Sentence Writing: First Step or Side-by-Side Skill?

There is an ongoing back-and-forth argument about writing instruction. Some say that before students are ever ready to write a full page, story, essay, or even paragraph, they must master writing sentences first. Others say that students can learn sentence writing alongside writing whole pieces. What do students benefit from the most? Should sentence writing come first and foremost, before writing longer pieces? Let’s dig in.

There is no question we all want our students to write well. And with that comes writing a variety of complete and clear sentences. We want writing to be grammatically and syntactically correct, with correct punctuation. After all, if these things are not in place, the writing will not be understood by the reader.

All of the parts that go into proper sentence structure with correct conventions must be explicitly taught. There is no question about that. This is because, plain and simple, “One by one, sentences (oral or written) communicate ideas that add up to make meaning.” (Joan Sedita, June 2, 2020)

“Of the many difficulties writers encounter when engaged in the complex act of writing, crafting sentences that accurately convey the meaning is particularly challenging…. manipulating sentences is both effortful and critical.”
Joan Sedita, Keys to Literacy

Sentence writing is complex.

Which takes time to teach. We don’t stop at simple sentences. We want students to write with greater variety, which requires higher levels of sophistication. So the idea of “mastering” sentence writing is a misnomer. Sentence “mastery” takes years to develop. We cannot hold students back from writing while we wait for sentence writing mastery. The IES guide, Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers also reminds teachers that students should “independently practice writing their ideas in complete sentences.” In other words, we need to give them a lot of opportunity to practice what we’ve taught.

“If you teach kids how to use complex sentence structure in their own writing…they’re in a much better position to understand it in their reading.”
Judith Hochman, Science of Reading podcast, 5/21/25

Understanding sentence structure in writing also, of course, transfers to reading. Students will encounter a tremendous variety of sentences not just in their own reading, but also in our read alouds. This is why Sedita says that “Efficient processing of sentence structure is necessary for overall comprehension.” Knowledge of the way sentences work–and work together–is crucial for reading comprehension. It’s why the 2018 IES guide, Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers, advises that teachers “explicitly demonstrate how sentence construction and sentence mechanics, such as punctuation and capitalization, interact to form strong sentences.”

When do we teach sentence writing?

The kind of explicit sentence writing instruction that the IES authors advise happens, of course, in specific writing lessons, but any opportunity for shared writing across the day is also a time to teach and reinforce these exact same skills.

“Students should learn to write strong sentences that convey their intended meaning and engage readers.”
Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers, IES

The more often we embed these ideas into the writing we naturally do in front of students, the stronger the likelihood that they will take it on for themselves. BTW, if you’re unsure about how to go about doing shared writing (also called collaborative writing), check out Leah Mermelstein’s We Do Writing. It’s an excellent little guide.

BUT. In order for strong sentence writing to occur…

We must remember that much of this skill is developed through oral language. Kids today do not often speak in beautiful, complex sentences. They hardly speak in complete sentences at all! Which means that when we have a conversation with students or they have a conversation with each other, we need to do everything we can to help them raise the level of their oral language.

Black boy in blue sweater writing with blue pencil while caucasian girl in blue stripes helps. — Student conversation about writing will lift the level of student work. Image via Depositphotos.

For example, you pose a question in math class. But rather than accepting a single word or short phrase answer, demand (nicely!) that they repeat that answer to you in a complete sentence. You may have to provide them with a sentence starter, but the more that this happens across the day every day and becomes the expectation, the more comfortable and fluent they will become with speaking this way. And when that happens, they will become more comfortable writing that way.

Years ago, in her book Talk About Understanding, Ellin Oliver Keene gave the great advice that students must “first think it, say it, and then write it.” She was talking about drafting writing, but it holds true with sentences as well.

This oral language development takes place over time.

A lot of time. But that certainly doesn’t mean that oral language and written sentence development are all we do. Students must also become comfortable with the writing process. This is a comfortability that requires much experience, coaching, and encouragement. It does not happen automatically, and it has to do with much more than just writing well-developed sentences. There are a slew of additional skills that must be developed at the same time: executive function, spelling, handwriting, word choice, and more.

Students should not be limited to only sentence writing before being asked to write something larger.

Because here’s the deal. The more they write, the more practice they get. This is why writing with volume makes a big impact. If we only ever ask kids to write sentences and don’t move past that, they only get a little practice with one kind of sentence, when they also need practice with the whole writing process.

Which means…

If we explicitly teach sentence writing while also building their oral language alongside writing longer pieces, it is that much more opportunity to apply the skills that we’re teaching them. Will it be perfect? Absolutely not. Why?

Cognitive load.

When students are really writing, there is so much to think about. and that is what we need kids to get comfortable with. The IES guide authors wisely explain that writing “is a highly complex, cognitive, self-directed activity, driven by the goals writers set for what they want to do and say and the audience(s) for whom they are writing. To meet these goals, writers must skillfully and flexibly coordinate their writing process from conception to the completion of a text.” This complexity is why literacy expert Melanie Meehan says that “it’s so much harder for people to identify themselves as a writer than it is to identify themselves as a reader.”

Asian boy writing sentences with blue pencil. — Writing takes tremendous cognitive load. Image via Depositphotos.

Which is why we absolutely don’t want them to stay stuck in just writing sentences. This is not only stifling, it’s a disingenuous portrayal of what writing really involves. Students need to understand all that writing entails; that it is so much more than just sentence writing. Yes, we want them to get to a place where they can write many different sentences across pages, all with skill. And we’re going to teach that very, very well. But we also want them to grapple with word choice, organization, word choice that targets their audience, regaining focus when it gets messy, and more.

All things that are learned by doing.

When students write whole pieces, they’re learning more because they’re doing more.

Think about this: a basketball coach would never only work on dribbling with players for months on end. The basketball coach would of course do some explicit teaching and coaching around dribbling, but put it right in the context of other skills like passing, shooting free throws, and staying in bounds. The basketball coach would provide many, many opportunities for players to play the game so they can learn to consolidate all the skills that go into a real game of basketball. The coach knows that every single game-like experience will further each players’ skills.

We will also teach sentence writing in small groups and/or individually through one on one conferring. We will still continue to notice what our students are doing and bring that into our subsequent shared, collaborative writing lessons.

Students can write fantastic sentences while they write longer pieces.

There is no need to choose one or the other.

As with so many things and literacy, they need both. It’s not either or, it’s both/and.

Could you use support with finding ways to help your students become stronger writers, I’m here to help. Just reach out for a coaching call and we’ll work through it together!

Coach from the Couch offers virtual literacy coaching sessions.

Who is Coach from the Couch? I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach. I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can. Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!