Ines Millin Mevs
The Think Write Book incorporates sentence combining with features of various academic content areas, non-fiction, and 'jumping off' points for further and more in-depth discussion and collaboration in the ELL classroom community. Students will be able to develop and strengthen their writing skills, specifically composing, revising, editing, and critical thinking. By mastering these skills, students will improve their syntax and fluency, and they will also acquire a stronger writer's vocabulary that will aid them in enhancing their overall written communication skills, academic writing assignments, and demand writing tasks found in various state-mandated standardized tests. Incorporating sentence combining with classroom activities, such as peer-review/peer-assessment, and writing workshops, will also promote very powerful data for teachers who are engaging in action research. Using the sentence combining activities in this book, along with writers' workshop activities, can provide teachers of English Language Learners and struggling writers with a means to conduct whole-group, small-group, and differentiated instruction as students continue their development of vocabulary and language necessary for academic success. Such activities will have the desirable effect of increasing ELL students' understanding and maturity in written expression, as well as their increased metalinguistic awareness and the use of rubrics, particularly those that target the conventions of writing.
