Sentence Unscrambling: A Tool for Differentiated Grammar Instruction

 

     It's always tough to know how to start the year with a new group of writers...and this year brings more challenges than most. I'm planning to dust off a tried-and-true instructional technique that yields big benefits to both reading and writing: sentence unscrambling.

     Sentence unscrambling is just one of the four basic sentence composing techniques suggested by Don and Jenny Killgallon, authors of multiple texts and exercise books for teachers. When I use the technique in my classroom, I go a step further and use sentence composition activities to build reading comprehension skills as well as handwriting fluency.

    The great part about sentence unscrambling is that it can be tucked into small bits of the day, and it reinforces everything you want students to be noticing and thinking about as they write. Here's how I built an activity for my students as part of our first unit, in which we explore texts related to oceans.

Find or write a suitable sentence

     When selecting a sentence, think about constructs that students may find intriguing, but challenging. Sentences with capitalized words, interesting word choice, and multiple clauses make for good sentences at the sixth grade level. 

Break up the sentence into meaningful chunks

     These chunks will be what students unscramble. Keeping some words together helps students to see how sentences fit together and will help them in their next sentence composing activity, sentence imitating. 

    So how does this sentence split apart? Deep stays on its own, as an adverb showing location. Under the Pacific Ocean stays together, as a prepositional phrase. The main verb, lives, will be all on its own. Finally, the mysterious giant squid is a group of words that should remain together, as mysterious, giant, and the all modify the noun squid.

Scramble the sentence for students to analyze

     I always keep the first letter of the sentence capitalized, because this is a great clue for students to use as they analyze what could be going on. Otherwise, I try to just do a random scramble.

Analyzing the sentence

    When I introduce the sentence to students, I model how to read the different chunks and think about how the sentence could fit together. My sentence uses some inverted word order, so it adds a bit of a challenge. I encourage students to use a numbering scheme to keep track of their thinking instead of rushing to recopy the sentence. "Hm, which sentence chunk could be first? Ah, here is the one with the capital letter. Which could be next?"

Recopying the sentence

     This becomes a handwriting activity when students have to recopy the sentence correctly. Believe me, there will be some big surprises as you see how kids struggle with this! I always use lines that have a midline so that students can space uppercase and lowercase letters appropriately, and so that I can see who has a good handle on capitalization and who does not.

Differentiating

     Sentence unscrambling has so many differentiation possibilities! Of course you can have variations in the kinds of sentences that you offer. For example, in the above sentence, you could have some with the inverted subject-verb and some without, just to prompt a discussion about what's going on and why. You could also have some students create the sentences and do the chunking. 

     For students with OT concerns, I provide them with larger lines for recopying the sentences. Some students may also need to have the sentences cut up for them so that they can put them together.

Daily Sentence Writing

     If you would like a set of created activities, try Daily Sentence Writing!

Returning to In-Person Instruction: Creating a positive environment

     Planning for this year is turning out to be especially challenging! Teachers will have students who haven't been in a classroom for over a year, students who have been in socially distant classrooms, and students new to the district....it's quite a range of situations.

     I've been thinking about the new challenges that we'll face and what kinds of resources will be best. From the first hour of the first day, my priority is creating a classroom where kids feel safe and valued. But this is easier said than done, and the work that gets us to that dream classroom is difficult and tedious in the first days.  

Low-risk activities

    An important way to frame these first days of school is to focus on activities that have a low social risk. None of us like sharing deep information about ourselves with an unfamiliar group of people! For many students, sharing their innermost hopes and dreams is a risky social move. It's much more approachable to talk about their favorite breakfast foods or what they like to do at recess. When I plan ice-breakers for the first week, I consider the social risks that students are taking, and make sure that I offer lots of low-stress, surface level activities. If you've ever asked students to share about their hopes and dreams and been met with absolute silence, you know what I'm talking about!

     As students walk into the classroom on that first day, I like to have a quiet, desk-based activity for them to do. Some years I make individualized name tags for students to color; in other years I have puzzle pieces that build to a group puzzle. Students can sit down and immediately do something while also checking out the room, their classmates, and the view to the window. 

     But I don't ask them to engage in academic work or anything that might make them feel anxious. I always have an inclusion classroom with students who have a wide range of abilities. I want to get past that first day with good feelings all around, and I don't want anyone to feel badly or worried about the upcoming year. 

