Glossary of Terms- Writing
Sentence Construction
Levels of Skill Proficiency/Codes
 Introduce (I) - initial instruction, concepts are either teacher
generated (K-1) or student generated.
 Practice (P) - guided or independent lessons as required by level
of understanding using massed or distributed practice.
 Mastery (M) - understand the skill in isolation and are ready to
develop fluency of various skills within different writing genres.
 Developing Fluency (DF)- using a variety of sentence types,
lengths, and beginnings within longer passages, while teachers
distribute and scaffold practice leading to student independence
of skills.
 Application (A) - independently applying the skills within their
everyday writing with little guidance
 Teacher Generated (TG) - term used in Kdg. and 1st grade to
indicate that the teacher is composing the sentences in order to
introduce the students to the concepts before students are able
to read /write them.
 Student Generated (SG) - term used in Kdg. and 1st grade to
indicate that the student is able to compose the sentence with
teacher scaffolding and fading in the construction process.
Sentence Types:
 Simple sentence- a simple sentence contains one thought about a
person, place, or thing. The person, place or this is who or what
the sentence is about (subject). The action word (verb) describes
what is happening. “The dog runs.” (Later, teach linking and then
helping verbs.)-also known as the Main Sentence trunk (MST)
 Declarative- a sentence that provides information about a
person, place, or thing (subject). It begins with a capital
letter. “Whales are sea mammals.”
 Interrogative- a sentence that asks for information about
the subject. It begins with a capital letter, reverses the order
of the subject and the action or linking word (verb), and
ends with a question mark. “Are whales sea mammals?”
 Exclamatory- a sentence that shows strong feeling, begins
with a capital letter, maintains subject-verb order, and ends
with an exclamation point. “Whales are exciting to watch!”
 Imperative- a sentence that gives an order, begins with a
capital, usually omits the subject you, and ends with a
period or an exclamation point. “Close your books.”
 Compound subject-a simple sentence with more than one
subject that does one action. “Mary and Bill danced all
night.”
 Compound predicate-a sentence where one subject does
more than one action. “Mike ran to the store and bought
some milk.”
 Renamers (Appositive)-a sentence that renames the subject
(who/what) with a synonym, name, or definition (another
noun). “The cat, a kitten, drank the milk form the saucer.”
 Surround the Noun (STN)-a sentence which uses adjectives
and adjective phrases in order to vividly describe the noun.
“The magnificent magician with a top hat on pulled a rabbit
out of his hat.” or “The adorable baby that had a bow in her
hair giggled as she shook her rattle.”

 Compound Sentence- a compound sentence is two independent
sentences (MSTs) related to the same thought and joined with a
conjunction. A comma is used before the conjunction to show
each sentence could stand alone (independent). “Jason likes
soccer, but Olivia likes basketball.”
 Compound subject- two independent sentences that may
have more than one subject in one or both of the
independent sentences. “Jason and Sally like soccer, but
Olivia likes basketball.”
 Compound predicate-two independent sentences that
maybe have more than one action in one or both of the
independent sentences. “George ate a hotdog and threw
out his wrapper, and Molly waited for him.”
 Coordinating conjunctions-and, or , but, so nor, yet, for (an
acronym-FANBOYS)
 Complex sentence- a complex sentence is made up of an
independent group of words (clause) and a dependent group of
words (clause). An independent clause has a noun and a verb and
can stand alone. A dependent clause has a noun and a verb, but it
cannot stand alone. “We will go outside if it does not rain.” or “If
it does not rain, we will go outside.”
 Action Expander (AE) phrases- phrase that expand on a
sentence by telling when, where, why, how, and condition of
an action. This phrase comes at the beginning of a sentence
followed by a comma or at the end of sentence after the
action phrase.
 Why/Condition Phrases-Subordinating Conjunctions
(SC)-a word which begins a phrase that expands on
how or the a condition an action happens “because of
the rain (why), even though we lost the game
(condition)”
 When/Where Phrases-Prepositional phrases(PP) phrases that tell where or when an action occurs
“across the street (where), during the dance (when)”
 How Phrases-Adverbs (Adv)-a word or phrase that
tells how an action occurs “quickly (how), with/without
speed, like/as, unlike/different than”
 –Ing Participle Phrases- a phrase which begins with an
action word that ends in “ing” which builds on the action of
the character. “The boy ran, flailing his arms wildly.”
 Describer phrases- a phrase that adds the subject’s
emotions (may end in –ed) as they are completing an action.
“The baseball player hit a homerun, excited to win the
championship.” or “The chef baked a cake, upset that it
burnt in the oven.”
 Combo Sentences-complex sentences which include more than
one sentence type combined into one sentence.
Types:
STN/3 Action
Renamer/3 Action
STN/Compound
Renamer/Compound
STN/Ing phrase
Renamer/Ing phrase
STN/Describer
Renamer/Describer
STN/Ing/Describer
Renamer/Ing/Describer
STN/Noun part + ing
Renamer/Noun part + ing
SAE/3 Action
Renamer/SAE
SAE/Compound
STN/SAE
SAE/Ing phrase
SAE/Describer
SAE/Ing/Describer
SAE/Noun part + ing
**any two or more sentences can be combined besides the
Renamer and Surround the Noun because they are at the
beginning of the sentence**
Example of a Combo Sentence:
Surround the Noun/3 Action: Refer to introductory lesson #15 in
unit
The muscular athlete with a helmet on (STN) caught the ball, ran
50 yards, and scored a touchdown (3 Action).
***All other lessons will follow the same format for combo
sentences with the teacher modeling, guided practice,
independent practice, and chunking***
Developing Fluency with Sentences: (DF)
 Related Sentences- sentences that are composed on a single
topic. These sentences use a pronoun as the subject for the
second sentence to encourage variety of use.
 Chunking- related sentences about a topic or prompt, which is no
more than ten sentences and focused on a variety of sentence
types, lengths, and beginnings. This writing is in paragraph form
and it reinforces sentence development in order to build fluency.
 Variety of Genres-distribute practice of prior skills throughout
longer text with teacher guidance and scaffolding, moving kids to
independence
 Expository/Informative-paragraphs, reports, and essays
which give factual information about a given topic
 Narrative-personal experience/story narratives, fairy tales,
fables, etc…that include characters, setting, and plot. This
which is usually fiction throughout.
 Informative/Narrative-stories which include factual
information to make the plot more realistic (historical
fiction/journals)