Description

Build stronger readers by teaching stronger sentences.

When older students struggle to understand grade-level text, the problem is often not vocabulary or decoding. It is syntax.

Sentence Sense is a complete, research-supported curriculum that helps older struggling readers and writers understand how sentences work from the inside out. Students learn to identify the building blocks of sentences before expanding them into increasingly sophisticated structures that improve both reading comprehension and writing.

Instead of memorizing grammar rules in isolation, students learn how sentence structure creates meaning, making this curriculum perfect for intervention, special education, RTI/MTSS, dyslexia support, and secondary ELA classrooms.

Students progress through five carefully sequenced units:

Unit 1: Understanding Subjects

• Simple subjects

• Compound subjects

• Complete subjects

Unit 2: Understanding Predicates

• Action, helping, and linking verbs

• Compound verbs

• Complete predicates

Unit 3: Phrases and Clauses

• Phrases

• Independent and dependent clauses

• Sentence fragments

• Sentence types

Unit 4: Expanding Sentences

• Prepositions

• Prepositional phrases

• Adjectives

• Adverbs

• Appositives

Unit 5: Building Complex Sentences

• Compound sentences

• Run-on sentences

• Dependent clauses

• Complex sentences

• Compound-complex sentences

Throughout the curriculum, students learn to move from identifying sentence parts to analyzing authentic sentences and producing increasingly sophisticated writing. The progression is intentionally scaffolded so each concept builds on previous learning before introducing new levels of complexity.

What’s Included

• Complete instructional curriculum

• Five sequential instructional units

• Step-by-step teaching slide presentations

• Printable student worksheets

• Hands-on task cards

• Sorting activities

• Sentence-building activities

• Sentence kernels

• Simplified sentence diagrams

• Sentence expansion practice

• Teacher guidance for implementation

• Research references and professional learning resources

• Printable and digital teaching options

Why Teachers Love It

✓ Specifically designed for older struggling readers

✓ Connects grammar directly to comprehension

✓ Improves reading and writing simultaneously

✓ Uses explicit, systematic instruction

✓ Hands-on activities keep students engaged

✓ Easy-to-follow progression with no guesswork

✓ Perfect for small groups, intervention classes, special education, tutoring, and whole-class instruction

Use With

• Reading Intervention

• Special Education

• MTSS and RTI

• Dyslexia Intervention

• Secondary ELA

• Literacy Coaching

• Tutoring

• Middle School

• High School

Students Will Learn To:

• Identify subjects and predicates with confidence.

• Recognize complete and incomplete sentences.

• Understand how phrases and clauses work together.

• Expand simple sentences into detailed, meaningful writing.

• Analyze increasingly complex sentence structures.

• Write compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

• Improve sentence-level comprehension.

If your students can decode the words but still struggle to understand what they read, Sentence Sense provides the missing bridge between word reading and comprehension. By explicitly teaching syntax through engaging, scaffolded lessons, students gain the tools they need to understand complex texts and communicate their own ideas with clarity and confidence.