Strengthening Sentences: Sentence Imitating, Sentence Combining, and More
Demonstration Lesson by Claudia Dorsey
CUWP Summer Institute 2009
Find the PowerPoint and Handout at
http://strongersentences.pbworks.com/
Background: As we’ve discussed what we should do to help our students improve their writing, I and my fellow seventh grade teachers at American Fork Junior High, keep coming back to the idea that many of our students (actually most, if not all) need help at the sentence level.
Trying direct instruction, we kept hearing, “What is a noun?” and “Isn’t the word 'I' a proper noun?” Selectively pointing out repeated errors in their papers for them to work on often failed because they didn’t understand what we were trying to tell them. Daily oral language became “once-in-awhile” oral language because I wasn’t seeing transfer to student’s own writing.
Research had nixed many of the strategies I’d tried, but there was some positive talk among experts (the ones who weren’t nay-sayers about all such efforts) concerning sentence combining and imitating.
I’ve used sentence combining. When I was new to teaching junior high in the ‘90s, the materials I was handed along with the keys to a classroom included sheets of sentence combining activities, and I used them now and then. Does anyone remember the classic “Tucker was a trucker. He was stuck. He was in the muck. He was out of luck. He was near Winnemucca.”?
The now and then combining didn’t seem to do much for my students, or for me. Now I realize that I had only a shallow understanding of how to help my students through sentence combining.
A couple of years ago, I discovered Killgallon’s Sentence Composing for Middle School, and was excited at the possibilities, but once again, I wasn’t consistent. Part of the problem was that I was trying to follow too closely what I saw as the program prescribed in the book, and my students (and I) grew weary too soon. Again this year I did a little of each, but still was not consistent enough to make any real progress.
Curious, and feeling that if applied correctly, these practices could positively impact student writing, I’ve decided to again do daily sentence work – at least most days – and with an increased understanding of how to make it work for both me and the students. So here goes. . .
Showing posts with label sentences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sentences. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Strengthening Sentences: Burning Questions
Strengthening Sentences: Burning Questions
1. What can I do to help my students write clearer, stronger sentences? (That does include capitalizing sentence beginnings and punctuating the endings, as well as saying what they mean in between.)
2. How can I engage (and maintain engagement for) my students and myself in the work that must be done to improve sentences? (Can at at least part of it feel a bit like play?)
3. Will the work we do with sentences transfer to their paragraphs, essays, narratives, and other writing?
4. I'm wondering how students can IMITATE and COMBINE to clarify and express understanding in other content areas.
5. I'm wondering if I can contribute to what teachers are doing in the other content areas by selecting model sentences and paragraphs and topics that will reinforce student learning in those classes.
1. What can I do to help my students write clearer, stronger sentences? (That does include capitalizing sentence beginnings and punctuating the endings, as well as saying what they mean in between.)
2. How can I engage (and maintain engagement for) my students and myself in the work that must be done to improve sentences? (Can at at least part of it feel a bit like play?)
3. Will the work we do with sentences transfer to their paragraphs, essays, narratives, and other writing?
4. I'm wondering how students can IMITATE and COMBINE to clarify and express understanding in other content areas.
5. I'm wondering if I can contribute to what teachers are doing in the other content areas by selecting model sentences and paragraphs and topics that will reinforce student learning in those classes.
Strengthening Sentences: Hypothesis
Strengthening Sentences: Hypothesis
Research suggests that correctly using sentence imitation and sentence combining techniques will help my students improve their writing. Using these techniques wisely and well over time will be worthwhile. As I've studied about these techniques, I've picked up on variations and added activities that could enrich the "study" of how to generate diverse and effective sentences.
Note: More than once in my reading, I found statements, based on research, suggesting that sentence combining/imitation does result in improvement of student writing/sentences -- improvement that is accelerated over that of students in a control group not taught with combining and imitation. Apologetically added to those statements was the admission that the control group caught up with time. (Sources cited to be inserted here.)
That does not discourage me from using these teaching strategies. The sooner my students can feel more comfortable and confident with their writing, the better! I've spent too long working with readers who, because they are behind their peers, develop negative attitudes toward reading and miss out on much of the learning that is otherwise available to them. The development of competency in reading and writing must be a priority for teachers now.
Research suggests that correctly using sentence imitation and sentence combining techniques will help my students improve their writing. Using these techniques wisely and well over time will be worthwhile. As I've studied about these techniques, I've picked up on variations and added activities that could enrich the "study" of how to generate diverse and effective sentences.
Note: More than once in my reading, I found statements, based on research, suggesting that sentence combining/imitation does result in improvement of student writing/sentences -- improvement that is accelerated over that of students in a control group not taught with combining and imitation. Apologetically added to those statements was the admission that the control group caught up with time. (Sources cited to be inserted here.)
