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Sentence Fluency
March 1, 2008 | Tagged alliteration, end rhyme, internal rhyme, meter, mood, onomatopoeia, rhythm, segue, sentence starters, slant rhyme, tone, transitions, word choice | Leave a Comment
*Note to teacher:
- “Fluency” is a term that seems confused in education…especially in writing instruction.
- I’ve heard teachers talk about “fluency” as being the ease to which a student can put words and sentences down on the page. I contend that this is not fluency, but automaticity or expertise.
- Fluency (for the purposes of this lesson) is the prose equivalent of poetic “meter.” It is the rhythm and flow of the sentences and paragraphs making up the prose composition.
- I believe this is an important distinction not only because our inaccuracy can cause confusion for our students, but because of my belief that mastery in prose is predicated upon poetry; and therefore the prose writer’s ability to match his/her fluency regarding his/her purpose, audience and form is an essential yet neglected prerequisite of good prose writing.
Objectives:
- Realize that the way you organize and order your words, phrases & clauses within your sentences have an effect (intentionally or unintentionally) on your audience.
- Know how sentence length changes your reader’s understanding, perception or mood.
Warm-up:
- How many different ways can you reword the following sentence:
- I hope to see the day when people can live in harmony with nature.
Mini-Lesson:
- Regarding the sentences you created:
- Did you use any synonyms, punctuation, order or other modifications?
- How does the meaning change between your sentences?
- How does the sound of reading the sentences change?
- How does the emotion of the sentences change?
- Listen to Warren Polks student’s social commentary piece, “A City Bigger Than.” A City Bigger Than by Warren Polk.
- What is his purpose?
- Who is his targeted audience?
- Does his word choice and sentence construction carry an emotional meaning?
- When does he use long sentences?…short ones?…inverted order?
- What other techniques does he use?
Application: (According to your classroom/curricular needs)
Does anyone reading this entry know of any other mini-exemplars that would work with this lesson? How about modifications to the lesson? Leave comments if you would like.
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