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Sentence Writing Strategy revised

The author: Jean Schumaker is Associate Director of the Center for Research on Learning. This article originally appeared in the July 1999 issue of Strategram, a newsletter for SIM teachers.

What's new under the SIM sun is a two-level Sentence Writing Strategy program! Over the years, many teachers provided feedback that their students just were not prepared to begin instruction in the Sentence Writing Strategy. They said that their students did not know how to find subjects and verbs in sentences, were identifying the verb within an infinitive as the verb of the sentence, and were identifying the noun in a prepositional phrase as the subject of the sentence. They pleaded for a program that would give their students these prerequisite skills. Elementary teachers also asked for a program they could use that would be less complex but that would teach younger students how to write simple sentences.

The first level of the two-level Sentence Writing Strategy program, called Fundamentals in the Sentence Writing Strategy, does just that. It can be used at the elementary, secondary, or post-secondary level to teach students the basic concepts, vocabulary, and skills involved in sentence writing. In a nutshell, through this program, students learn how to identify subjects and verbs and other parts of speech, the steps of the Sentence Writing Strategy (PENS), and how to write simple sentences. Once students learn these skills, they are prepared to enter the second level of the program, called Proficiency in the Sentence Writing Strategy, in the compound sentences section. Teachers who use the two-level program in this way find that students learn the skills quickly and easily, they make a smooth transition into learning the more complicated types of sentences, and they become fluent writers with less stress.

The two-level program can be used in other ways as well. Older students who have a basic grasp of the concepts of subjects and verbs might begin instruction in the Proficiency program in the simple sentences part. Then, when they have difficulties, selected lessons from the Fundamentals program can be used. For example, if the student has difficulties identifying helping verbs, the lesson on helping verbs in the Fundamentals program can be used. If the student identifies the verb within an infinitive as the verb of the sentence, the lesson on infinitives in the Fundamentals program can be used.

Another way the two-level program is being used involves sequencing the instruction in the Sentence Writing Strategy across the grades in general education language arts classes. In some schools, children in the second and third grades are learning to write sentences using the Fundamentals program, and children in the fourth and fifth grades are learning to write compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences in the Proficiency program. Other creative writing activities can be woven into language arts instruction to provide a rounded writing program. Students with disabilities receive additional instruction in their special education class so that they can keep up with their general education class. Thus, the two-level program can be used as a developmental curriculum at the elementary level.

The Fundamentals program is different from the Proficiency program in several ways. First, and most importantly, the instructor's manual has a new format. The manual is divided into lessons (Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, etc.) instead of instructional stages (Stage 1: Pretest, Stage 2: Describe, Stage 3: Model, etc.). Each lesson focuses on a major concept; for example, Lesson 1 focuses on the five requirements of a complete sentence, and Lesson 2 focuses on the "PENS" Steps.

Each lesson is short, but it contains a review of mastered concepts, an advance organizer for the lesson, a description of the new concept, models, verbal practice, guided practice, and independent practice. Associated with each lesson are several worksheets. Students work through the worksheets in a way similar to the way they work through the worksheets in the Proficiency program. That is, they advance to the next level of difficulty if they have reached mastery, or they continue on the same level of difficulty if they have not reached mastery. The worksheets are short, too; they require students to work with or write only five sentences.

Another way in which the Fundamentals program is different from the Proficiency program is that it contains a substrategy called "MARK." This substrategy is used during the new "S" step in "PENS," called "Search and Check." Students learn the "MARK" substrategy as they work through the different lessons so that they can search through each sentence to check it for completeness.

The Proficiency program is made up of the old Sentence Writing Strategy program, which has been extensively revised to correspond to the new Fundamentals program so that students' transitions from one program to the other will be seamless and smooth. Revisions have been made to both the instructor's manual and the student lessons manual for this purpose. Additionally, the new Proficiency instructor's manual now corresponds to the "stages" of acquisition and generalization instead of the old "steps."

Anyone who has received professional development instruction in the Sentence Writing Strategy is eligible to purchase the new programs. The instructor's manuals are available through the Center for Research on Learning, and the student lessons manuals are available through Edge Enterprises.