Composition Interventions

One way to support a student's sentence fluency is to provide targeted interventions to teach him how to make his sentences flow. The flow of a sentence describes how the words in a sentence work together aesthetically (as opposed to grammar, which refers to how they work together to create specific, coherent meaning), or how smoothly one sentence transitions to the next. The rhythm and cadence of a sentence involves how certain words are used to make the sentence feel smoother, or to bring certain aspects of the sentence into the spotlight. When you are intervening to support the flow, rhythm, and cadence of sentences, make sure to provide plenty of models and to encourage the student to read his work aloud. As Donald Murray (Culham, 2003) has said:

Edit out loud. Listen to the music of the draft, and tune it so that each paragraph, each line, each word, each space between words creates a beat and melody that supports and advances the meaning of the draft.

This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to support your students in this area. As you read, consider which of these interventions best aligns with your student's strengths and needs in the whole-learner domains.

Explicit Instruction

If you are intervening to support your students' ability to build flow, rhythm, and cadence into your sentences, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. This sounds like:

• Explain the Skill/Concept. Define flow, rhythm, and cadence, and explain the activity. ("Today, we will be working on the flow, rhythm, and cadence of our sentences. When a sentence has flow, it sounds natural. When a sentence has rhythm and cadence, the words work together in a way that makes the sentence sound rhythmic and interesting." "We'll be doing some activities that help us incorporate flow, rhythm, and cadence into our sentences..." )
• Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about identifying sentences that have flow, rhythm, and cadence. ("When I look for a sentence that has flow, rhythm, and cadence, I always read it aloud. Listen to these sentences: 'Colors. Streaming out from the slither of sun barely peeking over the pines.' As I read these sentences, I see how the writer uses a single word to catch the reader's eye. Then, she describes what the colors are — the sunset in a way that is almost poetic. She uses alliteration by starting three words with the "s" sound: streaming, slither, and sun. She also creates a mental image of the sun, using the word 'slither' and the word 'peeking' to allow the reader to visualize what this scene looks like." )
• Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about identifying sentences that do not have flow, rhythm, and cadence. ("Now, what if the reader wrote this sentence instead: 'The sun was so pretty when it rose over the trees.' The sentence conveys the same ideas, but it doesn't elicit the same feeling or emotion by using flow, rhythm, and cadence.")
• Practice the Skill. Engage in one or more of the activities below, adding flow, rhythm, and cadence. ("Now, let's practice adding flow, rhythm, and cadence to our sentences...")

Activity A: I've Got Rhythm
This intervention uses mentor texts to teach students what good language sounds like. This strategy is similar to how you might use mentor texts to teach a student how to write introductions or conclusions.

Koppe, J., & Bernabei, G. (2016). Text structures from the masters: 50 lessons and nonfiction mentor texts to help students write their way in and read their way out of every single imaginable genre. Corwin.

Activity B: Music to Our Ears
This intervention strategy supports a writer's ability to listen and practice writing fluent sentences. Feel free to listen along to Peter and the Wolf as you read about this intervention!

Use the music of classic works such as Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals to develop sentence-fluency skills. As you play a piece of music, let [the] student close [his] eyes and enjoy it. Then, play it a second time; only this time, invite [him] to pick a section and write a description of what [he] [thinks] is happening. Challenge [him] to capture the same fluidity of the music in [his] descriptions (Culham, 2003).

Culham, R. (2003). 6 + 1 Traits of writing. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Activity C: Use Repetition
If your student struggles with adding rhythm and flow to expository writing, teach Use Repetition (Portalupi & Fletcher, 2001). This strategy uses mentor texts to help a student to focus on the language he is using to convey information.

Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2001). Writing workshop: The essential guide. Heinemann.