Getting Started with Middle School Sentence Composing: A Student Worktext

by Donald Killgallon, Jenny Killgallon

Overview

“Sentence composing provides acrobatic training in sentence dexterity… using literature as a writing school with a faculty of professional writers who virtually teach students to build better sentences.” - Don and Jenny Killgallon

Getting Started with Middle School Sentence Composing introduces the powerful Sentence-Composing approach at a perfect time — middle school — to deepen students’ skill in writing strong sentences. Using real sentences by authors as models, it provides practice with four tools that skilled writers use to add variety to their work:

• Openers to vary sentence beginnings
• Splits to vary sentence middles
• Closers to vary sentence endings
• Mixes to add details in two or three places.

Along the way, Don and Jenny Killgallon provide support for students, including:

• Basic sentence structures – activities to understand subjects, predicates, and their roles in sentence building
• Broken sentences – exercises to identify, avoid, and repair fragments
• Vocabulary scaffolds – “quickshots” to include an immediate, clear definition in context for challenging words

The free, online teacher’s booklet is packed with information about Sentence-Composing and its relationship to grammar, an instructional framework, and connections to state and national standards.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780325107318
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Edition description:	Student
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	11 - 13 Years

About the Author

Don Killgallon is the originator of the sentence-composing approach and author of numerous sentence-composing worktexts. He is the author or coauthor of Paragraphs for Middle School (2013), Paragraphs for High School (2012), Grammar for College Writing (2010), Story Grammar for Elementary School (2008), Grammar for High School (2007), Grammar for Middle School (2006), Sentence Composing for Elementary School (2000), Sentence Composing for High School (1998), Sentence Composing for College (1998), Sentence Composing for Middle School (1997), and Daily Sentence Composing (Great Source). He currently co-teaches with Jenny Killgallon in the Odyssey Program of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Jenny Killgallon is coauthor of Paragraphs for Middle School (2013), Paragraphs for High School (2012), Grammar for College Writing (2010), Story Grammar for Elementary School (2008), Grammar for High School (2007), Grammar for Middle School (2006), Sentence Composing for Elementary School (2000), and Daily Sentence Composing (Great Source). She currently co-teaches with Don Killgallon in the Odyssey Program of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Quickshots for New Words 1

Basic Training

Subjects and Predicates 6

Sentence-Composing Tools 12

Repairing Broken Sentences

Fragments 21

Learning by Imitating 29

Preview: The Sentence-Composing Positions 40

After this preview of the positions-openers, splits, closers-you'll learn and practice each position.

Openers: Good Beginnings 45

You'll imitate and compose sentences like this:

His hand trembling, Billy laid the peanut-butter-and-fried-worm sandwich down on the table.-Thomas Rockwell, How to Eat Fried Worms

Splits: Good Additions 60

You'll imitate and compose sentences like this:

This leader, whose word was law among boys who defied authority for the sake of defiance, was no more than twelve or thirteen years old and looked even younger.-Henry Gregor Felsen, "Horatio"

Closers: Good Endings 76

You'll imitate and compose sentences like this: He was a mean-looking man, red in the face and bearded.-Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Review: The Sentence-Composing Positions 92

In this review of the positions-openers, splits, closers-you'll see how famous authors use those positions.

Mixes: Good Variety 96

You'll imitate and compose sentences like this: After a minute, two of the creatures, a doe and her fawn, moved hesitantly down the slope, looking at him curiously.-Alexander Key, The Forgotten Door

The Toolbox 114

To get the job done right in your sentences, use the right tools in the right places. You've learned all of the right places to build stronger sentences. Those power places are in your toolbox. Get ready to use them in this section. When you finish, admire your work, done right with the right tools in the right places, and take a bow.