Sentence Crafting

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Explain that authors do something called SVP, or Sentence Pattern Variation. When an author sprinkles in different kinds of sentences, it makes reading rhythmic and interesting. Different sentence patterns will naturally lead to sentences of varying lengths.
• Revisit the highlighted class example.
• Tell students that they are going to learn how to make short sentences more interesting by adding descriptive word pairs or clusters called adverbial phrases. They will also learn to enhance the rhythm of their writing by taking two simple sentences and making them into one compound sentence.
• Write these two strategies for crafting sentences on the board.

Guided Practice

• Distribute the worksheet Use Adverbial Phrases to Improve Writing.
• Go over the exercise, doing some together and allowing students to practice some on their own.
• When finished, share student examples and discuss.
• As a class, look back at the page of text and see if any adverbial phrases were used to start sentences.

Independent working time

• Distribute copies of Compound Your Sentences.
• Go over the instructions for the activity as a class.
• Divide students into groups of three or four. (You may choose to do this before distributing the worksheet.)
• Emphasize that, in this activity, students must say “comma” before the conjunction or they get a strike.
• Allow about 30 minutes to prep for and play the game.