The mentor sentences routine revolves so much around discussion on Day One and Day Two, and practicing on Day Three and Day Four, but there still needs to be some time to check in on what students are retaining through a short formative assessment.

Let’s wrap up how to implement the mentor sentence routine in 2nd-5th grade – day five, time to assess!

I know by now I have made it clear that the mentor sentences routine helps students see the RIGHT way to write, rather than the wrong, so when I tell you what they are doing on Day Five, you might be confused. I promise it will all make sense!

DIRECTIVE: Students will edit an incorrect version of the mentor sentence for mistakes and show comprehension of a skill on a short assessment.

Let’s break it down! Time To Assess:

That’s right, I said “edit” and “incorrect.” And I know I also said we aren’t showing them a sentence full of mistakes to correct in order to teach a skill with the mentor sentence routine, and that’s still true. They have seen amazing examples ALL WEEK LONG- through the original mentor sentence, the revisions, and the imitations. They know what the sentence is supposed to look like, so giving them this editing practice (which is still an important skill in writing) is still a best practice strategy.

The first few weeks, you might want to complete the mentor sentence assessment as a whole class or even allow them to work with a partner or in a group of three or four students, and then go over it together. Make sure there is true discussion and defense of an answer, not one student telling the answer and everyone else marking it down, too. You can also let the students use their notebooks to help them learn how to access resources to find information that they need.

I suggest using the quizzes that are a part of the mentor sentence lessons I’ve made as formative assessments rather than taking them for a grade, but there might be times where it is appropriate to use them for a grade, too. (A formative assessment is designed to drive your instruction and reveal students who may need more support.)

The assessments are provided in two levels, and in digital and printable formats in your free week download!

Getting Grammar Grades

Rather than using a worksheet as a grade, I suggest assessing how well students can apply the week’s focus skill in their writing for a grade. It’s important to see how they have progressed over the course of the week, too, because we continued to apply that skill a few days in a row. If you aren’t actively working on a writing piece, ask students to write a paragraph about something you are learning in social studies or science, and like in this week’s lesson for instance, require them to use some awesome adjectives.

I also would discourage you from using their mentor sentence notebook as a grade, other than maybe a completion grade. You want students to feel brave enough to try out new skills and get creative. For some students, if they know they are going to be graded (in other words, they feel there is a “right” or a “wrong” answer), they will hesitate to venture out of that “safe zone.” We want students to feel comfortable in this creative space to make mistakes and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

What’s Next?

As I previously mentioned, consistency is key! You’ll want to continue the routine every week to see the most growth and success in writing and language skills.

As you’ve progressed through each day of the mentor sentences routine, you’ve seen how this transforms the way students learn grammar and language standards. Students notice the RIGHT things to do in writing, rather than the wrong on Day One. Then on Day Two, students discuss the function of words in a sentence in order to learn how to communicate clearly in their own writing. Students revise the mentor sentence on Day Three, and make sure to keep the meaning the same. Next, on Day Four, students are going to use the same style and structure as the author, but change the context of the sentence.

This is the “hardest” day for students to grasp at first, but once they understand the expectations, it will become their favorite day (and probably yours, too)! Especially if students have never worked with mentor sentences previously, this will be a tricky step in the routine… maybe even a little frustrating. But stay consistent, and start off simple (that’s why my examples have all been about adjectives) so that students can focus more on WHAT to do rather than getting bogged down in understanding a rigorous skill.

Let’s get into how to implement the mentor sentence routine in 2nd-5th grade – day four, time to imitate!

DIRECTIVE: Students will compare the mentor sentence to an imitated example and identify how it’s the same, then write their own imitation of the mentor sentence.

How is Day Four different than Day Three?

On Day Three, they kept the meaning and context of the mentor sentence the same, and they revised by adding or changing words in the sentence. They improved the clarity or language.

On Day Four, they will change the meaning and context of the mentor sentence, while keeping the style and structure that the author used. They will be able to write about anything they want (OR maybe you want them to write specifically about a topic you’re studying or a book you’re reading- that works, too!) but they should strive to “write like the author.”

Let’s break it down! Time To Imitate:

Once you’ve read the original mentor sentence aloud, you’ll share your own example, just like you did with your revision. Again, every single week, you will want to provide a model to hit those higher-order thinking skills. They will evaluate what it is that you did in your sentence that was the same as the author, and determine how you changed that sentence to make it your own.

