Sentence Stalking #5

 

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“In the hard-packed dirt of the driveway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone home to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribbling, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones, and the wooden sticks of lollypops” (Charlotte’s Web 123).

Talk about concrete language.

Strip the sentence to its essence. What is left? Compare that with the original.

Look up the definition of veritable.

Count the commas. Discuss their purpose.

Imitate this sentence with a different topic, maybe a messy bedroom.


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.