Getting everyone talking

     The routine of "Greeting" from Responsive Classroom has become one of my go-to first day activities. Greeting everyone means that each child hears their name spoken, and everyone experiences a norm-building activity of greeting and acknowledging one another. (You can read more about this in the Morning Meeting Book.)  On the first day, we stand in a circle. Each person says their name, and then the whole class says, "Good morning, ____!" We talk about the power of making eye contact and how important it is. 

     On subsequent mornings, students greet each other in 3 minutes of smiling, laughing, and sharing. Each time, I begin by emphasizing the importance of taking time for each other, looking each other in the eyes, and letting our classmates know that we care for each other. By sixth grade, students can understand the distinction between being friends and being friendly. We don't expect our students to all be friends with one another, but our class functions much more smoothly when students are friendly with one another.

Books in hands

     My other big task for the first day is to get books in students' hands. I put together tubs of student-friendly, welcoming books, and set up a short period of time for silent reading. For more on this process, check out my resource "Start the Reading Year".

     The first reading session is short, breezy, and fun. It's meant to be exciting for students! I use sticky notes to put names on books, because I'm not yet ready for students to take books home. Some students want to read on, but others set their first choices aside for new ones on the second day. After we read, I have students share their recommendations and what they look for in books. I enjoy getting to hear from students!

    

     

         

     

Reading Survey for Students

This year will pose so many challenges for classroom teachers! Whether we are teaching remotely or (gulp) face to face, one of the more pleasant challenges will be how to get books in the hands of readers.

One of my favorite methods is to talk briefly with a student and then offer three books: one that is very similar to their previously read books; one that is similar, but in a different genre; and one that is a stretch book for the student.

Sadly, I can't use this method in the upcoming school year. So I decided to create a Google Form to help me learn about my students! 

This form includes three sections. Because it is a Google Form, you can always feel free to add your own questions! In a future post, I'll add some details about how to interpret results and how to match books to responses.

Genre Questions

I've noticed that the shift in state standards means that students aren't as familiar with the names of reading genres anymore. The questions in this section ask about the characteristics of genres instead of using the genre names themselves. Students may not say that they like reading biographies--but if they say that they enjoy books about real people and places, a biography might be a good choice for them!

Format Questions

Some students have very pronounced opinions about the style and format of the books they read. I included questions about graphic novels, picture books, and point of view in this section. 

Reading Attitude Questions

How do kids feel about reading? These questions help me to gain some insight into which kids are going to need some more helpful nudges...and which kids just need me to get out of their way!

Setting up a classroom for collaboration

    It's that time of year again...when pictures of perfect classrooms start to show up on Pinterest and Instagram! It's also the time when anxious and perfectionist teachers start to feel very, very badly about themselves.

    But setting up collaborative classroom actually means learning to let go. It means that as teachers, we can let go of key routines and processes that should be in the hands of students. It means that we can let go of perfectly pretty bulletin boards and having every square inch of the room filled with themed posters. It's actually quite freeing!

    As we prepare to welcome students back to our classrooms, it's important to consider how we can create a classroom that fosters collaboration and community. 

Materials stored and labeled for student use

    I am so lucky to have a classroom with lots of drawer space. I make this usable for students by labeling the drawers and providing students with free access to them. It always takes some time in the first weeks of school for students to become used to this!
    Of course there are some materials that I don't like to leave out, tragedy of the commons and all, and these I simply store in a higher cupboard.
    Do the drawers ever get cluttered and messy? Of course! Around December, a few enterprising students always undertake the task of organizing the marker drawer or fixing up the colored pencil drawer. It's just one more way to put tasks in the hands of students.

Browsable book bins

    These are so helpful for students to be able to find and return books on their own. In the first days of school, I put the bins around the room to facilitate browsing. I love how flexible this system can be!

Student-led routines

    Instead of a moon phase bulletin board, I have a place on my board for "Today's Phase" and "Next Phase". The student astronomer will be in charge of checking out the phases and placing the posters accordingly.
   In addition to the moon phases, I also have a dry-erase board set up for the meteorologist to fill in each day. Planning for these routines before the start of school helps them to have a place in the physical arrangement of the classroom.

Leave some things un-done

    My recess games cabinet is a bit messy right now, but that's okay with me! On one of the first three days of school I like to spend an hour getting everything out so that kids can see what the options are. Then, students decide how to organize the cabinet so that the games and materials they like the best are the most accessible. Students are much more likely to keep up with an organizational scheme that they have created.

