Back to school, the time where teachers really try and see what their students can do. We are observing and giving tasks we think they can complete independently. Writing is one of the first things I assess. I give sentence writing activities the first week of school to see what my Grade 2 students can do. Do they include a capital letter at the beginning? Is there punctuation at the end of the sentence? Does the sentence make sense? All are important look fors.
The first thing I like to go over with my students is what a sentence includes. I create an anchor chart with a pencil at the top and a checklist of what a sentence includes:
-A capital letter at the beginning.
-Punctuation at the end.
-A complete thought is included.
-Finger spaces between words.
I will then play this song by Scratch Garden:
I then give students a writing prompt. Since it is the beginning of the school year, I will often ask students to write one sentence about something they did over the summer. I have students use the checklist anchor chart to help students make sure they have included each of the parts of a sentence.
Once students have handed in their work, I give feedback to my students using the star and a wish method. The star is something they did well (e.g., I like how you included a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence) and a wish is something they can work on (e.g., Next time, include a period at the end of your sentence). You can get the checklist and the star and wish by clicking the link below:
I created a sentence writing review package that includes:
How do you assess your students' sentence writing at the beginning of the school year? Let me know if in the comments below.
Thanks,
Tara
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