Struggling with Teaching Sentence Structure? Help is Here.

Are your students finding it difficult to analyze English sentences? Whether they're just beginning to learn the language or studying a foreign language that requires a solid grasp of English grammar, understanding sentence structure is essential.

That’s where I come in.

With over 30 years of classroom experience and a lifelong passion for grammar, I’ve created a straightforward, engaging way to master the art of sentence construction. In my Simple Steps to Sentence Sense video series, I walk learners through eight clear, manageable steps to understanding sentence structure. 

Each video is paired with a practice exercise and an answer key, making it easy to learn and review at your own pace.

These videos are short and easy to understand. You can use them with students who enroll late in the year, with students who need tutoring, or you can play each video for your class, sit back, and let me explain each of the eight steps as an introduction to the actual unit from the Simple Steps to Sentence Sense eBooks and resources.

• How to Use SAM (Sentence Analysis Map)
• Step 1 - Prepositional Phrases
• Step 2 - The Verb
• Step 3 - the Subject
• Step 4A - Action Verb Complements
• Step 4L - Linking Verb Complements
• Step 5 - Adjectives and Adverbs
• Step 6 - Finding Phrases (verbals, and appositives)
• Step 7 - Finding Clauses (adjective, adverb, and noun)

This program is perfect for students, children, or grandchildren who need a little extra support—and confidence—in writing and grammar.

If you're looking for a practical, proven way to strengthen sentence skills, this just might be the gentle push they need to succeed.

These videos complement all of my grammar eBooks and resources. You can find all the Simple Steps to Sentence Sense resources here.

The first video in the series is free. If you want to check it out, click here.

You always save 20% when purchasing a bundle. Click here to make the purchase that will save you hours of time.

Thanks for reading. I hope your new school year is your best one yet!

Charlene 

Here are some interesting blog posts from The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you are interested in becoming a member to promote your teaching materials click here.

Make a Good Impression

Have you ever wondered what your students might be thinking about you? 

Here are a few possibilities:

1.  Your breath is not fresh.

If you are engaged and interacting with your students, you will often lean in close to them to offer advice or encouragement. Be sure the tuna sandwich and ranch dressing chips you had for lunch do not offend. Keep some breath mints in your desk, pop one in your mouth, and keep your breath fresh. ( I can still remember my 6th grade teacher's offensive breath. Seriously? After all these years, you'd think I could forget.)

2.  Your voice is unpleasant.

Record your lessons for a few days and listen to the sound of your own voice. Are you too loud? Do you speak in a monotone? Do your words produce a singsong pattern? If so, practice making your voice more pleasant. 

3.  Your instructions are not clear.

Do your students ask you several questions before they begin to work? Are the questions ones that were already addressed in your instructions? If so, perhaps the wording in your instructions is not as clear as it could be. Anticipate the questions (even if they seem trivial) your students might ask , and include that information in your instructions.

5.  Your focus is not what it should be.

Are students cheating? Are they visiting and socializing when they should be working independently? If so, examine what you are doing. Are you walking around the room and interacting with your students, or are you typing on your computer or iPad, checking your email, or grading papers? Focus on the students who are acting out. Leave everything else until later. They will soon realize that you are aware of their actions, and they will get to work.

It is entirely possible that your students have never thought any of these things about you, but it helps to be aware of the possibility that one of these might be something you could improve upon.

Here are links to three FREE and two moderately priced lessons you might find helpful during the first few weeks of school. I hope you are off to a great start.

Day Planner and Daily To-Do List- FREE

 

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs Grammar Worksheets - FREE

Sentence Patterns Grammar Worksheets – FREE

Sentence Patterns Back to School Grammar Worksheets  $$

Finding Prepositional Phrases Grammar Video and Practice Exercise $$

Thanks for reading. Below are a few interesting blog posts from my friends at The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marking Cooperative. Enjoy!

Charlene

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

MY BEST BACK-TO-SCHOOL TIP

At the beginning of each new school year, teachers need time to complete secretarial duties including the preparation of class rosters, seating charts, etc. Expecting students to sit by idly is never a good idea, and busy work is a waste of students' minds, so teachers need to prepare fun and challenging activities to keep students engaged while they deal with the minutiae that cannot be avoided.

So, my best back-to-school tip can be summed up in two words:

BE PREPARED.

Here are two activities my students enjoyed.

Here's a FREE Higher Order Thinking Skills Word Game students can do independently or in pairs or small groups. It will stimulate their imaginations and their brains. My students love working on this in groups, and it helped introduce students who were new to each other. You will find it here.

This different, but equally as challenging Higher Order Thinking Skills Exercise, works well with students in small groups. You will find it here.

