Year One

  • This is a suggested sequence of lessons only. Once a lesson objective has been taught, the skill/concept needs to be revised regularly and embedded into curriculum content. Sentence-level writing is best taught in the context of student writing, and curriculum content drives the rigor of the writing activities.

    All lessons are in PowerPoint format so they can be edited and expanded upon. We find the best opportunity to embed the skill/concept into curriculum content is during the ‘You Do’ phase of a lesson.

    Depending on the skill & conceptual knowledge of your students, you may wish to use lessons from earlier grades.

    Remember: The Writing Revolution sentence strategies should be continually revised and embedded into content after teaching them explicitly.

Download the Sentence Expansion icons here

Lessons:

Term 1

Identify and define nouns and verbs.

Define pronouns and use them within a sentence (subject position).

Identify the verb ‘to be’ in a sentence- am/is/are (e.g. He is happy, I am lazy)

Identify sentences types: statements and questions. TWR strategy

Edit sentences (statements and questions) for boundary punctuation.

Expand simple sentences (when? where?). E.g. a girl walked. -> One sunny day, a girl walked up a mountain. TWR strategy

Expand simple sentences (when? who/what? where?). E.g. She walked. -> One sunny day, a little girl walked up a mountain. TWR strategy

Identify and define adjectives. Match them to common nouns (e.g. sharp knife, fast car, little girl).

Expand simple sentences with an adjective (to modify or describe the noun/s).

Term 2

Complete sentences when provided with but & because sentence stems. TWR strategy

Develop questions given a picture of text material- who, what, where, when. TWR strategy

Complete sentences when provided with a sentence stem containing one of the following conjunctions: before, after. E.g. After we clean our teeth,… TWR strategy

Complete sentences when provided with a sentence stem containing one of the following conjunctions: if, when. E.g. When the turtle crossed the finished line,… TWR strategy

Complete sentences when provided with a sentence stem containing one of the following conjunctions: before, after, if, when. TWR strategy

Identify fragments vs. sentences -sentences must contain who/what (subject) and a what doing (verb). TWR strategy

Convert fragments to sentences -sentences must contain who/what (subject) and a what doing (verb). TWR strategy

Term 3

Define pronouns and use within a sentence  (in the subject and object position of the sentence)- I, you, he, she, they, it, we, him, her, it, us.

Identify and define proper and common nouns.

Combine two-short declarative sentences with and (compound predicate). E.g. Tim ate a cupcake. Tim ate an ice-cream. -> Tim ate a cupcake and an ice-cream. TWR strategy

Combine two-short declarative sentences with and (compound subject). E.g. Tim went to the park. Beth went to the park. -> Tim and Beth went to the park. TWR strategy

Identify and define adverbs. Match to common verbs (e.g. measure carefully, smile cheerfully).

Expand simple sentences (who/what? how?) with an adverb (to modify a verb). E.g. She crept -> the little girl crept carefully. TWR strategy

Term 4

Identify 4 sentence types: statements, questions, commands, exclamations. TWR strategy

Develop sentences (statement, question, command, exclamation) based on a picture or story. TWR strategy

Complete sentences when provided with but, because, so sentence stems. TWR strategy

Unscramble sentences: statements - bolded first word. TWR strategy

Unscramble sentences: statements and questions - bolded first word. TWR strategy