Teaching Sentence Writing That Actually Sticks

With the resurgent focus on foundational literacy skills, coupled with the dismal results of national writing assessments, teachers see an increasing need to teach sentence writing.  It’s a big topic right now.  Do a quick TPT search, and almost 300,000 resources will appear.  But the thing is, none of those 300,000 products are needed.  Why?  Because there’s a better way.  Teaching sentence writing that actually sticks is all about connecting it to the real reading and writing already in place.

Teaching students to write a variety of strong, cohesive sentences is really important, so it’s smart to focus some attention on it.  Longtime writing guru and founder of Keys to Literacy, Joan Sedita reminds us of the criticality of strong sentence writing. She says that “Sentences, along with paragraphs, are the foundational building blocks of writing in any subject area.”  

Sentence writing instruction isn’t just important for clear and coherent writing; it’s also crucial for understanding complex sentences in reading, too.  

Students today often come to us with underdeveloped speaking skills.  The time they spend texting, speaking in one word or short phrases,  and reading graphic novels that don’t support sentence structure development all make a huge impact.   We have to reverse this, and that takes time.  A lot of time.

When we teach students how to move from simple to complex sentences in writing, we also strengthen what they can comprehend as readers.  So while we teach students to construct sentences, we also need to concurrently teach them how to deconstruct sentences they’ll come across in print.  One will strengthen the other, as reading and writing always go together.  This is key to helping students read and comprehend grade level text, something we all know is a huge challenge for many kids.  

Which is one reason those TPT downloads aren’t going to teach students in ways that stick.  While that kind of isolated practice might be a way to quickly review, what we really want to see is the transfer to actual reading and writing–what our state standards ask.  

What are the best ways to teach sentence writing that students will truly grasp?  

With tools you already have at your fingertips.  Tools that require no purchase or time at the copier.

Tool #1:  Your own model

Sentences found on worksheets or task cards are finished product examples, but examples are not enough.  We have to pull back the curtain to show how those examples were crafted.  We have to show students how they work.

The importance of modeling any aspect of writing cannot be overstated.  Through demonstration, coupled with your thinking aloud, teachers can clearly explain what goes into sentence writing.  It’s also easy to expand into greater complexity across the year.  

Sentence writing and expansion can be woven into the everyday learning taking place across the day.  In a previous post, I shared how creating a gist statement is actually sentence expansion work.  And it doubles as a comprehension check.  

Tool #2:  Your read alouds

There is no end to what the humble interactive read aloud can do.  They are of course foundational for comprehension work and perfect for modeling fluent reading.  But they’re also a great tool for connecting reading to writing.  Including how sentences work.

The texts that you use for read alouds are full of a variety of sentences.  It’s the idea behind Jeff Anderson’s Patterns of Power mentor sentence work (see video below). 

Pulling examples of sentences from the texts you’re already using is not only a timesaver for you because you don’t have to hunt for any materials; it’s better for students.  Why?  Because there is meaning and context behind them,and because they are a source of natural language.  They’re not random, isolated sentences contrived solely for the purpose of specific sentence practice.  These texts are perfect for a multitude of writing lessons, too, so they offer a lot of mileage.  

Tool #3  Your other content

Weaving sentence writing into your content classes gives that much more practice opportunity for students.  As I shared in another post, this is exactly what the premise behind The Writing Revolution is all about.  The magic is in intentionally adding in sentence writing work (and, later, paragraph and essay writing) over time, all the time.

We’ll never see the progress we want from students if we only teach these lessons once or twice at the beginning of the year.  Habits are developed through over and over practice.  Bringing this “ELA skill” into other areas of the day is the way to provide it.

There you have it.  Three deceptively simple ways to truly make teaching sentence writing stick.  Being intentional about bringing attention to it across the day and over time is what will make all the difference.  And it will make a difference!

If you could use support with developing sentence writing lessons, I’m here to help.  Just reach out for a coaching call!   

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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! 

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Or, consider joining my Facebook community! Here’s what you’ll get:

• Safe, nonjudgmental support 
• Book studies
• Live videos that answer big literacy questions
• Resources and articles to support instruction
• ZERO TPT product-pushing (I don’t have any TPT products) 
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