Grammar and Syntax

Blog Posts

Levels of Language & Literacy

Question: What role does knowledge of language play in reading and writing? Answer: A huge role! Teachers tend to focus on the “five components of reading” when thinking about what’s needed to teach students to be good readers (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension). But there is another model that should be considered: the seven levels of language.
Joan Sedita | February 4, 2020 | 1 Comment
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We Need a “Writing Rope”!

The literature and discourse related to literacy instruction tends to focus on reading, even though writing is just as important for student literacy achievement. In addition, significant attention is paid to the multi component nature of skilled reading, while writing tends to be referred to as a single, monolithic skill. With a nod towards Hollis Scarborough’s “Reading Rope”, I’d like to suggest a model that identifies the multiple components that are necessary for skilled writing. In 2001, Scarborough published a graphic that depicts multiple components of language comprehension (i.e., background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge) and word recognition (i.e., phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition) as strands in a rope. As students develop skills in these components they become increasingly strategic and automatic in their application, leading to fluent reading comprehension.
Joan Sedita | January 6, 2020 | 3 Comments
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Fostering Academic Language Development in Primary Grades

Language skills and literacy achievement are highly correlated. The Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2008) found that oral language – the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar – is correlated with later literacy achievement. The more children know about language, the better equipped they are to succeed in reading and writing.
Joan Sedita | February 28, 2018 | 0 Comments
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The Writing Revolution

I’ve long been a fan of Judith Hochman’s work related to teaching basic writing skills to older students who struggle with writing. In 2012, the Atlantic published a riveting article titled “The Writing Revolution” that chronicled the experience of a New York City high school as they sought to understand why so many of their students could not write. They determined that Judith’s sentence instruction practices were a big part of the solution. Now Judith has written a book with Natalie Wexler (with a forward by Doug Lemov) titled “The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in all Subjects and Grades.”
Joan Sedita | July 17, 2017 | 4 Comments
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Teaching Grammar: What Works and What Doesn’t

I have been recently working with my Keys to Literacy colleagues to develop our new Keys to Early Writing professional development program -- we will pilot it next month. An important piece of comprehension and writing instruction for young children, (and also for older struggling writers) is teaching sentence structure. What’s the best way to teach sentences? A recent article by Lauren Gartland and Laura Smolkin in The Reading Teacher titled The Histories and Mysteries of Grammar Instruction presents some interesting history about grammar instruction and some suggestions for effective teaching, but first let’s address why students need explicit sentence instruction...
Joan Sedita | February 23, 2016 | 0 Comments
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Text Driven Comprehension and Close Reading Instruction

Basic comprehension strategy instruction, close reading instruction, and text-driven instruction are closely related. Comprehension strategy instruction provides the foundational, basic comprehension skills that students need to get “under their belt” in order to apply the more complex, critical thinking skills required to closely read challenging text. Basic comprehension strategy instruction should be text-driven -- i.e., taught and practiced using content-related text. Teachers will not be effective if strategies (such as main idea and summarizing skills) are taught and practiced in isolation. Likewise, close reading skills need to be text-driven – i.e., using challenging content-related text....
Joan Sedita | January 26, 2016 | 0 Comments
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Writing Disabilities

The Reading Rockets website has long been a resource I recommend to educators and parents for any topic related to literacy instruction. For this blog post, I’m featuring several Reading Rockets resources related to writing disabilities.

Writing Disabilities: An Overview by Charles MacArthur offers an excellent summary of why some kids struggle with writing (especially those with learning disabilities), and how some instructional practices can help. MacArthur was part of the panel that wrote “Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers”, an Educator’s Practice Guide published by Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education....
Joan Sedita | September 22, 2015 | 0 Comments
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Mentor Text Lessons to Improve Student Writing

The seminal report Writing Next (Graham & Perin, 2007) is based on a meta-analysis of research related to best instructional practices for improving student writing. One of the eleven elements identified in the report as most effective is Study of Models (i.e., provide students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing). Showing models is also one of the six instructional practices that make up the teaching routine for Keys to Content Writing (Keys to Literacy’s writing professional development program). But many teachers are not sure about where to find good mentor writing samples, or what would be a good focus for analyzing a mentor text....
Joan Sedita | March 17, 2015 | 2 Comments
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Sentence Combining

I have long been a fan of sentence combining activities as a meaningful and effective way of improving students’ writing skills. Since the 1960’s, research studies have shown that sentence combining is an effective way to teach grammar to students in elementary through college levels and improves student writing. This is especially so for students who struggle with writing. The Writing Next report (2007) based on Graham and Perin’s meta-analysis of writing instruction research, identified sentence combining as one of the eleven most effective instructional practices for improving the writing of students in grades 4-12....
Joan Sedita | January 8, 2015 | 0 Comments
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PK-3 Writing Instruction Resources

The non-profit website Reading Rockets has an extensive collection of resources related to writing instruction for grades PK – 3.

Here’s what you will find at the Looking at Writing section of the Reading Rockets website:

  • Writing samples from real kids
  • Advice about instruction based on samples
  • Guidance on writing assessment
  • Writing resources
  • Videos of nationally recognized experts on writing instruction

The information is organized by grade level, starting with PreK and ending with grade 3....
Joan Sedita | December 16, 2014 | 0 Comments
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The Best Baby Shower Gift: Books!

I recently received an invite to a baby shower, and as I packed a gift bag of books for the expectant parents, it reminded of the terrific work that the non-profit organization of medical providers, Reach Out and Read, has been doing since 1989. They promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms across the country by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.

Books for babies and toddlers are the only gift I consider giving at new baby celebrations because reading to young children is more valuable than anything else you might buy in a baby store.....

Joan Sedita | November 4, 2014 | 2 Comments
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