Jeff Anderson, in Mechanically Inclined and a companion book Everyday Editing, uses
powerful literature and student writing to teach the rules of language. This lesson is
ostensibly about identifying complete sentences; however, the content area teacher can
use the “Invitation to Imitate,” which asks the students to write a non-rhyming poem
written in two word sentences, to review content.
Is It or Isn’t It? Teaching Simple Sentences
Accompany this lesson with the song “Love Stinks” by J. Geils Band.
What you want the students to know:
 Sentences must have a subject and a verb.
 The sentence questions are the following:
subject: Who or what (fill in with the predicate of the sentence)?
verb: What is being said about (fill in with the subject of the sentence)?
Page 3 is practice using these questions to identify subject and verb.
 Fragments are missing either the subject or verb.
Misunderstandings you may need to clarify:
 The assumption that a capital letter and a period make a sentence a sentence
 Confusion that an –ing verb form doesn’t create a sentence: Students editing
versus Students edit

Invitation to Notice
Project the following two sentences and pose the questions “What do you notice?” and
“Is this a sentence?”
My hair wakes up stupid.
---Tony Johnston, Any Small Goodness
My sweat smells like peanut butter.
---Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Students establish ways to identify a complete sentence: subject, verb, begins with capital
letter, ends with punctuation mark, makes complete sense.
Using your best game show persona, announce “It’s Time to play ‘Is It or Isn’t It?’ The
game where you decide whether it’s a sentence or a poser!” Require that students explain
their choice.
Is It or Isn’t It?
1. He paced.
2. And mosquitos.
3. Stacy gasped.
4. Eric stirred.
--Jeff Anderson, Everyday Editing
5. And gnats.
6. Another corpse.
7. Jeff shrugged.
8. Amy turned.
9. To look.
10. Jeff nodded.
11. Jeff sighed.
--Scott Smith, The Ruins

Invitation to collect
Collect two word sentences from self-selected reading. You could provide students with
cards to record a favorite sentence to be hung on the classroom wall.

Invitation to imitate
Imitate selection from An Island Grows (below). Begin by listing a 12-15 terms related to
a subject: water cycle, mythology, Egypt, war, sports, etc. Circle the strongest 8-10.
Decide on some kind of order. Add a strong verb to each term (use a thesaurus.) The last
sentence can be longer. Do one together as a class model; the subject school works well.
When selecting a title, don’t go for the obvious. Try using a feeling for the title. This
results in interesting work.
Write two word sentences and use strong verbs. Give your piece a title.
Stone breaks.
Water quakes.
Magma glows.
Volcano blows.
--Lola M. Schaefer, An Island Grows

Invitation to revise
Revise a previous piece of writing by replacing some verbs with stronger synonyms.
--Jeff Anderson, Everyday Editing