Rather than revealing your entire sentence upfront, you might want to model your thinking for them to help them understand how to get to the end result of an imitation. You could start off by asking yourself, “What am I going to write about? I think I’m going to write about something I like to eat. Let’s see… what will I eat? Pizza!”

“What kind of pizza was I eating?” At this point, some of them might be catching on and even shouting out, “Delicious pizza! Cheese pizza!”

Continue your think-aloud to the next part of the sentence, the prepositional phrases: “Where was I eating? I was playing it on a plate. What kind of plate? How could I describe that plate? I need an adjective.”

Modeling how to ask themselves those questions and think about each part of the sentence in chunks will help them to keep the structure the same.

Compare The Mentor Sentence to The Example

You wouldn’t want to walk through your thinking every week; that’s really just to help students understand how to imitate. When you get to the point where you feel comfortable simply revealing your example, make sure to lead a discussion around what they notice that is the SAME between your example and the mentor sentence. This helps students realize what they also need to keep the same in their own imitation.

For example, if the author wrote a simple sentence, theirs should also be simple. If the author included adjectives, they will, too. If the author wrote in past tense, they should, too. (This is a good time to review the noticings from the beginning of the week!)

Modifications

Provide what looks like a “Mad Lib” to help them understand the sentence structure. You could write this on the board, or give it to them as a strip to glue in their notebook. This will help them not only complete the imitation but also see the patterns of how words function.

Just as I pointed out on Day Three, you don’t want them to rely on this scaffolding forever, but it is definitely a great modification for slow writers, or those who are not able to “see” the structure.

Celebrate

The kids really love getting to share their creative imitations. Just as you walked around during Time to Revision to make sure everyone was on track with the lesson, you’ll want to check to be sure they are imitating correctly as well. And while you’re peeking over their shoulders, make a mental note of a few that are really on point. Those students should not only share out with the class but also get a special display of their imitation sentence.

You might have those students write their sentence on colored sentence strips with smelly markers, then hang them with the original sentence somewhere special, like the hallway, or a board in the classroom.

Keep in mind, you won’t want to choose the BEST sentences each week for display or, as we all know as educators, it would probably always be the same students getting picked. Look for the students who did a good job following the structure, or maybe wrote about something really interesting or creative, too. You might even allow students to get into groups and vote for the sentence they think is the best imitation of the mentor sentence.

You always want to provide the time for them to pair-share as well, because they’ve done all this work that they should be proud of and they will want to share it.

Application of Imitation Into Writing

Just as you saw on Day Three, you’ll want to be sure this carries over into writing by continuing to work with the skills. You don’t want mentor sentence time to be an isolated “subject,” or then you’re still just teaching grammar in isolation. Keep stressing the focus skill throughout their writing time, and referring back to the mentor sentence for things you want them to continue doing in their writing, too. Read more about setting up a writing lesson schedule to make mentor sentences stick here.

Ready to move on in the routine? Head to the next post!

Break Down Day Five

The mentor sentences routine is a research-based, game-changing practice for you and your students.  As you saw in the Day One post, students will notice the RIGHT things to do in writing, rather than the wrong. Then on Day Two, students will discuss the function of words in a sentence in order to learn how to communicate clearly in their own writing. On Day Three, students will use their revision skills to improve the mentor sentence.

Students (and even adults!) often think revision means the writing is bad and needs to be fixed… but revision really is about making adjustments to the writing, or improvements to the language.

By showing students that even the mentor sentence could be revised, you are helping them understand that there are always things that can be done to revise their own writing, too.

Let’s get into how to implement the mentor sentence routine in 2nd-5th grade – day three, time to revise!

DIRECTIVE: Students will compare the mentor sentence to a revised example and identify what was added or changed, then write their own revision of the mentor sentence.

Let’s break it down! Time To Revise:

To start the revision exercise, once you’ve read the original mentor sentence together, share a revised model of the mentor sentence. Showing your own example of a revision should happen every week- NOT just in the beginning when you are introducing the routine. Providing “your version” digs into important higher-order thinking skills that help students compare and analyze, plus it helps get ideas flowing for what they can do for their own revisions.

Ask students to share out what they notice that is different in your sentence than the original mentor sentence; discuss what you did to revise. Also, point out how it is the SAME as the original- it has the same meaning. We don’t want to change the intention of the sentence.

