2. When to Teach Sentence Expansion

Grade Level

The ability to write effective sentences should be taught to all students beginning in kindergarten.

Sentence expansion can be adapted for all grade levels, but most formal instruction happens in grades K-5. 

In grades K-3, students are learning the basic parts of a sentence and how capitalization and punctuation help a reader understand the sentence. (See our skill explainer on Writing a Simple Sentence.) Once students can construct simple sentences, you can start to teach them how to expand their sentences by adding details. In second grade, students are generally expected to begin writing compound and complex sentences. 

While students are learning to write sentences, they are simultaneously developing transcription and composition skills. See more about the differences between transcription (handwriting and spelling) and composition (the ability to express ideas) in the article What Early Writers Need.

Prerequisite Skills

• Students should know how to form letters. Formal instruction of letter formation, or handwriting, should begin in kindergarten.

• Students should know their letter names and sounds. This will allow them to begin phonetic spelling. In phonetic spelling, students listen to the sounds they hear in a word and write the sounds as they hear them. Instead of writing "The sun was hot," the student might write "Th sn wz ht." Phonetic spelling, also known as invented spelling, is an important stage in spelling development. (Learn more about phonetic spelling (opens in new window) on our sister site, Reading Rockets.)
• Students should be able to write a simple sentence.