Key Sentence Frames

Key Sentence Frames

Definition: An example sentence in which specific details are left out in order for students to
practice using the most appropriate language in certain situations.
Purposes:
  • To model the language of a genre or profession
  • To encourage academic language skills
  • To scaffold written and oral communication
  • To provide the opportunity to use commonly expected language

Key sentence frames are highly valuable tools for helping lower level learners grasp the
concepts and the language of the concepts at the same time. The repetitive nature may seem
dull to many; however, if used sparingly, the drill-and-kill nature can be subverted in favor of
a practice-makes-permanent attitude.

Consider the language used in reports, assignments, and professional writing when
developing or designing sentence frames.
Examples:
In lessons teaching longitude and latitude, you might provide the students with
  • (City) is located at # degrees longitude and # degrees latitude.
  • (City) and (City) are both located on the ordinal # parallel/meridian.

For an algebra or science class, you might include:
  • The variable are __ and ___ .
  • If x is ____, then y must be ___ .

Such structures could be combined to help students better understand paragraph and
essay structures, if scaffolded properly over time.



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