Published by W.W. Norton on March 16, 2021, for teachers, tutors, and parents who want to strengthen their kids’ writing and close reading skills. Plug-and-play lesson plans, hundreds of examples, for all levels from middle school through college composition. A good companion, with very little overlap, to 25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way.
What readers say . . .
Reading and writing at the sentence level is all too often overlooked in today’s classrooms. Enter Geraldine Woods’ Sentence. In addition to providing several strategies for reading closely and writing analytically, Woods also provides literally hundreds of sentences (categorized for thematic unit use) as examples with teaching ideas for immediate classroom use. This book will be one that I reach to again and again for ideas and inspiration. Susan Barber, AP Literature Teacher and Consultant, Atlanta, GA
As we all spend more time online power browsing and skimming text at warp speed, it’s more important than ever that we also slow down and read carefully. Sentence: A Period to Period Guide to Building Better Readers and Writers is chock full of classroom-ready activities that support teachers as they guide their students in becoming better writers and thinkers. As a writing teacher for over 30 years I appreciate Woods’ diverse set of examples and insightful analysis. Whether you’re looking for a way to fill a few minutes at the end of class or build an entire session around one sentence, this book has you covered. Chris Sloan, PhD, English Department Chair, Judge Memorial Catholic High School, Salt Lake City, UT
Geraldine Woods does teachers a great service by offering this book. She not only serves up an instructional guide for how to help students understand the importance of sentence crafting, she also gives numerous practical examples and lesson suggestions. Of particular note is her “interdisciplinary” section, which should help writing teachers venture beyond their own disciplines to help students realize that a well-wrought sentence is a powerhouse in any field. David G. Miller Professor, Department of English and Philosophy Honors Faculty, Mississippi College
As a high school English teacher, I’m always looking for new ways to engage students. For years, I’ve been thinking about the “big picture” and how my lessons and units can connect to the larger narrative in society. In her engrossing new book, Sentence., Geraldine Woods argues that we should be going small. By focusing on a single sentence, teachers can change the “lens” through which we view a text and find a new way to reach students. Woods’ book provides concrete and engaging examples that any classroom teacher can use tomorrow in their classroom. Kabby Hong, English Teacher, Verona Area High School
With clarity her cause and passion her method, Geraldine Woods clarifies the workings of one of our most significant and old-time technologies: the sentence. Her latest offering promises to engage teachers new and old seeking to shape lessons toward close reading and writing. That she curates from vivid contemporary sources will spark the stellar writer in her readers. Edie Meidav, Novelist and Associate Professor of English at Amherst
In “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman writes: “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” In a related spirit, Geraldine Woods’ phenomenal book Sentence.: A Period-To-Period Guide To Building Better Readers And Writers encourages students, teachers, readers, and writers to think at the level of the sentence. Rather than beginning with big ideas and then attending to the granular, Woods locates big ideas in the granular. Grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and history come alive in the alchemy of a string of words. Woods’ unique method for teaching literary composition and criticism is flexible enough to accommodate everyone from adults learning to read for the first time to advanced graduate students of literature. And perhaps most important of all, the book makes an implicit case for how an understanding of the sentence “strengthens students’ ability to participate in civic life and elevates the level of public discourse.” In an age of tweets and declining readership, Woods makes a compelling case for the relationship between the sentence and how we speak, write, and listen to one another. Never before has the teaching of grammar, syntax, diction, and the literary imagination felt closer to pure poetry than in this beautifully crafted book! Andrew McCarron, Chair of the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Department at Trinity School in Manhattan, New York, Faculty Associate at Bard College’s Institute of Writing and Thinking, and author of The Ballad of Sara and Thor: a novella (Station Hill Press, 2017)
EVENTS
Teaching Learning Leading K12 A conversation with Steven Miletto:
Webinar National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Books in Common NW in conversation with JP Kemmick, moderated by Jessica Hahl
Dear Ms. Woods,
I appreciated your authoritative webinar. You highlighted approaches English teachers and also ESL teachers in K-12, adult education, and college settings can use to widen their instructional repertoire for writing development. Plus, I was the individual who raised the question about the teaching approach called QSSSA (Question Signal Stem Share Assess). Furthermore, I have other issues that could have been raised during the webinar.
One issue that I raised was the instructional methodology of QSSSA (Question Signal Stem Share Assess). It is an approach that has the teacher raise a question stem for student groups to discuss with one another eliciting student interactions about an open-ended question. After the teacher poses the question, he or she gives a signal for student groups to interact with a question stem (i.e. I think democracy is___________. or various examples of global warming are______).
With the question stem, pupils interact with one another to fill in the blank. Later, the teacher assesses with formative measurement to get answers from a group.
If you are not sure about this approach, feel free to click on the following link: https://readenespanol.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/QSSSA-Strategy-1.pdf..
I have also attached a youtube video that provides a description of this instructional strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jna8PK-O3VI.
How can your approach be used in a differentiated instructional approach to students of different abilities and reading and writing levels? How can you provide effective accommodations for the following students: special education pupils who require an Intensive Education Program (IEP), ESL learners, and students who do not have the appropriate reading and writing level for their grade?
What about ways to reduce any working memory or cognitive overload issues that learners may face that prevent students to develop their writing skills?
Also, how can your approaches be effective for culturally responsive teaching for students who do not fit with white middle class educational institutions? With culturally responsive teaching,,teachers recognize the home, community, life experience, history, educational experience, and linguistic identity of their learners. If an ESL student is with a classmate from the same linguistic and cultural identity, trasnlnaguaging can occur for students to use their primary language to understand academic concepts in science, social studies, math, a language arts class, and an ESL class. Also, it does not demean African American youngsters who speak in African American Vernacular English rather than “standard white English.” This reduces the cultural trivialization and/or cultural deficits of students of different races and cultures. If you need further explanation about culturally responsive teaching, click on the following link: https://ncte.org/blog/2018/01/culturally-responsive-teaching-todays-classrooms/.
I look forward to any of your future webinars for harnessing my writing skills teaching repertoire.
Sincerely,
Robert Kim
Adjunct ESL instructor, Long Island Business Institute
Thanks for the questions you raise, as well as the information you provide. The sentence method I discussed in my webinar is extremely flexible. I think if you look at my book, you will see a variety of sentences, many accessible to younger students or to students who are still acquiring mastery of the language. While I provide suggested questions and answers for many sentences, the general approach can empower students to ask open-ended questions (QSSSA). Because emphasis is on meaning and not on the conventions of Standard English, the sentences a teacher selects for examination can (and should) be culturally responsive also. I hope you find the information you need in the book.
Intensive Education Plan (IEP) for K-12 students should be Individualized Education Program (IEP).