 

 

 

Looking Back: Classroom Libraries and COVID

 

This year has been tough! My school was face-to-face with the entire class for almost the entire year. Last year, I wrote about plans for a classroom library in the face of a pandemic. Now, I'm at the happy point of looking back on the year and thinking about lessons learned.

Taking Books from Room to Room

   Because I moved about this year, I couldn't have a typical classroom library. Instead, I had to take a bin of books with me from room to room. (By the end of the year, I was carting a tall table and an overhead cart with handouts and books!) 

    I expected this to be harder than it was. My start of year book survey helped me to do first day book assignments. Then, I could pick out follow-up books to put into my book bin to cart from place to place. I did make many trips back and forth to my classroom to get books that I'd forgotten; luckily I had a co-teacher for two classes and a lunch break in the middle of the other.

   I had some tried and true books that went with me and were in almost constant circulation! Because of this year's overall atmosphere, I found that kids gravitated toward quick and fun graphic novels. These were the all-time favorites from the year.

Teacher Sign-Out Book

    In the past, students have been responsible for signing out books. This year, I needed to keep the sign-out book myself. Returned books went into a quarantine bin, while I checked books in and out with a sign in book.

   And this worked out wonderfully! In fact, I think that I will clear the first 10 minutes of every class this year to do this again. I kept better track of books than ever before. Previously I had thought that I absolutely could not handle writing down student book checkouts, but I learned otherwise. It worked out well and helped me to have short conversations with readers every day. 

No Browsing

   At the start of the year, I worried about the lack of browsing in my classroom library. However, this turned out to be less of an issue than I thought. Between the book survey and my traveling book bin, I managed to get kids set up with the next book they'd like pretty easily. Each morning, I would sort the quarantined books that were ready to be returned, check my notes for what to take the next day, and get my book bin set up.

   In fact, I noticed that no browsing meant that more time was spent reading. Students became more skilled at asking me for the kinds of books they'd like ("Mrs. Kissner, I want something that's sad and long") and I got better at making recommendations. I did sometimes give students three books that I'd selected for them to look through. They could choose one and return the rest to the quarantine bin.

   I don't think that I will disallow browsing for the future, but I think that I will limit it. I always have a core group of students who like to avoid reading, and too much freedom to browse gives them time to do this. Finding a balance between browsing and teacher recommendation is my task for next year!

Outdoor Reading Time

   This isn't something new for the pandemic...but wow, does some outdoor reading time brighten everyone's mood! In the first few weeks of school, I had students bring along a beach towel to sit on outdoors. Our bright and sunny courtyard was the perfect place for fresh air, reading time, and much-needed social distancing.

   In my end-of-year survey for students, independent reading time rated highly as one of the favorite activities for students. In fact, several students suggested that I give more time next year! This just goes to show that independent reading is important no matter what. 

Lessons for Next Year

   What will next year bring? I can't even begin to guess. But I have learned some new tricks for my classroom library and figured out how to make daily reading time work in a wide range of situations.

Why You Should Teach Emily Dickinson's Poems in Sixth Grade

 In looking for poems to share with students, I love to go with the work of Emily Dickinson. Here's why!

Her life story is intriguing to students

Today's students find Emily Dickinson's life fascinating. Her reclusive nature and quiet life are mysterious, and counter to what many students experience. Teaching about Emily Dickinson helps students to consider how an author's life experiences impact their work.

Emily Dickinson's poems are great for teaching theme

Helping students to identify themes in poems and to write to explain those themes is a big task in sixth grade! Luckily, Emily Dickinson's more popular poems have fairly transparent themes. "If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking" and "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" are two that work especially well.

Emily Dickinson's poems appear on standardized tests

I know that this isn't a reason to teach a particular author's work, but the fact that Emily Dickinson's poems frequently appear on tests is important to me. I always emphasize to students that they should try to enjoy what they read on tests...and if they can recognize an author's name and meet the text as if they are greeting a friend, then that makes the testing experience much more pleasant for them. 

You can sing them!

I frequently torment my students by singing to them, and the poems of Emily Dickinson work really well for this. In "Crash Course," (which is a great resource for teacher background!) John Green sings Dickinson's poems to "I'd like to teach the world to sing," but I prefer to sing the poems to "The Addams Family." It works because of the meter of Emily's poems...and is also a great way to show students what meter is.

Ready to use resource

This spring, I made a hybrid resource for my students to showcase the life of Emily Dickinson. I like to have a weekly assignment for students to work on, and this resource includes activities for vocabulary, informational text comprehension, and poetry.