You ever notice that your struggling and emerging writers tend to over-rely on the short-simple sentence (independent clause), which by in turn, yields a choppy "da-da-da" rhythm to their voice and flow?
Well, I might have a solution through this practice exercise.
In the video's description, you will find a super concise user-manual I created that compactly illustrates how to wield each of the 20 sentence patterns.
Concise and to the point, I model how to manipulate each pattern several times in the hopes of demystifying the process for your students.
And in this particular exercise, students play a game of Mad Libs in which I take a letter written by Benjamin Franking to Arthur Lee. In a few instances, I omitted sentences and say things like this: "Insert Sentence Pattern #14." Based on the context, students need to create a sentence while manipulating that particular sentence pattern.
This is a two birds, one stone exercise in that not only do they get a crack at crafting a variety of sentence patterns, but you can also launch into a discussion of how authors manipulate their syntax for effect and purpose.
Also in the video's description, you'll find (free for the taking) all the slides featured in the video exemplar.
Truly hoping this helps catapult your student's voice, rhythm, and flow.
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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