Teaching, Learning and Wellbeing

Using The Writing Revolution to Build Strong Sentences

Throughout 2026, RGLPS will continue to embed strategies from The Writing Revolution (TWR), to strengthen students’ writing across all subject areas. A key principle of this approach is simple but powerful: you can’t write well about something you know nothing about. Strong writing begins with strong content knowledge.

When students draw on prior knowledge and build background understanding, they reduce the cognitive load of writing. This allows them to focus on organising their ideas clearly and crafting accurate, well-structured sentences.

Two strategies we are using in classrooms this year are Scrambled Sentences and Sentence Expansion.

Scrambled Sentences

In this activity, students are given a sentence related to current learning content, but the words are scrambled. Their task is to reorganise the words into a correct, complete sentence.

Here is an example:

rescued / three / Storm Boy / orphaned / pelicans / the / from / the shoreline

Correct sentence: Storm Boy rescued the three orphaned pelicans from the shoreline.

This strategy:

• Reinforces what makes a complete sentence
• Strengthens understanding of correct word order
• Supports accurate capitalisation and punctuation
• Deepens understanding of new vocabulary and subject content
• Requires students to draw on their background knowledge and context

Because students must understand the content in order to reconstruct the sentence correctly, this activity builds both writing skills and subject knowledge at the same time.

Sentence Expansion

Another key TWR strategy is Sentence Expansion. These activities begin with a simple 'kernel' sentence, such as: She ran. 

The teacher then selects three guiding questions from the following:

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW?

Students use their answers to expand the original sentence, adding precise detail while maintaining correct capitalisation and punctuation.

Example: 

Instead of : The character escaped.

Students write: Lily escaped from the dark cave before sunrise because she heard the dragon returning.

Students must replace vague nouns and pronouns with specific language. If the question is “Who?”, they need to include the character’s name, not simply “she” or “the character” to correctly expand the sentence. 

Benefits of Sentence Expansion:

• Checks comprehension of the content
• Develops summarising skills
• Reinforces academic vocabulary
• Strengthens note-taking strategies
• Encourages students to anticipate what the reader needs to know
• Builds understanding of how nouns and pronouns create clarity

By explicitly teaching students how to build and expand sentences, we are helping them to organise their ideas and express their thinking with clarity and confidence. Strong, accurate sentences are the foundation of clear paragraphs — and ultimately, confident, capable writers

Have a great week everyone!

- Kerron Worsdell 

Learning Specialist

Seeking Donations for Crochet Club

Do you have a crochet hook gathering dust at home? 

If so, we'd love to take it off your hands. This term, Kate is trialing some small group crochet sessions with a group of Grade 5 students. We are looking for some size 4-5 crochet hooks. We are also happy to take yarn donations. You can leave these at the office for me to collect. Thank you in advance!