Sentence Starters
Sentence Starters for Academic Writing
What is it?
A tool to help students process new academic content in preparation for a writing assignment.
How do I use it?
Brainstorm with students possible uses of a given sentence starter such as, “I think this represents_______,” and work with them as they use the sentence starters to make inferences about the text. Model your thinking clearly and practice as a class before having students use sentence starters independently.
Tapping Prior Knowledge
This relates to…
This reminds me of…
Making Predictions
I think…
If _______, then…
Summarizing
The basic gist is…
The key information is…
Adopting an Alignment
The character I most identify with is… I really got into the story when… I can relate to this author because…
Forming Interpretations
What this means to me is…
I think this represents…
The idea I am getting is…
Revising Meaning
At first I thought _______, but now I think … My latest thought about this is…
Analyzing the Author’s Craft
I like how the author uses _______ to show… A golden line for me is…
This word/phrase stands out for me because…
Reflecting and Relating
So the big idea is…
A conclusion I am drawing is…
This relates to my life because…
Evaluating
I like/don’t like _______ because… The most important message is _______ because