synthesis
Mentor Sentence
JTuran
Mentor Sentences are well-written sentences that show off author’s craft from books or passages that are read in the classroom.
They are chosen based on style, language, organization, and conventions.
There are many ways to use Mentor Sentences
It is important to note that you should not be using these sentences in isolation from the text. In other words, the text the sentence comes from should part of your reading lessons for the week. This helps from become familiar with the author and the context of the sentence.
What are Mentor Sentences?
How to use them?
Mentor Sentences are a wonderful way to show students how writing should look, as opposed to some programs that fill a sentence with mistakes for the students to find (DOL books).
The idea behind mentor sentences is that students will notice all the good things about a sentence and use those techniques in their writing.
It is also a great way to present grammar in a spiral method.
| Day 1: What do you notice about the sentence? You might see exciting words, figurative language, the type of sentence, or even special parts of speech. Write about what you notice. |
| Day 2: Rewrite the mentor sentence exactly as it is written, but skip lines in between. Label all of the parts of speech that you know in this sentence. |
| Day 3: Revise the mentor sentence by making it more descriptive or exciting. Try adding or changing adjectives, verbs, or specific nouns. Remember to keep the meaning of the sentence the same! |
| Day 4: Imitate the mentor sentence by keeping the style and structure the same but making it your own. You should create a brand new sentence. |
| Notice: On Monday, the focus (why I chose the sentence to align with the MCCRS), and the quiz on Friday focuses on that skill, and also spirals back to others. You will notice there are often similarities between the sentence of the week and the previous week’s. |
| MONDAY: Copy the mentor sentence exactly. Circle the complete subject and underline the complete predicate. Simple Subject _____________________ Simple Predicate __________________________ |
| TUESDAY: Does the sentence contain: Prepositions? ____________________________________ Adjectives? _______________________________________ Adverbs? _________________________________________ Contractions? _____________________________________ Pronouns? ________________________________________ |
| WEDNESDAY: What type of sentence is this? Declarative Interrogative Imperative Exclamatory What style of sentence is this? Simple Compound Complex How do you know these descriptions? |
| Thursday: Do any words contain a: Prefix ____________________ Suffix ____________________ Are any words Homonyms? _____________________________ |
GRAMMAR HOMEWORK
It was a purple night, and we were driving on a highway full of cars.
Monday: possibilities to notice compound sentence, comma separates independent clauses, descriptive, pronouns, compound words
Tuesday: label the sentence Pronouns: It, we Article: A
Adjectives: purple, full Prepositions: on, of
Nouns: night, highway, cars
Verbs: driving, (linking) was, (helping) were
Conjunction: and
Complete and simple subjects and predicates
Wednesday: possibility of revision
It was a dark, purple night, and my family and I were driving on a busy highway full of cars.
label what was added
Thursday: possible imitation
It was a yellow morning, and we were riding in a school bus full of children.
compare parts of the mentor sentence to new sentence.
| None of them | doesn’t go up at the corners. |
| My eyes | had started out the door. |
| The other kids | were covered by my bangs. |
| My mouth | looked over at me and Mom. |
Skills Practice:
Simple Subject and Predicates
In this activity, the subjects and predicates are already separated, label all the parts of speech. Cut each rectangle out and glue in your grammar notebook in complete sentences.
Underline the simple subject and predicate in each of the four sentences.
Skills Practice : Invitation to Edit: It was a purple night, we were drive on a highway full of cars
Circle 4 mistakes in the sentence. Rewrite the sentence correctly:
In the following sentences, circle the simple subjects and underline the simple predicates.
I know that sounds kind of babyish of me, but I wasn’t feeling very brave right then.
I was about to say something else, but then all of a sudden I herd other kids’ voices outside the office.
Via walked next to me like she usually does, and Mom and Dad were behind us.
She ended by asking if anyone had any questions, and Julian raised his hand.
Mom has packed me a cheese sandwich, graham crackers, and a juice box, so I didn’t need to stand on line when my table was called.
Most of the names weren’t actually summer names, but they were names that had some kind of connection to summer.