Students should try it on their own. You might want to guide the practice at first by letting them know what you want them to revise for (“See if you can revise the mentor sentence with one or two additional adjectives.”) but once they have the hang of it, I wouldn’t stifle their creativity… let them try things out and see what they can do! Maybe they have an idea for an adverb to better tell how or where- let them do it!

As they’re writing, walk around and take a peek at what they are doing. This will not only allow you to select some students to share theirs with the class, but it will also help you quickly correct students who might start off on the wrong foot.

Ask a few students to share their revised sentences with the class. This will give students another opportunity to compare to the original (ask the class to identify what these students did to revise). There won’t be enough time for every student to read their revised sentence to the class, but you can definitely take a minute to allow students to turn and do a pair-share with a partner.

Modifications

Some students may struggle with the idea of revising. You might want to rewrite the sentence, but add blanks in front of the nouns where you want students to think of new adjectives, for example. You could write it on the board for students to use for their practice, OR if students spend too much time just rewriting the sentence, you might provide a little strip to glue or staple into their notebook so that all they have to do is fill in the blanks.

As mentioned above, this isn’t something you’d want to continue to do every week since it locks them into only specific things to try, but it definitely helps scaffold the process so that they can become more independent.

Application of Revision Into Writing

You want students to understand that revision is part of the writing process that isn’t done just when you’re finished drafting. You might take a few minutes every Wednesday after “Time to Revise” to revise their own writing. Even if they’re not done drafting a writing piece, they can still look at what they have written so far and decide, is there anything I can revise?

You might also decide to revise a few more sentences from the mentor text. In the book, The Bad Seed, there are several sentences where he uses the word “bad” to describe himself or to describe his behaviors. You could easily use the interactive activity from Day Two to help them revise these additional sentences.

You might work together as a class to revise these or you could have them look at a sentence as a small group or with a partner and talk about what they could do to change the word bad. You might even do one as a whole class, and then send them off to work more independently. Even if they work with a partner or a group, make sure to still allow them to share out to the class because they’ll be able to hear how even the same sentence was revised in different ways, or with different words.

A Few More Notes:

Make sure you’ve read the mentor text before you start Day Three. Students should use the context of the book/sentence to help them revise, just as they would in their own writing. This helps them understand, for instance, they aren’t just adding ANY adjectives, but adjectives that actually describe the character. And of course, it helps them feel invested in the lessons for the week because they are connected to the literature.

What if students just copy your revised model? Well, first of all, they’re going to realize really quickly that the sentence that they’ve just copied straight from yours on the board is not going to be one of those exciting ones that get to be shared. But hey, at least those students have a good version of a revised sentence in their notebook that they can look back at and refer to as a good way to revise a sentence by adding these adjectives. To help guide them away from copying yours, as they are working on their revision, point out one of the words they copied and say, “Oh, I noticed you used shy, too. Can you think of another word that we could put there? What’s another way we could describe the seed?” This helps set the expectation that you want them to be creative and think of their own ideas, too.

Ready to move on in the routine? Head to the next post!

Break Down Day Four

Mentor sentences are the best practice routine that your students need for grammar and language skills to truly stick in writing. You read in the Day One post how to help students notice all of the good things about the mentor sentence. The purpose of Day Two is to understand the function of words in a sentence in order to communicate clearly in their own writing. On the surface, it might look just like diagramming, but you’ll see how it’s much deeper than that.

Let’s get into how to implement the mentor sentence routine in 2nd-5th grade – day two, parts of speech!

DIRECTIVE: Students will rewrite the mentor sentence into their notebook, skipping lines in between to leave room for their labels, and then label only the functions of words they KNOW. The class will participate in a discussion around what they labeled, creating a larger display from everything students share.

How is Day Two different than Day One?

On Day One, they might have noticed parts of speech (for example, the focus skill for this week’s lesson is amazing adjectives), but during the time to notice routine, they are looking at the sentence as a whole and identifying attributes about it. So, yes, you identified that it had adjectives, but really you were noticing that the sentence is descriptive and uses adjectives that are synonyms of each other. This is to help students understand that they should write sentences that are descriptive that don’t use the same boring word over and over, too.

On Day Two, they will be drilling down to the words and identifying their functions in the mentor sentence… so when talking about the adjectives on this day, the discussion should be around how those words are describing the nouns in the sentence.

