Learning Opportunities

Teaching Writing in Mid School (grade 5-9): A Deep Dive into Sentence Structure & Text Structure

This series begins with an overview of the Layers of Writing framework, focusing on what middle years students need to effectively express their understanding and communicate ideas with increasing complexity. Building on this foundation, the remainder of the two days will focus deeply on sentence structure and syntax and text structure and the instructional practices that build students’ written clarity, organization, and precision. Examples from classroom practice will be woven throughout, and teachers will leave with practical strategies and actionable next steps to strengthen sentence and text construction and elevate the overall quality of student writing.

Day 1, we will explore sentence structure and syntax and how these develop in adolescent writers, with a focus on supporting students to move beyond simple or incomplete sentences to crafting complete sentences that better communicate their depth of knowledge. Teachers will learn how to help students build, expand, and refine sentences in purposeful ways so they can communicate ideas with clarity and control. We also examine the role of vocabulary and academic language in developing more complex ideas and varied sentence forms.

Day 2, we will explore text structure and its essential role in developing strong writers by helping students think clearly, select powerful ideas, and organize them with purpose and precision. Teachers will build shared clarity around text purpose, text structure, and text form, and examine how structure drives student thinking across disciplines. Using clear and accessible text structure skeletons, we will move from basic organization to more sophisticated writing, supporting students in expanding and deepening their ideas through purposeful development. Across both days, teachers will engage in collaborative planning to design writing tasks and tools to directly support their instruction with both sentence and text structure for their students and specific context.