Welcome to the Shurley English Blog! For the past thirty-four years, our mission at Shurley Instructional Materials has been simple. We do all we can to help teachers and students experience grammar and writing success. With that goal in mind, we wanted to create a space where our team of educators could share tips, tricks, and techniques to ignite learning. It’s all about educators helping educators on the Shurley English Blog. We invite you to join the conversation!
Writing is a tool for communication, and language is the system of words and the methods of combining them that we use to express our thoughts and feelings to each other.
Did you know that good writers use certain traits that make their writing more successful? They’re called the Traits of Effective Writing, and although they take a lot of hard work and practice, they consist of skills that can be learned and mastered.
Read MoreIn Part 1 for Silent Final E, I discussed how Rule 1, The Split Vowel Spelling Rule, can ease students into the concept of a silent final e that makes a middle vowel sound long. This installment will further explain why many English words end with the silent final e—but for a different reason that is easy for kids to recognize.
Read MoreThe upcoming Thanksgiving holiday is the perfect time to help your students show appreciation for someone special in their lives by creating a special, handmade memento.
I’ve got a great activity that will take your students through the entire writing process to create a heartwarming essay to share with their loved ones. Here are the details…
Read MoreIt’s inevitable! You will become ill at some point during the school year. Now, whether you choose to take care of yourself and stay home or you try to make it through the day teaching may be a tough decision. I know you know that toughing it out and exposing your students and co-workers to whatever “bug” you caught is not the wisest decision, but still, we teachers do it anyway.
Once you’ve made your decision to
Read MoreVocabulary development is an important part of a child’s education! Since language is the system of words and the methods of combining them that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other, it makes since that a large vocabulary improves communication.
Read MoreIf the Capitalization and Punctuation References are creating stress in your Shurley English classroom, let me offer you some relief. Shurley English students are not expected to memorize the rules in one grade level.
Some teachers assume that
Read MoreTo a word lover, a cleverly constructed phrase with eloquent vocabulary can bring you to tears. I love studying how words look, how they are spelled—knowing how their structure, use, and placement determine their meaning. (Yes, I am a word nerd and proud of it. But that’s for me.) Very few of my students have been as enamored with words like I am, which presents quite a challenge when trying to help students see the value in using just the right words to communicate their ideas.
Read MoreIf you’re ready to learn English definitions in a fun and easy way, Shurley English Jingles are for you! Using domain-specific language, our definitions for the parts of speech and many other important language arts concepts incorporate rhythm, rhyme, and movement. Jingles provide the tools for critical thinking during sentence analysis and writing.
Read More
One of my favorite things to do is to play with words. I love to figure out how to turn a phrase in just the right way to make my meaning clear. That’s my goal for all students so that they can master the language and control it. Being able to manipulate language to fulfill your own purposes for communication is, in my opinion, an endeavor worth pursuing.
One of the features of Shurley English that I enjoy dabbling with is the Mover and Shaker Sentence. It is the off ramp from the Sentence Blueprints I have discussed in an earlier post. This kind of skill practice can help a student writer take the next important step toward highly refined revision skills. If you can convince a student writer to explore word and phrase arrangements to maximize their impact on a sentence, you have truly helped to elevate their writing. Here’s an example from our text that will show you a basic Mover and Shaker maneuver that you can have student writers begin practicing immediately.
To get started, guide your students through a Sentence Blueprint to construct a good focus sentence. After that, be sure to have them go through the revision process initially to make sure they have chosen the most effective words to express their thoughts. Then, try a Mover and Shaker strategy like the one in this example. Notice, we have done a little finagling with the verb. (In Shurley English, we teach students early and often about verb forms, so it will be a walk in the park for them to understand a verb form change from the past tense to the progressive tense. We also teach students how to manage affixes with expertise, so in the case of the verb tromped from our example, we drop the –ed past tense ending and replace it with the progressive tense –ing suffix.) Next, we take everything after the verb and, along with the new verb form tromping, we move it to the front of the sentence. Now, all that’s left is to come up with a new past tense verb to replace tromped from the original sentence. In this case, the verb bellowed serves up a great visual. Can’t you just picture it?
When your students have demonstrated their knowledge of basic revision skills and you want them to breathe new life into their sentences, why not try a Mover and Shaker strategy? It’s like word to word resuscitation! Until next time…
Some people are born with a natural ability to put their thoughts into words, but the ability to effectively put those words on paper requires a lot of hard work and practice. Good writing is a skill that develops over time; therefore, consistent instruction to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to write well is imperative.
That’s where Shurley English makes a huge impact! Each year, our curriculum teaches and reinforces the Traits of Effective Writing so that students have a better chance to develop a strong foundation in the writing process. The curriculum is designed to teach students how to communicate their thoughts effectively and write for all purposes with competence and confidence!
Sentence Fluency
Sentence Fluency is the 5th Trait of Effective Writing. It is defined as the ability to use various types of sentences and transition words to make writing sound smooth and polished. The skills required to master Sentence Fluency take time to develop; however, they make a huge difference in the overall effectiveness of a writing piece.
We encourage you to help your students master the art of sentence fluency. If you need assistance, the Shurley English curriculum is here to help!
Shurley English is the best English Language Arts curriculum available to public schools, private schools, and home educators.Shurley English is a rigorous curriculum that brings back student-teacher interaction, promotes higher-order thinking skills, and provides students with a successful base from which they can achieve mastery, retention, and enthusiasm for English.
Our mission is to inspire and empower ALL students to become competent, confident communicators by providing superior educational solutions and innovative teacher training tools. This will enable all students to positively impact their school, community, and future work environments.
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