Variety Is the Spice of Life (And It's Good for Sentences, Too

All too often, student paragraphs are filled with short, choppy sentences that bore the reader with their sameness:

I don’t like school much. I don’t like math. I don’t like English. I don’t like social studies. I like P.E. okay. I like lunch. I like my science teacher. I don’t like science. I like art. I like to paint.

“Variety Is the Spice of Life—(And It’s Good For Sentences, Too)” is a packet of reproducible activities that help students learn to use more variety in sentence structure. The activities take the approach that it is more important to be able to write a sentence with, say, an introductory participial phrase than to be able to identify one. Although some terminology is used in the activities, it is simplified and kept to a minimum. The intent is to help students focus on writing, not on labeling or describing the writing.

Imitating or modeling different sentence types gives students practice manipulating words, and, with practice, their writing will gradually become more sophisticated. Without even realizing it, students often start using the patterns they have modeled in their own work.

Unlike the mind-numbing exercises on typical worksheets, the activities in “Variety Is the Spice of Life” challenge students to experiment and to be creative. Give them a try!

by Cheryl Miller Thurston
Size: 8.5" x 11"
Pages: 20
Grades: 7 & up