Building good sentences

As part of the TN Ready testing, your child needs to be able to write a paragraph. Your child will be given a story, then must answer the writing prompt. It’s never too early to start encouraging your child to write paragraphs. A great paragraph starts with good sentences.

When helping your child at home, make sure to check for the basics, capitalization, using nouns and verbs correctly, and punctuation. For example, “I like cars.” You can add to this basic sentence by writing, “I like red cars.” To add even more write, “I like red and blue, but not white cars.”

When your child writes a complete paragraph, check the item for consistency and cohesiveness. Does the paragraph make sense? It is all written in the same tense (present or past)? When using a writing prompt, does the paragraph answer the prompt? Are the sentences well thought out, do they have proper use of nouns, verbs, punctuation, etc.? Remember, good sentences will make a great paragraph.