William Van Cleave developed the I.E.C.C, Identify, Expand, Combine, Create, method when helping students develop strong sentences.  This method has great activites used across all grade levels and abilities. The following are three quick bell ringer activities you can use to help any student work on sentence expansion, sentence combining, and sentence creation!

Source:  Willam Van Cleave. From Words To Works Developing Writing Skills in Students of All Ages. W.V.C.ED, 2019. p 22.

Sentence Work Class Starters

1.  Sentence Generation: Ask students to write a particular kind of sentence or structure included in a sentence (e.g., complex sentence, sentence with at least 2 adjectives, sentence with an introductory prepositional phrase). Make sure to have students share their results aloud with their classmates. For instructors wishing to layer in content, students can be asked to write the sentence based on the reading last night or the discussion yesterday in class about a particular story, event, or person. Sharing these sentences serves as a review of material covered and a chance for instructors to assess student knowledge both in sentence writing and in the given content. 

2. Tandem Writing: Provide a sentence and ask students to write a sentence that would logically follow that sentence or provide an introductory phrase or clause and ask students to complete the sentence. Like in Activity I above, you can specify a particular sentence structure element. You can also write your sentence about a topic you wish students to review, such as content covered in the previous lesson. Here are a few examples: Sentence starters: The first is a clause while the second is a phrase. When Huck begins his adventure on the raft with Jim, In her first web, Lead-in sentences: Students could be instructed to include a particular kind of word (e.g., adjective) or use a particular kind of sentence (e.g., compound). Charlotte first writes “Some Pig!” in her web. Karana’s brother is killed by a pack of wild dogs on the island, leaving her to fend for herself. 

3. Mentor Sentences in the Writing Matters Approach: Good work with mentor sentences matches a planned and sequential set of skills the instructor introduces to her students. Students analyze mentor sentences either to review concepts already addressed or to introduce a skill the instructor plans to teach that day. “Look at how great this is, now you do it!” isn’t an effective means of teaching using mentor sentences and runs contrary to the Writing Matters approach. Mentor sentences, on the other hand, are a great way to work on Sentence Developing Activities A-F (preceding page). Use the I do it, we do it, you do it philosophy (in widespread use thanks to Anita Archer).