text.
The last sentence (or the last few sentences) in the text usually include a final conclusion, a summary or more personal information, like a personal opinion.

Remember also that you can use relative clauses to avoid repetition and join sentences together. Can you find one non-defining and two defining relative clauses in the text?

1 (defining)
with the flipped classroom he can spend all the time (that) he wants with the lesson.
2 (defining)
he does not have to waste time learning something (that) he already knows.
3 (non-defining)
the teacher needs to find good videos explaining the subject, which might be difficult

JJCC