Let’s break it down! Understanding Parts of Speech:

Remember to read that mentor sentence again together. Then students are going to rewrite it, skipping lines, in their notebook.

**As mentioned in the previous day’s post, if this is the very first time that you’re ever doing mentor sentences as a class, you may want to completely skip the notebook step for this week and complete this as a class.**

I often get asked, “Is it really necessary for them to rewrite the sentence? Why not just label the one glued down?” My answer is YES, I think it is necessary, and here’s why.

1. Students can use all the “copying” help they can get, am I right?? Being able to rewrite something correctly can actually be a challenge for some kids, and this will give them some practice.
2. Rewriting the mentor sentence is going to add quality writing and conventions to the students’ muscle memory.
3. The sentence strip the students glued down isn’t going to provide a lot of room, and then they won’t have a “clean” copy of the sentence.

It’s so crucial that this day is built around discussion to make sure that you’re not just labeling words for the sake of labeling (i.e.; diagramming) because research has shown that it can actually be detrimental to a student’s learning. Plus, diagramming is just not necessary for the improvement of writing, which is the whole purpose of the mentor sentences routine!

In other words, it’s not a race to get every word in the sentence labeled. In fact, I would encourage you NOT to label every word at first. You want to make sure that your students feel comfortable with understanding just what you’re focusing on and not overwhelming them with every single word in the sentence.

Since our focus skill in this mentor sentence lesson is adjectives, the most important “labels” this week will be adjectives and nouns. If this is the first time doing mentor sentences with students, you may want to ask leading questions to get the discussion started, like, “Does anyone see any nouns in the sentence?” Allow students to suggest words from the sentence that are nouns, but remember: the discussion shouldn’t stop after they identify the noun. Ask them how they know it’s a noun (it’s a person, place, or thing).

If you ask students to tell you a noun and still no one does, move right into modeling mode. “I know a noun is a person, place or thing. So let’s think if there are any people, places or things in this sentence. Does anybody see a place? Is there a place in this sentence? Oh, you know, I think field is a place… and so that must be a noun. I’m going to label field as a noun.” This type of modeling might feel like a Ferris-Bueller-teacher moment, but don’t get discouraged! They are soaking in how you want them to speak about the sentences, and the conversation truly won’t be one-sided when they learn the expectations of the routine.

Identifying nouns first will enable you to easily move to the adjectives. Start again by asking a prompting question, and if students still aren’t readily engaging in the discussion just yet, continue to model your thinking: “I know this word ‘simple’ is an adjective because it is describing the sunflower, which is a noun, and adjectives describe nouns.”

I would also be sure to discuss pronouns, as they are related to nouns. You might say, “Pronouns replace nouns. ‘I’ is replacing the seed as he talks about himself. So, ‘I’ is a pronoun.”

I’d advise you to talk about articles anytime they appear, too. I gave you some tips to talk about them in this particular mentor sentence on Day One, so you can remind them of that conversation as you look to label those words. It’s one of those parts of speech that really do not need an entire week as a focus skill, and you are able to keep reviewing it over and over since so many mentor sentences will contain at least one article. A great way to hold a discussion around it is to read it “wrong” and ask what they notice about when the article sounds “right” – the article “a” comes before consonant sounds and the article “an” comes before vowel sounds.

If students want to identify and discuss any other parts of speech, then have those conversations… but remember, in the beginning, you want to be sure students are picking up the foundational skills most of all, and you don’t want to overwhelm them.

Don’t stress about labeling every single word, ESPECIALLY if it’s going to lead you to launch into mini-lessons about every other word in the sentence. The spiral nature of mentor sentences allows you to continue building skills through the weeks. Just think: every sentence every week will have nouns to identify, and there will be countless sentences that also contain adjectives. Work on adding at least one new word function each week and it won’t be long before you ARE labeling and discussing every single word!

Label Parts Of Speech Displays

It is not necessary to have special labels or magnetic board pieces to mark your mentor sentence parts of speech… I know they look pretty but REMEMBER, the most important part of Day Two is the DISCUSSION around how words function.

If you really wanted a set way of labeling the parts of speech, I would encourage you to look into the research-based approach of multi-sensory grammar. The set colors help students begin to see patterns in sentences, and in turn, help them grasp how the words function.

Check out these color-coded posters you can use in your classroom!

