Skills - Structure (Sentence & Form)

Structure (Sentence & Form)

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Brief Explanation Clearly Identified Key Outcomes Purposeful Instructional Strategies Personalization of Learning

 

Brief Explanation

Students need to learn foundational writing skills so they can focus on developing and communicating ideas. Handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, word processing should become effortless as they move up in grades.  Younger students need explicit instruction and practice to acquire and develop these skills. For those who continue to struggle, assistive technology should be offered, so as not to interfere with their writing development.

    Clearly Identified Key Outcomes

    Use your programs of study for curriculum outcomes related to structure. 

    Please refer to CESD’s Essential Outcomes work if you are using the previous Alberta Curriculum (Grade 7+).

    Here is the New Alberta ELAL Curriculum, from the New Learn Alberta website, laid out like a scope and sequence.

    Purposeful Instructional Strategies

    • Sentence construction
      • Explicitly teach how to build good sentences – consider using mentor texts, sentence structures, variety of sentence openers, joining sentences and how to experiment with combining and reordering sentences.
      • Kelly Gallagher on sentence craft
    • Teach components of sentence structure and grammar – nouns, verbs, clauses, subjects, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, etc.
    • Teach proper grammatical structure through mini lessons. Research has shown little effect with the use of worksheets/ daily warm-ups to teach grammar.
    • Teach students to construct sentences with a focus on:
      • Good beginnings
      • Avoiding sentence fragments and run-on sentences
      • subject-verb agreement
      • variety in sentence beginnings
      • Punctuation that matches the sentence type (. ! ?)
    • Printing and handwriting skills
      • Good beginnings
      • Avoiding sentence fragments and run-on sentences
      • subject-verb agreement
      • variety in sentence beginnings
      • Punctuation that matches the sentence type (. ! ?)
      • Explicitly teaching and practising proper pencil grip and proper letter formation – both printing and cursive
        Talk with your LST if you require assistance with this
      • Keyboarding skills:
        • Explicitly teach keyboarding skills – variety of online programs are available

    Personalization of Learning

    • More practice, extra time
    • Specific fine-motor building activities
    • Access OT/PT where applicable
    • Assistive technology