Do your students struggle with sentence writing? Do they tend to compose fragments and run-ons, or do they make frequent grammatical errors? Unscrambling sentences is a fun way to teach sentence building skills. You can do it without spending any money or struggling to make up your own sentences!
This post contains affiliate links.
I had been meaning to purchase the book The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler because I had heard so many fantastic reviews of it. One day it essentially fell in my lap for free: someone left it in the “free” pile in the teachers’ workroom! Why someone would give up this book is beyond me but let’s assume they had two copies and only needed one. 😉
I dove right in and immediately started taking notes. Hochman and Wexler explained that students who struggle with sentence writing should participate in activities that help them develop their understanding of what a complete sentence is. Four activities the authors recommend are:
- Distinguishing between sentences and fragments
- Turning fragments into complete sentences
- Locating fragments that have been embedded in text
- Unscrambling sentences
In The Writing Revolution, you’ll read lots of details about specific ways to incorporate each of these activities into your existing curriculum.
In this post, we’ll dive into the benefits of unscrambling sentences and ways you can implement this sentence writing strategy with your students.
Hochman & Wexler explain that unscrambling sentences has four main benefits.
- It helps students understand the concept of a complete sentence.
- It helps students improve their knowledge of syntax (word order).
- It helps students successfully incorporate capitals and punctuation.
- If you incorporate content area material, it provides another opportunity to deepen their understanding of that topic, as well.
I have a fifth benefit for you! When you use sentences aligned with your phonics sequence, your students get all the benefits listed above, plus the opportunity to work with decodable text, which helps develop fluency.
Have I convinced you that you need to incorporate scrambled sentences in your sentence writing instruction yet?
Let’s talk about how to do it! Here are the basics:
- Choose a simple declarative (statement) or interrogative (question) sentence and provide it to the students out of order.
- For younger learners, you can write or print the sentence and then cut it apart so they can move the words around.
- For older students, you can write the sentence out of order on the board.
- For students who need some support getting started, consider capitalizing the first word or making it bold. You can also include ending punctuation with the last word as another hint.
Note: try to avoid command/imperative sentences when you first begin using this strategy. Hochman and Wexler note that commands can be trickier to unscramble than declarative or interrogative sentences.
Where should your sentences come from?
You have options here! You can certainly make them up on the fly and use sentences about your class, your dog, the weather, and so on. This is the lowest-prep way to get started.
With a few minutes of prep time, you can skim through your math textbook, your science materials, or the novel you’re reading to the class. Grab a few sentences from these content-area sources and use them as your scrambled sentences. As Hochman and Wexler noted, your students will practice their sentence building skills and have an additional opportunity to work with their content-area topics.
Are you worried that your struggling readers won’t be able to access the activity if you use grade-level content area material in your sentences?
This is when you can use decodable sentences that are aligned with your phonics program! When I first tried out scrambled sentences with my students, I used the sentences from the Wilson student readers. When I realized the benefits of this activity, I began creating my own materials with decodable sentences that align with the Wilson Reading System substeps.
Do you have a phonics program that you love? Simply use sentences from your program for this activity. If you have the time, you can type them, print them, and cut them apart for your students. Short on time? Keep the sentences handy while you teach so you can write the sentences out of order on the board and complete the activity orally.
Do you want a more organized way to complete this sentence writing activity? Don’t have phonics materials to pull from? Then the Scrambled Sentences product line will be perfect for you!
Each individual resource is aligned with a specific Wilson substep but you can easily match the skills to your phonics program. Here’s a sampling of the skills you can choose from:
- CVC words
- Bonus letters
- Welded/Glued sounds am and an
- CVC words with suffixes –s and –es
- Welded/Glued sounds –ng and –nk
- Consonant blends
- Closed syllable exceptions
If you use Wilson, Fundations, or Just Words, I’m sure you can see that finding the right level will be a snap!
There are currently 9 skill sets to choose from.
How can you incorporate scrambled sentences into your Wilson Reading System lessons?
Scrambled sentences can easily be incorporated into Part 4: Wordlist Reading for students in a group setting or into Part 5: Sentence Reading for both groups and individuals.
To use scrambled sentences during Part 4: Wordlist Reading, introduce the activity as independent work your students can complete as they wait for their turn to complete their wordlist charting with you.
Want to use scrambled sentences during Part 5: Sentence Reading? After students unscramble each sentence, you can follow the procedure of questioning for comprehension, questioning concepts (e.g. bonus letters, word elements), phrased reading in scoops, and marking selected words. If you want to reuse the cut-up scrambled sentences, be sure to have students mark the words with their fingers instead of writing on them.
I like to store my scrambled sentences by clipping each sentence with a paperclip and keeping the set in a labeled envelope.
Want to add a writing aspect to the activity?
After orally unscrambling each sentence, the students can write it down on a whiteboard or lined paper. If you purchase my scrambled sentences, several options for recording the sentences are included.
Another fun way to use scrambled sentences
My sister-in-law, a first-grade teacher, first tried the scrambled sentences right before Easter. She had the fabulous idea of putting each scrambled sentence in a plastic egg and putting the eggs in an Easter basket. Her students nicknamed the activity “scrambled eggs” and asked for more chances to complete it!
How will you use scrambled sentences with your students?
Comment below to tell me if you’ll start with random sentences, content-area sentences, or decodable sentences. There’s no wrong answer!
Want to receive blog posts like this delivered to your inbox? Sign up below!
Source: Hochman, J. C.; Wexler, N. (2017). The Writing Revolution: A Guide to advancing thinking through writing in all subjects and grades. Jossey-Bass.
This post is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Wilson Language Training Corporation. WILSON®, Wilson Reading System®, Fundations®, Just Words®, and Wilson Fluency® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the Wilson Language Training Corporation.
