Daily language review: a fix-the-sentence routine

1 What daily language review is

Daily language review, sometimes called daily oral language, fix-it sentences or editing warm-ups, is a short routine for practicing the mechanics of writing. Students get a sentence with errors in it. They find the errors and write the sentence correctly. Then the class goes over it together.

The reason it works as a daily routine is that mechanics are a matter of habit. A student who learns in a single lesson that names start with a capital letter will still forget it in their own writing next week. A student who fixes a lowercase name in a sentence most mornings for a month starts to notice it everywhere, including in their own drafts.

Keep the routine small. One sentence is enough. Two at most for older students. A whole paragraph of errors turns a five-minute warm-up into a twenty-minute editing lesson, and the class loses the daily rhythm that makes it stick.

2 The five kinds of error to teach

Most fix-the-sentence items use the same small set of errors, over and over. That repetition is the point. The sentences in the morning work maker use exactly these five, and every sentence lists which ones it carries, so the key tells you what students should have found.

• Capitals: the first word of a sentence, the word I, names of people and places, days and months. the cat is on the mat. becomes The cat is on the mat.
• End marks: a period, a question mark or an exclamation point. Did you know that bats sleep during the day needs a question mark.
• Commas: in a list, after an introductory phrase, between a city and a state, in a date, and before so or but joining two sentences.
• Apostrophes: in contractions (couldn't, we're) and to show ownership (Jamal's bike).
• Spelling: common words students should already spell correctly, such as because, again and favorite.

Teach one kind at a time before you mix them. Spend a week where every sentence has a capital error, then a week of end marks, then start combining. When a sentence has two or three different errors, students have to read it several times with different eyes: once for capitals, once for punctuation, once for spelling.

Grammar beyond these five, such as subject and verb agreement, verb tenses or run-on sentences, can join the routine in the upper grades once it has been taught. Add one new kind at a time, and keep the older kinds coming back so they stay sharp.

Tell students how many errors there are, at least at first. "This one has three mistakes" turns a vague hunt into a clear task, and they know when they are done.

3 Running it in five minutes

The routine below works as part of morning work, as a bell ringer, or at the start of a writing block. The order matters less than doing it the same way every day.

1. Students fix it alone. They read the sentence, find the errors and write the whole sentence correctly on the line, not just the fixed letters.
2. Put it on the board. Show the sentence with its errors, large enough for everyone to see.
3. Read it aloud the wrong way. Hearing it helps students notice missing end marks and commas.
4. Fix it together. Ask a student for one fix, and why. "Ruby is a name, so it needs a capital." Make the change on the board. Repeat until it is clean.
5. Say the rule. End with the rule in one sentence, the same words every time it comes up.
6. Students check their own. They compare their sentence with the board and correct it in a different color.

The step teachers most often skip is saying the rule. It is also the step that carries over to students' own writing. Over a few weeks the class will start saying the rule with you.

What to sayLet's read it the way it's written. Now, what's the first thing you fixed? Why? Good: names of places start with a capital letter. What else?

4 What to fix at each grade

The errors grow with the grade. Here is what the morning work maker's sentences carry at each level, which follows a common order for teaching mechanics.

• Kindergarten: one error a sentence, either a capital at the start or a period at the end. I like to read books needs only its period. Read every sentence aloud with the class.
• 1st grade: capitals, end marks and spelling of common short words, sometimes two in one sentence.
• 2nd grade: adds apostrophes in contractions and ownership, and commas.
• 3rd to 5th grade: two or three errors a sentence, with commas in lists, dates, places and introductory phrases, and spelling of trickier words.
• 6th to 8th grade: longer sentences with clauses, so commas after introductory clauses and around extra information, plus spelling of subject words like thermometers and summit.

In the maker, every grade gets one fix-the-sentence item a day. Sixty sentences are written for each grade, each with its corrected form and its list of errors. The names in them are made-up first names, the topics are everyday school and home life, and there are no holidays in them.

If your class needs an easier start, print a grade below for the first few weeks. A 3rd grade class that is shaky on capitals and end marks will get more from 2nd grade sentences in September than from 3rd grade ones.

5 Adding a word of the day

Many teachers pair the fix-the-sentence item with a word of the day, because vocabulary needs the same daily attention as mechanics. The morning work maker adds one for grades 2 to 8: a word, a child-friendly meaning, and a line for the student to use it in a sentence of their own.

A 3rd grade day might give nibble: to eat with tiny bites. A 7th grade day might give luminescent: glowing without heat. The words come from the same vocabulary bank Peabody's word games use, matched to the grade's reading band.

• Say it together three times before anyone writes.
• Read the meaning and give one quick example of your own.
• Ask for two sentences aloud before students write theirs. Hearing a classmate's sentence helps the ones who are stuck.
• Use it again in class that day, on purpose, and let students catch you.

For kindergarten to 2nd grade, the maker gives a sight word to read and write twice instead of, or beside, the word of the day. The sight word checks guide covers how to see which sight words a child knows.

6 Getting the fixes into students' own writing

A fix-the-sentence routine only pays off if students carry the habits into their own work. A few small moves make that much more likely.

• Post the rules as you teach them. A short chart with one example for each rule, added to as the year goes on, gives students something to check against.
• Edit your own draft once a week with the same rules. Ask students to read a piece of their own writing once for capitals, once for end marks, once for commas.
• Name the rule in writing conferences. "Remember this morning's sentence? Same comma here."
• Use their errors. If many students make the same slip in their writing, write a sentence with that slip for tomorrow's review. Never use a student's own sentence or name.

Notice the payoff and say it out loud. When a student fixes a comma in their own story without being asked, that is the routine working, and it is worth a quiet word of praise.

7 Common mistakes with daily language review

Daily language review is easy to start and easy to let drift. These are the problems that come up most, and how to fix each one.

• Too many errors in one sentence. Five errors in a short sentence is a puzzle, not practice. One to three is plenty.
• Errors that were never taught. Students cannot fix a semicolon they have never seen. Stick to rules you have taught.
• Skipping the group fix. Without it, students never find out what they missed, and wrong habits get practice too.
• Fixing only the letters. Have students write the whole sentence correctly. Writing it right is the practice.
• Sentences that are too long to read. For young students, short sentences with one clear error are best.
• Never changing the rules. Once a rule is secure, move on. Keep it in the mix now and then so it stays secure.

Above all, keep it to five minutes. The routine works because it happens every day, and it only happens every day if it stays short.

And keep the tone light. A sentence with a silly slip in it, read aloud the wrong way, often gets a laugh, and a laugh is fine. Students who enjoy catching the mistakes look harder for them. What you want to avoid is any sense that a wrong answer on the warm-up is a problem. Everyone fixes their own sentence in a different color, and the colored fixes are the learning, not a mark against anyone.