Writing Sentence Frames

Last year, I had the wonderful experience of collaborating daily with our RSP Teacher. My classes would have about 8-10 RSP students capable of handling a slightly more rigorous CORE classroom experience and they would have the backup support of having the RSP Teacher in the classroom with them for any extra help.

It was wonderful for me, because I had back up in my classroom and we created some wonderful materials together that helped not just her RSP kids, but my "regular" kids as well.

One of the items we created together was our Writing Sentence Frames. In the 7th grade in California, we have our Very Stressful Writing Test, which can be on any one of FOUR writing genres. (Summary, Narrative, Response to Lit or Persuasive) We decided that the writing would be tough to master without having something simple to "anchor" our students when they would practice writing for us. RSP Teacher came up with the first Sentence framer for Expository Summaries and then it simply grew from there.

Today, I use these Sentence Frames for everything! I think it helps give my students that really struggle with writing something to hold on to and helps get them started. As a bonus to you, I've gone ahead and framed Persuasive and Response to Literature as well!

HOW TO USE:

• Take one of the Frame types and copy/paste it 3-4 times on one page.
• Then, take another type and do the same thing.
• Copy the two separate pages into ONE back to back page.
• Copy as many as you need.
• Cut into strips (or not... I just discovered that if you run the full page through your laminator, it doesn't laminate the edges when you cut them, which can lead to some students able to pull the lamination up.)
• Laminate the frames.
  
  

Here's a picture of one of my well-loved frames from last year.