That does not discourage me from using these teaching strategies. The sooner my students can feel more comfortable and confident with their writing, the better! I've spent too long working with readers who, because they are behind their peers, develop negative attitudes toward reading and miss out on much of the learning that is otherwise available to them. The development of competency in reading and writing must be a priority for teachers now.
Strengthening Sentences: Core Standards
Strengthening Sentences: Core Standards
Utah State Core: Seventh Grade Language Arts
Standard 2 -
Objective 3 (Revision and Editing): Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice,
word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.
a. Evaluate and revise for: . . .
Varied sentence beginnings and sentence length.
Utah State Core: Seventh Grade Language Arts
Standard 2 -
Objective 3 (Revision and Editing): Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice,
word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.
a. Evaluate and revise for: . . .
Varied sentence beginnings and sentence length.
Strengthening Sentences: Rationale
Strengthening Sentences: Rationale for using Sentence Imitation, Combining, and other Related Exercises
1. ". . . using models in the teaching of writing can free students to concentrate on ideas, enabling them to concentrate on the content of what they are writing without being unduly restricted by concerns of form." (Butler)
2. “The first reason that we should reintroduce imitation in the composition classroom is that it would enable composition teachers to teach students what we expect them to write.” (Butler) [We should provide our students with clear expectations, clear learning targets.]
3. ". . . in some instances adherents of process approaches to writing create situations in which students ultimately find themselves held accountable for knowing a set of rules about which no one has ever directly informed them" (Delpit) [This especially, as Delpit and others point out, applies to our minority and lower income students.]
4. In their "For Teachers. . . " section of Sentence Composing for Elementary School, the Killgallons (vi) suggest that sentence imitation practices could also improve reading comprehension, and later quote (vii) from Francis Christensen the idea that work with sentence composing could help the student "thread the syntactical maze of much mature writing. . ." (137).
5. ". . . it seems that one objection to imitation, based on the idea that only an individual genius alone can produce a competent work, is unsound. When we write, we are not drawing exclusively upon what is within us but also upon many other factors in our lives: our environments, upbringing, past readings and writings, and conversations in many different contexts. All of these factors mix and match and affect what comes out on the page." (Butler)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Imitation is both sincere flattery, and profound pedagogy.” -- Don and Jenny Killgallon (viii)
"Even though imitation requires imagination, no one wants to admit it." -- Butler
"Imitate that you may be different" (190) -- Corbett
1. ". . . using models in the teaching of writing can free students to concentrate on ideas, enabling them to concentrate on the content of what they are writing without being unduly restricted by concerns of form." (Butler)
2. “The first reason that we should reintroduce imitation in the composition classroom is that it would enable composition teachers to teach students what we expect them to write.” (Butler) [We should provide our students with clear expectations, clear learning targets.]
3. ". . . in some instances adherents of process approaches to writing create situations in which students ultimately find themselves held accountable for knowing a set of rules about which no one has ever directly informed them" (Delpit) [This especially, as Delpit and others point out, applies to our minority and lower income students.]
4. In their "For Teachers. . . " section of Sentence Composing for Elementary School, the Killgallons (vi) suggest that sentence imitation practices could also improve reading comprehension, and later quote (vii) from Francis Christensen the idea that work with sentence composing could help the student "thread the syntactical maze of much mature writing. . ." (137).
5. ". . . it seems that one objection to imitation, based on the idea that only an individual genius alone can produce a competent work, is unsound. When we write, we are not drawing exclusively upon what is within us but also upon many other factors in our lives: our environments, upbringing, past readings and writings, and conversations in many different contexts. All of these factors mix and match and affect what comes out on the page." (Butler)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Imitation is both sincere flattery, and profound pedagogy.” -- Don and Jenny Killgallon (viii)
"Even though imitation requires imagination, no one wants to admit it." -- Butler
"Imitate that you may be different" (190) -- Corbett
Strengthening Sentences: Principles and Suggestions
Strengthening Sentences: Principles and Suggestions
Deborah Dean, in her book Strategic Writing provides these "Three overriding principles"(157):
1. ". . . I have to be engaged. I have to be interested in sentences and what they do and how they work. . . . I have to be the instigator and the example for my students."
2. ". . . this work with sentences shouldn't be about right and wrong but about what effects different structures and patterns have on meaning and on audience."
[These are Level 1* writing activities, sometimes moving on to level 2, but usually not graded. In her essay, "Sentence Combining: Building Skills through Reading and Writing," Dr. Dean adds that "Talk and reflection are essential."
3. ". . .What we do with sentences has to connect to what students are currently writing. . . . "Now I try to use effective sentences from models of the same genre my students are reading and writing so that structures match in genre, tone, and topic."
A suggestion from James Gray, as reported by Paul Butler:
"Eventually, students look at longer passages in order to see sentences used in context. According to Gray, this is the most important step in the process. "(in Butler)
And I add my own suggestions:
1. Consistency and "persistency": As a teacher you need to involve your students in sentence work on a daily basis over a long period of time.
