WELCOME TO
DAY 4
QUICK WRITE
In your opinion, what living thing do you
consider to be the best, most useful
model for DARPA’s next robot? Give
evidence from your reading to support
your reasoning in your essay.
Foundational Skills
Handwriting
http://prezi.com/hntzh06iggxq/handwriting/
Sentence
Combining
BASED ON RESEARCH BY
STEVE GRAHAM AND BRUCE SADDLER
“In the array of skills a writer
must use effectively, one of
the most important is the
ability to construct
sentences.”
Bruce Saddler
“As a curriculum supplement, sentence combining provides mindful
practice in manipulating and rewriting basic phrases or clauses into more
varied and syntactically mature forms.”
-Bruce Saddler
Students can combine kernel sentences.
My cat is lazy.
My cat is old.
My cat is old and lazy.
Students can also decompose sentences that are overly complex or
ambiguous.
Three theoretical principles support sentence combining
practice:
1. Writers need instruction in formulating
a concept of what a written sentence is and
the syntactical options that are possible
when producing a sentence.
2. Once the sentence formation and
reformation process becomes more
familiar through sustained, systematic
practice, the overall cognitive strain a
writer experiences while writing is
reduced, allowing attention to shift to
other writing tasks.
3. Gains in syntactical fluency, the ability
to produce a variety of sentences, lead to
quality writing by making a composition
more enjoyable to read.
The goal
“Instead of constructing longer sentences, the
value of sentence combining may reside in
making sentences and whole discourse better
through employing a variety of syntactical
forms-the goal being clarity of thought instead
of complexity.”
Bruce Saddler
Example of Sentence Combining:
The boys were working.
The girls were working.
(and)
The boys and girls were working.
Combine these into one sentence
The fish were blue.
The fish were small.
The fish were in a tank.
The fish were swimming.
They were in a group.
Teach Specific Techniques
1.Inserting adjectives and adverbs
-The teacher walked down the hall.
-The teacher walked quickly.
The teacher walked quickly down the hall.
-The student worked on his writing.
-The student was quiet.
The quiet student worked on his writing.
2. Producing compound subjects and objects
-Kelly wanted to play basketball.
-Joseph wanted to play basketball.
Kelly and Joseph wanted to play basketball.
-Chloe wanted a balloon.
-Chloe wanted some bubbles.
Chloe wanted a balloon and bubbles.
3. Producing compound sentences with and
and but
-Trevor wanted to play lacrosse.
-Ty wanted to play soccer. (but)
Trevor wanted to play lacrosse, but Ty wanted
to play soccer.
4. Producing possessive nouns
-I love that car.
-It is Susan’s.
I love Susan’s car.
5. Producing sentences with adverbial clauses
using connecting words (because, after, until,
and when)
-I went to the grocery store.
-I needed milk. (because)
I went to the grocery store because I needed
milk.
6. Producing sentences with relative clauses
-The student will be first in line.
-The student is closest to the door.
The student who is closest to the door will be
first in line.
Instructional Method
 1. Show how to do it, and establish why it is
important.
(TEACH)
 2. Provide students with assistance until they can
apply the skill correctly and indpendently.
(GUIDED
PRACTICE)
 3. Have all students to apply the skill when they write.
(APPLY)
Doing this once is not enough!
Improvement
 Teachers who have taught sentence combining
have found improvement in punctuation AND
quality of writing.
Took time and effort
 Kept sessions short (10-15 mins)
 Part of revision instruction
 Took revision beyond editing

Resources
Free archived presentation: http://ctl.uoregon.edu/pd/cf10/presentation/1035
Saddler, Bruce. "Best Practices in Sentence Construction Skills. Best Practices in
Writing Instruction. 2nd Edition. New York: Guilford Press, 2013. 238- 256.
Saddler, B., & Preschern J. (2007). Improving sentence writing ability through
sentence combining practice. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(3), 6-11.
Available for free from:
http://teacherweb.stcharles.k12.mo.us/sped/instructional%20resources_files/Writing_
files/sentence%20combining.pdf
REVISION
“Teachers have the greatest opportunity to teach students
about good writing when students evaluate and change
what they have already written.”
-Charles A. MacArthur
REVISION VS. EDITING
Revising is changing to make your
writing better.
Editing is correcting errors such as
spelling, punctuation, and grammar
mistakes.
REVISION
re=again
vision = to see
to see your work again
REVISION
*Revision can happen during writing and after
completing a draft.
* Teachers find it difficult to get students to go
beyond editing for errors.
*Ideas learned during revision should carry over
to other pieces of writing.
When you Revise You can
ADD*SUBTRACT*MOVE*CHANGE
Questions you can ask when
revising?
Does everything make sense?
Have I expressed myself well?
Have I chosen the best words?
Do I have enough interesting and important details?
Have I reached my goal for this genre?
Research on Revision
The next few slides contain findings from existing
research on several instructional approaches or
methods.
Why is this important?
We can learn from research and apply the best
methods in our classrooms!
TEACHER FEEDBACK
-Most common is for teacher to provide feedback
and to ask students to revise.
-Written feedback not very effective.
-More effective to conference with students
about their writing.
Research on REVISION INSTRUCTION
Critical Reading
-Students who critically read a piece and can
identify comprehension problems in writing
become better at revising.
Research on REVISION INSTRUCTION
Word Processing
-Using a word processor by itself doesn’t improve
revision
Research on REVISION INSTRUCTION
Strategy Instruction
-Teaching students how to self-evaluate using
specific criteria.
-Giving students steps to use in revising specific
genre of writing
-Instruction in revision can lead to improved
revision and quality of writing
Research on REVISION INSTRUCTION
PEER REVISION
-Peer feedback can be more frequent and
immediate than a teacher can provide.
-Students need training in order to make peer
revision effective.
-Peer revision should be integrated into writing
instruction and evaluation.
-Students learn from giving AND receiving
feedback.
Research on REVISION INSTRUCTION
Example
Peer Revision Strategy
1. Listen while the author reads the paper.
2. Tell what the paper was about and what you liked
about it.
3. Read the story (or listen to it again) and ask the
evaluation questions. (Insert specific questions here)
4. Discuss the evaluation and ways to make the paper
better.
5. Author makes changes.
How can we get students to go
beyond the first draft?
How do we get kids to go
beyond the editing errors?
Turn and Talk
Charles A. MacArthur says,
“ It is easy and time-efficient to give
students the opportunity to apply
evaluation rubrics to papers written
by unknown peers, and it helps
them to improve their own papers.
This experience could be an
effective way to train students for
actual peer review.”
EDITING
Let’s Take a Look at our
Language Standards
First open up to the language anchor standards
We will be looking specifically at standards 1-3