Strategies for teaching the 6 Traits of Writing
Ideas | Organization | Voice | Word Choice | Sentence Fluency | Conventions
Trait of Sentence Fluency
Focus on the basics of sentence writing.
Help students consider the necessary ingredients of every sentence.
Passing the Tower Test | Mini-Lesson Resources
Play Smackdown.
A sentence has a subject and a verb and is a complete thought. Teach students to strip any sentence down to its core— the subject & verb. Then play Jeff Anderson’s (Mechanically Inclined) “Sentence Smackdown.”
Set out on a 2-Sentence Search.
As a follow-up to Smackdown, collect two-word sentences from reading—a subject and a verb. Here are some examples found in various literature. NOTE: Exclude dialogue from the hunt, but don’t limit your search to literature/fiction.
- Look for two-word sentences in opinion/argumentative writing and all genres of informative text.
- Encourage students to look for examples in authentic text they come across in their everyday world (e.g., CD covers, restaurant placemats, greeting cards, etc.).