I hope these two no-prep activities help you start the new school year out with more fun and less stress. Visit my TpT store for more helpful no-prep activities.

Thanks for reading,

Charlene

P.S. Below are blog posts from a talented group of teachers who are members of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Warm Up Your Students' Writing Skills

Here comes back to school, ready or not! 

It’s that time of year when only we teachers understand feeling sad to see the end of summer, but at the same time, feeling excited to meet a new group of students who will quickly become an important part of our lives.
 
ELA students usually need a warm-up to sharpen their writing skills Here are some thoughts for an ELA lesson you might find helpful. This is how I presented it to my students.
 

~ ~ ~

 
Sentence combining is a writing process that can enrich your writing and help you make good stylistic choices. The best way to learn to write is to write and write and … well, you get it.
 
This technique challenges you to look at a group of basic sentences and then determine how they could best be combined into one or more interesting sentences that will have more style and make more interesting reading.
 
Moving words, phrases, and clauses into different positions and combining them can transform a sentence.
 
For example:
The athlete is talented.
The athlete is learning skills.
The skills are new.
The skills are difficult.
 
One way to combine these basic sentences might be:
 
The talented athlete is learning new and difficult skills.
 
Here’s another set of basic sentences to combine:
There was a car.
The car was red.
The car had a luxurious interior.
The interior was black.
The interior was leather.
 
You could combine these basic sentences like this:
 
The red car had a luxurious black leather interior.

or 

A luxurious black leather interior was in the red car.
 
Which one is better? That is a matter of opinion. Yours.
 
Here’s one cluster of sentences to combine. You try it. 

Combine these five basic sentences into one sentence with style.
 
He thought about his dorm room.
It was narrow.
It had a low ceiling,
It smelled like pizza.
The smell was stale.
 

(At this point, I would give my students an exercise to practice combining sentences.)
 

~ ~ ~

If you would like to offer your students more practice with sentence combining, I have four exercises ready to go. You can buy them individually, but the bundle will save you 20% off the individual resources These exercises require no preparation. Everything is ready to print and go. Some of the resources can be used in three ways. Print, use in Google™ Drive, or in Easel™ by TpT.

You will find it here.

I hope you have a great school year. You will find a FREE Back-to-School eBook with resources from members of The Best of Teachers Marketing Cooperative (TBOTEMC) here. If you are not a member and would like to join this marketing cooperative, visit this link. 

Thanks for reading,

Charlene

Here are some great blog posts from my teacher friends on TBOTEMC.

Enjoy!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Find Amazing Bargains in Back-to-School Sale on TpT

The annual back-to-school sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com begins next week on Tuesday, August 3rd. You will have two days to save up to 25% on thousands of resources that you can purchase, download, and use immediately. 

Be sure to enter the code BTS21 when you check out. Many sellers are pricing their resources at 20% off and if you enter the code, TpT will take off another 5%.

Busy teachers will especially enjoy the back-to-school activities that are printable, and many resources also provide a link to a product in Google Drive™ or offer the opportunity to work in Easel by TpT™.

Here's a link with more information on how to use Easel by TpT™. 

I have spent much of my summer making 50 of my resources available to use in Easel. If you wish to see which of them have been converted to Easel, click here. 

If you have already purchased a resource that has been converted to Easel, please go to the "my purchases" tab in your TpT dashboard and download it again.

Here's a great opportunity to enter an amazing contest sponsored by Victoria Leon and The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. You can win a $100 TpT Gift Certificate. Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

One of my goals for the coming school year is to write a blog post and an email each month to help you teach a grammar, writing, or creative writing lesson to your students. If you have any special requests about concepts you would like to see me spotlight, please tell me in the comments below or send me an email at charlenetess@yahoo.com. I would love to help you in any way I can. 

You may find these two back-to-school lessons helpful. 

This back-to-school unit will get your new semester or school year off to a good start. Everything you need is included in this unit. Five pages of instruction for the teacher and a four-page handout packet for the students. 

When completed, students will have introduced each other to you and to their classmates, and you will have taken three assessment grades.

The twenty back-to-school-themed sentences in this exercise all begin with the subject and the verb.

Good writers vary their sentence patterns by sometimes placing phrases or clauses at the beginning of their sentences. 

In this exercise, students will rewrite sentences by varying the sentence patterns.

I hope the 2021-2022 school year is a happy and healthy one for you, your family, and your students.

Best,

Charlene

Sun, Sand, and Savings Sale Week of July 19-23

Sun, Sand, & Savings Sale  

$1 resources $2 resources and FREE resources. Week of July 19-23

It's that great summer sale again. You can choose from amazing TpT resources and save BIG!

You can find all the sales and giveaways for grades K-12 here.

