Kick Start Your Writing Curriculum with One Week of Mentor Sentences

The best way to introduce and teach a new skill is to connect with a student’s prior knowledge and skills, and then build upon that incrementally. This is what the Middle School Mentor Sentences Bundle is designed for!

Using scaffolded lessons each day, students are tasked with a particular activity that builds upon the previous day’s work. The end goal is to produce a piece of original writing that demonstrates mastery of the grammar focus of the week.

Each day has its own playful label, because what English teacher doesn’t love a little alliteration!? So, let’s kick start your writing curriculum with one week of mentor sentences!

Monday Musings

Monday’s task asks students to read the mentor sentence and write down their observations. What type of sentence is it? Simple? Compound? Complex? Or even compound-complex? Students should have an understanding of what these are, but it’s always a good idea to review to help them maintain their knowledge of sentence structures. Aside from sentence structure, students should be taking note of any figurative language, special punctuation, or interesting word choice. All of these things play a pivotal role in developing writing skills.

Teacher Tuesday

Using the mentor sentences worksheets provided, students will take notes while the teacher instructs on the grammar skill or focus for the week. After that, students label the parts of speech in the mentor sentence and review as a class.

Wednesday Work It

To build upon Tuesday’s activity, students will rework the mentor sentence on Wednesday. If it is a compound sentence, students may rewrite it as a simple sentence, or create a compound-complex sentence. Maybe the sentence needs figurative language? If so, students can improve it by adding what they think is necessary.

Thinking Thursday

Thinking Thursday tasks students with creating an original sentence of their own following the same sentence structure and grammar skill as the mentor sentence. This takes Wednesday’s lesson of reworking an already written sentence one step further. I love reading the sentences that students come up with; they can be so creative!

Final Friday

Research tells us that grammar instruction is more effective when it goes beyond drill and practice. Students need a context in which to show you they truly understand and have mastered grammar and sentence structure.

This is what Final Friday is all about! On Fridays, students can be assessed on the focus grammar skill of the week by being asked to demonstrate their understanding in writing. So, for instance, if the focus of the week is on compound-complex sentences, students will be writing paragraphs correctly using those types of sentences. If you want to take it a step further, ask students to identify their compound-complex sentence(s) in their writing. If using Google Docs, have them highlight it or use the commenting feature. This meta-cognitive task will only further extend their knowledge and mastery!

You can get Middle School Mentor Sentences by the quarter, or save money (and planning time) by purchasing the entire bundle! Be sure to also check out the growing bundle: Volume Two of Middle School Mentor Sentences!