Application of Focus Skill Into Writing

After the labeling exercise and discussion, you will move into the activity which will help carry the focus skill over into their writing.

Since the focus skill is varying adjectives in the example lesson I’ve been sharing, the students would complete an interactive activity for awesome adjectives.

The activity is available in printable and digital formats in your free download for this week’s lesson!

Talk about how these three words: good, bad, and big are adjectives that describe nouns, but they are a bit boring. There are a lot of other words besides good, or bad, or big, that can be used that mean the same thing but give a better visual or description.

Look back into the book for examples of what he did that was good and bad, and things that were big, and have them describe to you other ways to describe those nouns that were big, bad, and good.

You might also bring up how the meaning can vary depending on what you’re describing. For example, in The Bad Seed, he was bad, meaning he was misbehaving. He had bad manners. He had a bad temper. A synonym for bad in this sense might be “rude.” But the word takes on a different meaning if we say something like, “That food tastes bad.” In this sense, the word might mean “rotten” or “disgusting.”

When students have completed the activity (and definitely give time to share out ideas of the words they thought of!), they will have a resource they can use for writing of ways to vary the adjectives good, bad, and big. Give students time to practice using some of these words either in sentences or by adding some adjectives into a writing piece you are completing. Anytime they see the words good, bad, or big in their own writing (even past this week’s lesson), encourage them to think of a way that they could replace those words with awesome adjectives.

A Few More Notes:

One question I always get about Day Two is, “What if they say something and it’s not right? For instance, what if they say ‘on’ is an adverb instead of a preposition?” Well, on can be an adverb, and so that’s exactly what you would say! “Well, sometimes it can be, but actually in this sentence, it’s a different part of speech.” If you haven’t taught prepositions and prepositional phrases, then you may just want to tell them, “Adverbs do tell ‘where,’ but in this sentence, this is what we call a preposition. Prepositions also tell ‘where’ and they always connect to a noun.” And then leave it at that. Remember, you don’t want to get off on a tangent away from your focus skill!

Just as I mentioned on Day One, continue talking with them about adjectives whenever they come up. Maybe you’re in a reading group and you see an adjective in the book that they’re reading together… stop and say, “Hey, I think I see a describing word. Do you see a describing word in that sentence?” This is going to help them learn how to speak about word functions (NOT just identify them). It’s also going to help them learn how to truly “notice” the good in sentences.

Ready to move on in the routine? Head to the next post!

Break Down Day Three

Mentor sentences help students learn the RIGHT way to write, rather than the WRONG. It’s a total gamechanger in the classroom and a proven best practice that will transform your teaching. The purpose of Day One is to help students recognize (or NOTICE) all of the good things about the mentor sentence. This has been proven to help students write more effectively, as they soak in the examples we show them… imagine all of the TERRIBLE examples they’ve soaked in when presented with “fix-it” sentences. YIKES!

Let’s get started with how to implement the mentor sentence routine in 2nd-5th grade – day one, time to notice!

BUT FIRST:

You can get the lesson I’m using as an example in this series delivered right to your inbox!

DIRECTIVE: Students will glue the mentor sentence into their notebook, and then make a list of all the things they notice about this sentence that makes it a super sentence. The class will participate in a discussion around what they noticed, creating a larger list compiled from everything students share.

Let’s break it down! What do you notice?

First, have the students read the mentor sentence with you. They can either read straight from the sentence strip you gave them that’s glued down in their notebook, or they can follow along with your display. This helps you get in some fluency practice. In fact, you’ll want to read the sentence together every single day of the entire week to practice that fluent reading.

**If this is the very first time that you’re ever doing mentor sentences as a class, you may even want to completely skip the notebook for this week. Working together as a class, and modeling your thinking, will be an important step in establishing expectations. Also, keep in mind, mentor sentences should only take 10 to 15 minutes each day, but at first, it’s going to take a little longer because they’re not familiar with the routine. But once you get the routine going, they’re going to know exactly what to do every single day. You won’t have to repeat directions, you won’t even have to do a lot of prompting after a few weeks.**

Once you have read the mentor sentence, ask them, “What do you notice about this sentence that makes it such a good sentence? What is so special about this sentence, or what stands out to you about this sentence?”

At first, this might be a bit difficult for your students. If they’ve never been exposed to the mentor sentences routine, they probably aren’t sure why you’re asking them to talk about all the good things. If they’ve only ever looked for bad things, they may not be aware of how to notice the good things in a sentence, or even what makes a good sentence.

