MESD Early Literacy Network

Supporting Educators in the Science of Reading

April 2023

CREATING STRONG WRITERS STARTS AT THE SENTENCE LEVEL PART 2

Welcome to the April edition of the digital MESD Early Literacy Network!

The goal of this network is to help you stay up to date on the Science of Reading without needing to add another meeting to your calendar. All newsletter contents are shared to generate awareness of resources, local opportunities, and provide professional learning aligned with reading science. Archived newsletters are available on the MESD Early Literacy Webpage.

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Build clarity around Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences and your students' writing will be transformed!

This month I'm providing you with a set of slides you can use in trainings or with students to improve thinking and writing at the sentence level.

Model texts used:

Fritsch, K., McGuire, A., & Trejos, E. (2021) We Move Together. AK Press.

Spilsbury, L. & Splisbury, R. (2018)Tundra Biome. Crabtree Publishing Company

Tell Me More About Writing at the Sentence Level

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The Writing Revolution offers many ideas for how to work on writing at the sentence level and ways to embed writing into content, curriculum and knowledge building.

One Sentence at a Time: The Need for Explicit Instruction in Teaching Students to Write Well By Judith C. Hochman, Natalie Wexler (5 min. read)

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Prefer to listen?

Enjoy this Book Talk Podcast hosted by Melissa & Lori Love Literacy on The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman & Natalie Wexler

Episode 117: The Writing Revolution with Authors Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler.

It begins at the sentence level and content knowledge drives the rigor. There is an overlap in reading, writing, and critical thinking.

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Keys to Literacy offers several free visuals to support the writing process

WIth an acknowledged nod to Scarborough's Reading Rope, Joan Sedita's work offers a framework for explicit writing instruction across content.

Visit Keys to Literacy's Free Downloads of The Writing Rope and Sentence Basics quick reference sheet . Joan Sedita's latest blogpost discusses stages of the writing process THINK, PLAN, WRITE, REVISE. A lot of thinking and planning can be done with speaking and writing at the sentence level!