Mentor Sentences Unit: Daily Grammar First 10 Weeks (Grade 2)

Teaching your daily grammar lessons with the mentor sentences routine is the only way students will truly learn to apply grammar and language skills to their writing! No boring worksheets, lectures, sentences filled with mistakes, or rote drills that don’t stick…

These ready-to-teach mentor sentence lessons will have students working with one sentence from a favorite read-aloud mentor text in a different way each day for just 10-15 minutes!

Teachers who enjoy using mentor texts to cover content and maximize teaching time will love adding these mentor sentence lessons to their toolbox.

For each week’s lesson, you will guide students in discussion of the main focus on one or two grammar and language skills, but they are also exposed to new and previous grammar skills, too! This spiral learning truly makes an impact on their retention of grammar understanding and writing abilities. Students of ANY ability can use mentor sentences; because of the consistency, students know what to expect each day, and the spiral learning keeps those important skills in front of them week after week.

Students will work on revision skills each week. They will also imitate the author’s style and structure. Both of these steps in the mentor sentence routine help cement the transition of grammar, language, and style they’ve learned to their own writing.

Finally, use the formative assessments provided to find out what should be reviewed in future weeks.

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WHAT’S INCLUDED?

You don’t need to be a grammar guru to implement mentor sentences. When you purchase mentor sentences from Ideas by Jivey, you get a “cheat sheet” for all 10 weeks- all the work is done! I've even done all the thinking for you when it comes to revising and imitating!

Each lesson includes:

•the teacher sentence page for display

•the student sentence page to glue into notebooks

•a lesson plan page with answers for each day’s routine

•a formative assessment/quiz with answer key (provided in print and digital format) which also includes editing practice

I have also used handwriting lines on the quiz to help students with proper letter formation. The focused skills in this pack are proper nouns, plural nouns, possessive nouns, and contractions.

There is a 9-page introduction in the unit with pictures included of how I use mentor sentences in my room (VERY detailed, day-by-day), followed by 10 lessons for the following books:

-First Day Jitters By Julie Danneberg

(proper nouns)

-Officer Buckle and Gloria By Peggy Rathmann

(proper nouns)

-Memoirs of a Goldfish By Devin Scillian

(proper nouns)

-Chrysanthemum By Kevin Henkes

(plural nouns, proper nouns)

-Scaredy Squirrel By Melanie Watt

(possessive nouns, proper nouns)

-Skippyjon Jones By Judy Schachner

(possessive nouns, proper nouns)

-If You Give A Mouse A Cookie By Laura Joffe Numeroff

(contractions)

-The Paperboy By Dav Pilkey

(contractions)

-Stellaluna By Janell Cannon

(plural nouns, possessives)

-The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything By Linda Williams

(possessives, contractions)

As a former first and second grade teacher, I used to LOVE reading these books, so I know many of you do, too! They are definitely some of my favorites. I chose books that would be in most personal libraries or school media centers. Ideally, this unit would work best at the beginning of the school year (based on the books especially), but it could really be started at any point.

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WHY USE MENTOR SENTENCES FOR DAILY GRAMMAR PRACTICE?

Studies have shown that the “traditional method” of grammar workbooks, lectures, and diagramming is not only ineffective but can be detrimental to student writing! Grammar should be taught in context, NOT isolation.

Mentor sentences also help improve craft by revealing fantastic models of figurative language, descriptive words and phrases, and interesting sentence variation that they use as models for their own writing.

Mentor sentences allow students to soak up the language and grammar skills through noticing, conversation, and imitation, which in turn transfers to their writing.

Not familiar with mentor sentences? Read all about them here!

**Watch a video of Mentor Sentences in ACTION!**

Try a freebie for the book, Diary of a Worm!

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WHAT ELSE DO I NEED?

There are COMPANION SETS to get the most bang for your buck with these mentor texts!

★ Unit 1 for Second Grade Interactive Language Arts Notebook Companion: includes an interactive activity for each focus skill in this mentor sentence set.

★ Unit 1 for Second Grade Vivid Vocabulary Companion: includes vocabulary activities to use the words IN CONTEXT from the same books in this mentor sentence set.

★ You might also be interested in the Second Grade Mentor Sentences Modifications ADD-ON Pack which will support students with disabilities, English as a Second Language, or slow writers.

Once you see the difference in your students from mentor sentences, you won’t want to stop! There are three more units to complete the year:

Second Ten Weeks Unit for Second Grade

Third Ten Weeks Unit for Second Grade

Fourth Ten Weeks Unit for Second Grade

You’ll also love to use these mentor texts in reading and writing, too! Make sure to get BETTER THAN BASAL: Complete NO PREP Reading & Writing Units for 40 Popular Mentor Texts in Grade 2!

Grab the NONFICTION Animal Mentor Sentence Pack!

Do you do an author study of Robert Munsch?

Check out the Robert Munsch Mentor Sentences Mini-Unit!

Do you do an author study of Kevin Henkes?

Check out the Kevin Henkes Mentor Sentences Mini-Unit!

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DO YOU LOVE TO SAVE MONEY?

If you want to get all of the sets now to save money, you can buy the BUNDLE FOR THE WHOLE YEAR!

There is also now a BIG bundle with all Mentor Sentences, Modifications for Revising and Imitating, Language Arts Interactive Notebooks, Reading Activities, Writing Prompts, and the Vivid Vocabulary Companions for all 40 books! Check out the Biggest and BEST Yearlong Bundle for Second Grade!

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HELP ME PLAN!

You don’t need to do all of the mentor sentence lessons in the order they come in the units. When I created units 1, 2, and 3, I put them in an order that progressed in difficulty, so these lessons spiral, but it is not necessary to stay in that order. The first three units are more seasonally appropriate for beginning, middle, and end of the year, and then Unit 4 was created with “anytime” books that can be used throughout the year.

There is a free download of the "At-A-Glance" for all 40 books in Second Grade! This download will help you see all of the skills covered in the units if you’d like to “bounce around” within them.

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WHAT ABOUT OTHER GRADE LEVELS?

Mentor Sentences can be done in ALL grades! Please tell your teacher friends about mentor sentences for their grade:

Kindergarten & ELL (Early Emergent Readers)

First Grade

Second Grade

There are three volumes for grades 3-5 to help prevent repetition of mentor sentence lessons among grades in the same school.

Check out what’s in Volume 1!

Check out what’s in Volume 2!

Check out what’s in Volume 3!

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Please remember, this purchase is for the use of one teacher. It is not intended to be shared. Please use the 'additional license' purchase if more than one teacher will be using it. Thank you!

*The mentor sentence lessons I have created are adapted from the ideas of Jeff Anderson. These lessons were born from the routine that worked well in my classroom, and the demos and examples I present are variations of Jeff Anderson's methods. This is not the only way to "do" mentor sentences in your classroom.*

Copyright © Ideas By Jivey, LLC

All rights reserved by author, Jessica Ivey.

Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.

Not for public display.

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