Every Monday in July, I will mark two of my resources down to $1.00. Click on the link below to shop deals on 7/19. (I will not reduce prices until tomorrow!)    

Three Ways Authors Reveal Characters

Comparing and Contrasting Two Short Stories

Every Tuesday in July, I will mark two of my resources down to $2.00. Click here to shop deals on 7/20. 

(I will not reduce prices until Tuesday!)    

Scenarios to Plot a Mystery Story

Show Don't Tell

Every Wednesday in July, I will mark two of my digital resources down to $1.00. Click here to shop deals on 7/21. (I will not reduce prices until Wednesday.)

Guide to Understanding a Novel

Using Irregular Verbs Correctly Set One

Every Thursday and Friday in July, you can enter a $100 TpT Gift Card giveaway. Winners are announced on the main website on Saturday.

You can enter the giveaway on Thursday and Friday here.

Every Friday you can grab one or two of my Freebies.

Finding Prepositional Phrases Video

Practice with Possessive Nouns Worksheets

You can find all the sales and giveaways for grades K-12 here.

Bookmark it for use during July.

Sun, Sand & Savings Sale Week of July 5-9

Sun, Sand, & Savings Sale  

$1 resources $2 resources and FREE resources. Week of July 5-9.

It's that great summer sale again. You can choose from amazing TpT resources and save BIG!

You can find all the sales and giveaways for grades K-12 here.

Every Monday in July, I will mark two of my resources down to $1.00. Click on the link below to shop deals on 7/5.    

All About Verbs

How to Write a Critical Essay

Every Tuesday in July, I will mark two of my resources down to $2.00. Click here to shop deals on 7/6. 

(I will not reduce prices until Tuesday!)    

Show Don't Tell 

Action and Linking Verbs Complements

Every Wednesday in July, I will mark two of my digital resources down to $1.00. Click here to shop deals on 7/7. (I will not reduce prices until Wednesday.)

Proofreading for Capitalization, Punctuation, & Spelling BOOM Cards.™

Practice with Apostrophes Boom Cards™ Deck 1

Every Thursday and Friday in July, you can enter a $100 TpT Gift Card giveaway. Winners are announced on the main website on Saturday.

You can enter the giveaway on Thursday and Friday, here.

Every Friday you can grab one or two of my Freebies.

Who, or Whom, Fewer or Less, Bad or Badly BOOM Cards.™

Gratitude Booklet Creative Writing Activity

You can find all the sales and giveaways for grades K-12 here.

Bookmark it for use during July.

Back to School on TpT

Tomorrow, August 4th and Wednesday, August 5th everything in my TpT store will be 20% off including bundles. If you add the code BTS20 at checkout, TpT will give you an additional 5% off. 

I have many distance learning resources that you can use in Google Drive. They include lessons, exercises, and the answers. You will find them here.

Have you tried BOOM Cards? They are self-grading digital task cards that your students will love. I have created several decks. You will find them here. Play the previews to see what you think.

My big news is that now all three editions of Simple Steps to Sentence Sense are now in Google Drive and students will type their work into text boxes on GOOGLE Slides.

Simple Steps to Sentence Sense for Elementary and ESL

Simple Steps to Sentence Sense for Middle School

Simple Steps to Sentence Sense for High School

BUNDLES are always a bargain, but during a TpT sale, they become a SUPER BARGAIN. I have some new bundles in my store. Click here to see them.

Please stay well and safe. If I can help you, please send me an email at booksbycharlenetess@gmail.com.

All the best,
Charlene

 

Getting to Know You Activities

The first few days of school at a secondary campus are exciting, fast-paced, and often chaotic. As counselors balance class loads, and students adjust schedules to include elective classes, students are frequently added to classes and dropped from classes. At my high school, we had at least two fire drills during the first week of school, and the senior class had a class meeting. In additions to those interruptions, teachers have many administrative duties, including organizing equipment, books, notebooks, and the list goes on.

I developed a unit that I used every year with every class. The students enjoyed it, and after the introduction, it required minimal involvement from me for several of the days. I was free to prepare seating charts, get my groups outlined in my mind, label and organize equipment, and again the list goes on.

This unit will help you with activities for the first day of school to get your students seated and accustomed to your classroom.

It includes a series of activities that will help students get to know each other and introduce them to you. The activities included in this unit are:

• filling out an information card for the teacher’s use.
• learning to prepare the heading on papers due to the teacher's wishes
• learning interview techniques.
• writing a series of interview questions. interviewing a classmate.
• writing a personality sketch.
• learning to use a rubric.
• introducing a classmate to the teacher and the other students in an oral presentation. After completing all of the activities, students will have received three grades, and they will know a little bit more about the other students in their class. I hope you will find this unit helpful. You can find it here.

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