They might only notice some very simple things at first like, it starts with a capital letter. This is when you may need to model some thinking so they can get their brain on the right track… but don’t rush to it right away! Give them a little time to really look at the mentor sentence; they just might surprise you! Sometimes it takes just one student offering something about the sentence to get others thinking.

Discussion, not a lecture!

This poster is included in your free lesson download for The Bad Seed.

Remember, all of the learning is going to be happening through discussion. It’s important to pose questions to help lead these discussions. So even for something as simple as the capital letter, ask, “Why is it capitalized?” If they notice the mentor sentence has a period at the end, lead them into a discussion about sentence types. If they don’t know the types of sentences yet at this point in the year, depending on where you are in your skills, then introduce it. “There is a period at the end, which means this is a sentence that tells us something. This is a statement, or a declarative sentence.”

You might present to them as a think-aloud how you notice the commas to help them understand what they should be doing on this day. “The commas in this sentence are creating pauses.” So read again to show how they create pauses: “I was born a humble seed (pause), on a simple sunflower (pause), in an unremarkable field.”

Something else your students may notice if they’ve learned about prepositional phrases is that there are two prepositional phrases: on a simple sunflower, in an unremarkable field. If they do notice that there are prepositional phrases in the mentor sentence, remember to lead them in a discussion- have them identify what they are and then what are they doing in the sentence. They’re telling us where he was born. He was born on a sunflower and in a field.

Maybe they will even notice there are different types of articles being used in the mentor sentence, because “an” comes before that vowel sound and “a” before the consonant sound. Another great discussion starter: ask, “Could we say ‘an simple sunflower’ or ‘a unremarkable field?’ Why not?”

Notice Focus Skills

Of course, in this step of the mentor sentence routine, the most important part of the discussion is going to be about that focus skill, the amazing adjectives. You definitely want to make sure the students are aware that this is a descriptive sentence that is using adjectives to help describe the seed, the sunflower, and the field.

If they do not bring up adjectives (or “describing words”) during this time to notice, then you definitely want to guide them to see that. Give them hints that the sentence has describing words by asking, “What kind of seed?” or “How did the author describe the seed?” for example. Discuss how the author told us more information and more detail about what kind of seed he was, and the kind of sunflower that he was born on, and the kind of field that he was born in.

Remember, all of the lessons in the mentor sentences routine should only be 10-15 minutes each day, so you won’t launch into a whole elaborate lesson on adjectives, even if they don’t know about them. You just want to remind them that these are describing words; they give more detail, telling us more information about those nouns.

If they don’t notice it on their own, you’ll also want to point out that they’re amazing adjectives. They aren’t plain, boring adjectives like “bad” and in fact, they are all actually synonyms of each other. They’re better ways of saying the same word. Humble, simple and unremarkable all mean the same thing. The author didn’t say, “I was born a plain seed, on a plain sunflower, in a plain field,” because that would be boring. Instead, the author used these amazing adjectives to describe those nouns and really spice up the sentence.

You’re going to continue touching on the skill over the course of the week… I know this is a paradigm shift for you as a teacher, too right?! You’re probably used to spending a lot of time explaining a skill, then maybe doing a worksheet or two… but not with the mentor sentences routine! Studies have proven that presenting information in short spurts SEVERAL times is much more effective, so that’s what you’ll be doing all week long.

A Few More Notes:

Keep an eye out for the focus skill of the week throughout the day in other subjects. These are great little teachable moments, and it helps students learn to become more observant, too. It also provides more “short spurts” to get in that frequent reminder of the skill without droning on and on in a lecture or just regurgitating information on a worksheet. So for this lesson, tell students to be on the lookout for other adjectives and celebrate those moments. “Oh, you’re right. That is an adjective. Good for you. And what’s it describing? What do you see that it’s describing?”

When students begin to work in their notebook with you after a week or two of modeling, I do suggest having them write down anything in their notebook that they are missing from the class chart you make. This way, as you progress through the year, they will have the complete lesson to refer to when analyzing future mentor sentences. (Comparing past mentor sentences to a current one is a great way to get some higher-order thinking in as well as help students truly understand skills that continue to spiral through the year!)

Ready to move on in the routine? Head to the next post!

Break Down Day Two