Mentor Sentences
Invitation to Notice
- You share a well crafted sentence with students …
The dogs shared their yummy treats with Oscar.
- Then you simply ask “What Do You Notice?”
- At first they won’t know what you mean but they quickly come around
- They will eventually begin to say things like…he uses big words, he used a capital letter at the beginning, he used a period to show the end of a sentence.
- You may have to probe them a bit, but try not to show them what you want them to notice. For example you may want to say, “ What is the punctuation doing?” “ What would the effect be if I took them out?”
Invitation to Imitate
- Deconstruct the sentence for its prominent features.
- In this sentence, I want them to review that a sentence starts with a capital letter, has spaces between words, and ends with a period. I also want them to know that a sentence has two parts; the part that names and the part that tells.
- Show an imitation of your own and connect it back to the prominent features. Maybe use a frame to get them started.
The _____ _______ _______ ____ ______.
- Show students how to insert their own ideas and experiences and still imitate the structure or pattern.
I am going to try it but my sentence isn’t going to be about dogs.
I am going to write about cats.
The cats jumped over the gate.
- In their word study notebooks, or on sentence strips have them write a sentence that uses the same frame and but inserts their own ideas. You can then walk around and squat conference with kids as they are working.
Invitation to Celebrate
- Share their imitations and reflect on the writing that came out of them, sparked by a model. This is a time to laugh, clap and praise.
- It could be a great time to teach the kids to peer edit for one particular skill. For example, before we read the sentences share with your neighbor and make sure that there are no capital letters without a rule. One suggestion is to give students small stickers to place on their own sentence for each of the skills they imitated correctly.
Invitation to Collect
- You want them to delve into text and see how other authors used the conventions we are studying. At first, you will select the text that I know has an abundance of that convention.
- Make an anchor chart in the room to display the sentences and encourage students to notice in their reading this type of sentence construction.
- If a student uses the skill successfully in the writing then you may certainly add their sentence to the chart…always giving the author credit
Invitation to Edit
Now is a perfect time to mix in other concepts that you would like to review again, but in the context of a well written sentence. Show the correct sentence first. Then uncover one at a time (Start with one each day). To encourage student dialogue, give them a moment to notice the change and discuss it with a neighbor to see if they noticed the same thing. Then choose someone to present to the group. After that , ask them to discuss with a neighbor whether the change was good or bad and most importantly why. Choose a group or two to share with everyone.
The dogs shared their yummy treats with Oscar.
the dogs shared their yummy treats with Oscar.
The dogs shared their yummy treats with Oscar
Thedogsshared their yummy treatswithOscar.
