Teaching Sentence Variation to 4th Graders

We have just amped up our writing to boost our kids' writing scores as quickly as possible. One of the strategies we came up with is to have four stations in our after school program that will focus on writing. One of the stations is manned by one of our interventionists. He is not a trained teacher, but is willing to help out however we need. So, I came up with an easy-to-manage station for him. He will teach primarily through writing sorts and graphic organizers. I provided basic instructions to follow, and he will portions of the gradual release model each day to engage the kids and motivate them to work independently.

The writing sorts will take on a different focus each week. This week's focus is sentence variation. Although what is listed on the graphic organizer is not the ONLY way to vary sentences, it is a great start, especially for our lowest 4th graders. They can quickly identify and modify any repetitive types of sentences.

They use the graphic organizer at first for the writing sorts. I wrote or adapted seven different paragraphs and incorporated each of the components of an effective sentence. The interventionist will model and guide the kids into identifying what they read in the paragraph.

I included a sort sheet, so that it resembled a game to help keep the kids engaged.

Because our interventionist does not have much experience, I even provided him with the answers for each paragraph, just in case.

Finally, kids will use the graphic organizer to see how varied their sentences are in their own essays and then adjust them if necessary. You can find the entire bundle on my TPT site.