Embedded Files
What they are:
What they are:
There are four different types of sentences students will encounter in school:
Statements: give information or ideas, end with a period
Example: Electrons carry a negative charge.
Commands: give directions, end with period or exclamation point
Example: Identify the charge of an electron. ***Commands are often used as writing prompts in school.***
Questions: ask for information, end with a question mark
Example: What type of charge does an electron have?
Exclamations: express feelings or emotions, end with an exclamation point
Example: I'm tired of reading about electrons!
Teaching students about sentence types will help them to:
vary sentence structure
form questions and anticipate test questions
learn correct punctuation
Identifying sentence types
Identifying sentence types
How it works: Teachers provide students with a list of sentences and ask them to identify the different types of sentences. For example:
__S_ Apex predators are at the top of the food chain.
__Q_ Where are apex predators located in the food chain?
__E_ Orcas are the coolest apex predators!
__C_ Locate the apex predator in this food chain.
Why to use it: By identifying sentence types, students begin to see the relationship between different types of sentences. In school, students are regularly provided with questions and commands and expected to answer with statements.
When to use it: This strategy is really just for introductory purposes. If you use an anchor poster for reference and have students practice a few times for a warm-up or early class activity, you can move on to the more advanced strategies.
How to teach it: Using an anchor chart of the four sentence types, model a few different types of sentences that relate to content (like in the example above) or something fun/relatable. Then ask students to do a few on their own and review as a class.
Changing sentence types
Changing sentence types
How it works: Teachers provide students with a sentence (usually a statement, question, or command) and ask students to change it to a different sentence type.
Examples:
Change this statement to a question:
The Orioles have the best record in the American League. --> Which team has the best record in the American League?
Change this question to a statement:
Which music producer says "another one" at the beginning of his tracks? --> DJ Khaled says "another one" at the beginning of his tracks.
Change this statement to a command:
Brandon Scott is the mayor of Baltimore. --> Identify the mayor of Baltimore.
Why to use it: Changing statements into commands and questions (and vice versa) allows students to get practice answering questions in complete sentences and becoming familiar with the expository terms used in many writing prompts they will see in school.
When to use it: You can use this strategy to
review previous content
check for basic levels of understanding (changing questions/commands-> statements)
to prepare for tests by anticipating test questions
How to teach it: Using an anchor chart of all the different sentence types and a list of expository terms, model how you would change conceptually accessible sentences into different sentence types. Use a rubric to assess and provide feedback to students.
Writing different sentence types about content
Writing different sentence types about content
How it works: Teachers provide student with key concept vocabulary and have them write two or more different types of sentences using those terms. For example:
Directions: Write a statement and a command using the term dependent variable and a question using the word independent variable
The dependent variable is the effect that is being measured or tested in an experiment.
Identify the dependent variable in the watermelon drop experiment.
What is the independent variable in this experiment?
Why to use it: This activity helps students to anticipate content questions they will encounter in class and on tests. It also allows students to ask questions about content about which they are confused.
When to use it: You can use this strategy to
review previous content
to check understanding of a reading, image, video, or other text
How to teach it: Using an anchor chart of all the different sentence types and a list of expository terms, model a few examples (one from everyday life, and one that is content-specific) and then release responsibility to the students.
Developing and answering questions about pictures
Developing and answering questions about pictures
How it works: Teachers provide students with a picture and ask them to write questions about the picture. To additionally scaffold this assignment, teachers can identify key words that should appear in the questions. For example
Directions: Write two questions about this picture. One question should include the word "why."
Possible responses:
Who are these people?
What are they supporting? Why?
Where did this event take place?
When did this event happen?
Once students have written their questions, you can also have them write statements predicting the answers to the questions they asked before revealing the answers. This is a great pre-reading, or general hook activity.
Why to use it: Having students generate questions about pictures is a great way to introduce a topic and help identify questions that students will get answers to during a unit or lesson. Having them come up with those questions themselves also helps give them a goal for the rest of the learning process.
When to use it: You can use this strategy to
Introduce new content
contextualize and create purpose around a reading or note-taking activity
How to teach it: This activity is pretty straightforward, the key is finding a picture that will generate questions. As with any new strategy, be sure to provide students with a model before releasing responsibility to them.
Anticipating reading and test questions
Anticipating reading and test questions
How it works: After students have completed a section of a reading or learned new content, teachers can ask them to create comprehension questions about the content as well as writing prompts using expository terms. For example, if students read the following paragraph:
Irish people often faced discrimination from other white people in America and complained of being treated like animals. They faced discrimination compared to immigrants from other countries like Germany because they were poor farmers in their home country and because they followed the Catholic religion, as opposed to the Protestant faiths of Americans and Germans. As a result, many jobs were unavailable to the Irish, and ads for jobs often said “No Irish Need Apply.”
they might generate comprehension questions such as:
Why did white Americans discriminate against Irish immigrants?
How were the Irish immigrants treated by white Americans?
Students might also generate writing prompts such as:
Describe the experiences of Irish immigrants to America in the 1850s.
Compare the experiences of Irish immigrants to German immigrants in 1850s America.
Why to use it: "When students formulate questions, they're developing higher-level cognitive function while at the same time focusing on the main idea of the content that provides the basis for their question" (Hochman & Wexler in The Writing Revolution)
When to use it: You can use this strategy to
review previous content
to check understanding of a reading, video, or other text
Prepare for a quiz
How to teach it: Using an anchor chart of all the different sentence types and a list of expository terms, model a few examples (one from everyday life, and one that is content-specific) and then release responsibility to the students. Use a rubric to assess and provide feedback to students.
Page updated
Report abuse