August 29, 2019

Writing Toolbox: Composing Better Sentences

August 29, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Whether you teach language arts in the school classroom or your home classroom, you have to teach your kids how to write, right? To be clear, I don’t mean the mechanical parts of writing: holding the pencil correctly, positioning the notebook paper properly, and so on. I mean the actual generation of topics that kids know about and want to write about. I mean the composition of clear, concise sentences that convey what the writer is thinking. It would be nice if kids were natural writers and could pluck ideas (and the words needed to express those ideas) out of their brains at the first sign of a prompt, but most of the time, this is not the case.

What kid writers need is good modeling.

February 19, 2019

Sentence Pattern Study: Pattern 5

February 19, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Welcome back to the fourth entry in my series about sentence patterns. Remember, if you recognize the pattern of a sentence’s core parts, the grammar of the sentence (or its word arrangement) will make more sense. So far, you know about Pattern 1, Pattern 2, Pattern 3, and Pattern 4.

To get ready for Pattern 5, let’s first look at the

February 05, 2019

Sentence Pattern Study: Pattern 4

February 05, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Welcome back to the third entry in my series about sentence patterns. Remember, if you recognize the pattern of a sentence’s core parts, the grammar of the sentence (or its word arrangement) will make more sense. So far, you know about Pattern 1, Pattern 2, and Pattern 3.

Now…on to Pattern 4. For this sentence pattern, you need to pay careful attention to the verb. Take a look at our sample sentence:

January 22, 2019

Sentence Pattern Study: Pattern 3

January 22, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Last week, we began our study of sentence patterns. Remember, if you recognize the pattern of a sentence’s core parts, the grammar of the sentence (or its word arrangement) will make more sense. Last time, we discussed Pattern 1 and Pattern 2.

Today, let’s start our study with a new Pattern 2 Sentence:

January 15, 2019

Sentence Pattern Study: Pattern 1 and Pattern 2

January 15, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Learning English grammar can be tough, but, as the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. So, I am taking the high road on this series and making it visual—thereby sparing well over 980 words…and your sanity!

If you are up on your brain science, you know that our brains seek patterns to make sense of the world. In English, even our sentences fall into patterns. If you recognize the pattern of a sentence’s core parts, the grammar of the sentence (or its word arrangement) will make more sense. Look at this:

December 20, 2018

How to Improve the Structure of Sentences

December 20, 2018/ David Lutz

Teaching students to vary the word order that they use in their sentences to add interest and variety is a skill that you can model as you support your students in their growth as budding writers. Of course, sentence fluency is one of the effective traits that good writers develop to improve their ability to communicate. Mover and Shaker lessons support

December 06, 2018

What is a prepositional phrase?

December 06, 2018/ Jamie Geneva

Have you ever tried to describe something without using a prepositional phrase? Well, it’s almost impossible! Although prepositional phrases are not a requirement in every sentence, they certainly do help us: