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!