Using Sentence Stems to Promote Comprehension

This Idea Swap is based on a teaching tip by Rodriguez-Mojica and Briceño (2018) in a recent issue of The Reading Teacher. Students need to be able to participate in classroom discussions. Students with developmental language disorders (DLD) and English learners (ELs) may experience difficulty conveying their ideas in syntactically complete sentences. Sentence stems provide a support for students to express their ideas. Sentence frames provide a structure within which they can express their ideas. Students’ need for stems to serve specific language function should change over time. For narrative texts, Table 1 lists sentence stems for three language functions and examples of sentences for each stem.

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Table 1.

Sentence Stems for Language Functions.

Language function	Beginning stem	Intermediate stem	Advanced stem
Description: Describe the sequence of events a	First, ___. Then, ___. First Tony decorated windows. Then Tony worked on the parade	First, next, then, last. First Tony made puppets. Next worked at Macy’s. Then he made costumes for the parade. Last he made big balloons for the parade.	In the beginning, ___. Then, ___. Finally, ___. In the beginning Tony made marionettes for the parade. Then he filled rubber balloons with air. Finally, he filled big silk balloons with helium.
Explanation: Explain by thinking usually by citing textual evidence b	I think ___. I think Patricia really wants to read.	I infer ___ because ___. When the text said ___, it made me think ___. I infer that Trisha was happy at the end of the book because she could read. When the text says, Trisha’s grandpa let go of the grass, I think that her grandpa died.	I infer that (character) felt __ because the text says ___. When (character said), it made me think ___. I infer that Mr. Falker felt angry when Eric teased Trisha because the text says he marched Eric to the office. When Mr. Falker said, “We’re going to change all that,” it made me think he knew what to do to help Trisha.
Identification and explanation: Identify and explain symbols c	In this story, ___ represents ___. In The Giver, the sled represents freedom.	In this story, ___ might represent ___ because ___. In The Giver, the red sled might represent freedom because Jonas uses it to get away.	___ symbolizes ___ because ___. In this story, ___ might signify ___ because ___. In this story, blue eyes might signify differences because Jonas and The Giver are different from others; they have blue eyes and they are the only ones who can see color.

Examples are based on the following books:

a

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy’s parade. Boston, MA: HMH Books.

b

Polacco, P. (1998). Thank you, Mr. Falker. New York, NY: Philomel Books.

c

Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.