That leads to
2. Variety: You can't do the same thing every day. You can be doing similar things with variations that keep up interest. Students tend to be comfortable within a routine, but more than one strategy can be used within that routine. See the next post -- on strategies -- for lists of strategies that fit under and extend on sentence imitation and sentence combining.
3. I must add an "amen" to Deborah Dean's insistence that the teacher must be enga
ged (interested) in these activities. Like Dr. Dean, I love finding and collecting those gems that are beautifully crafted sentences. And I genuinely enjoy trying to imitate them, and reading and hearing the imitations my students create. I became much more interested in sentence imitation and combining when I realized I could go out and find sentences I love, and I could involve students in digging up sentence treasures.
Photo from http://pro.corbisimages.com/
*Deborah Dean is also the source -- for me-- of the idea of levels of writing. "Level One writing is writing that is less formal, more spontaneous. It is writing that doesn't go through the entire writing process. . . . usually graded for participation or ideas or following directions."
(Adapted from Meyer and Meyer, Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools)
Deborah Dean, in her book Strategic Writing provides these "Three overriding principles"(157):
1. ". . . I have to be engaged. I have to be interested in sentences and what they do and how they work. . . . I have to be the instigator and the example for my students."
2. ". . . this work with sentences shouldn't be about right and wrong but about what effects different structures and patterns have on meaning and on audience."
[These are Level 1* writing activities, sometimes moving on to level 2, but usually not graded. In her essay, "Sentence Combining: Building Skills through Reading and Writing," Dr. Dean adds that "Talk and reflection are essential."
3. ". . .What we do with sentences has to connect to what students are currently writing. . . . "Now I try to use effective sentences from models of the same genre my students are reading and writing so that structures match in genre, tone, and topic."
A suggestion from James Gray, as reported by Paul Butler:
"Eventually, students look at longer passages in order to see sentences used in context. According to Gray, this is the most important step in the process. "(in Butler)
And I add my own suggestions:
1. Consistency and "persistency": As a teacher you need to involve your students in sentence work on a daily basis over a long period of time.
That leads to
2. Variety: You can't do the same thing every day. You can be doing similar things with variations that keep up interest. Students tend to be comfortable within a routine, but more than one strategy can be used within that routine. See the next post -- on strategies -- for lists of strategies that fit under and extend on sentence imitation and sentence combining.
3. I must add an "amen" to Deborah Dean's insistence that the teacher must be enga
ged (interested) in these activities. Like Dr. Dean, I love finding and collecting those gems that are beautifully crafted sentences. And I genuinely enjoy trying to imitate them, and reading and hearing the imitations my students create. I became much more interested in sentence imitation and combining when I realized I could go out and find sentences I love, and I could involve students in digging up sentence treasures.Photo from http://pro.corbisimages.com/
*Deborah Dean is also the source -- for me-- of the idea of levels of writing. "Level One writing is writing that is less formal, more spontaneous. It is writing that doesn't go through the entire writing process. . . . usually graded for participation or ideas or following directions."
(Adapted from Meyer and Meyer, Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools)
Strengthening Sentences: Strategies
Strengthening Sentences: Strategies that fit under and extend on sentence imitation and sentence combining
The Killgallons use these strategies in their work with sentence composing:
The Killgallons use these strategies in their work with sentence composing:
- Sentence Chunking (Identifying chunks of meaning within sentence)
- Sentence Unscrambling (Unscrambling chunks for meaning)
- Paragraph Unscrambling
- Recognizing Matching Sentence Structures
- Imitating Sentence Structures using new topics for the sentences.
- Imitating Paragraphs
- Imitating Long Sentences (Fellows from CUWP, Jeanette showed us this one with "Letter from Birmingham Jail.)
- Decombining Sentences
- Combining, then Imitating
- Combining in Paragraphs
- Sentence Expanding -- with words, with phrases, with clauses
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill Strong suggests that for basic readers you could use these sentence strategies:Anderson, in Everyday Grammar, discusses these strategies:
- Deconstruct
- Imitate -- show the model
- Students imitate
- Combine
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- Transcribing
- Content-Based Dictation
- Summarizing and Paraphrasing (after the teacher has broken a paragraph or passage up into a list of sentences.
- Sentence Combining
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There are two major types of sentence combining requests:
- Open -- Students may chose to combine the sentences in any way that works.
- Closed (or Cued) -- The teacher narrows the choice for how the sentences may be combined. The student must use the teacher-determined method to combine the sentences, such as using an appositive phrase, a participial phrase, or an adjective clause.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Why Sentences?
There are so many things to teach when teaching writing, and perhaps the best teaching is giving students opportunities to write and to read. Some of my seventh grade students come to me writing fluent, flowing, effective sentences. Others don't have enough of confidence and skills to get what they could say onto paper. I'd like to help both types of students -- the more proficient to expand their repertoires and to see that sentence revision can increase the clarity and power of their writing, and for the kids who lack sentence skills, I would like to open up to them their own potential for written expression.
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