Geraldine Woods - Sentence.: A Period-to-Period Guide to Building Better Readers and Writers

ADVANCE PRAISE

Reading and writing at the sentence level is all too often overlooked in todays classrooms. Enter Geraldine Woods Sentence . In addition to providing several strategies for reading closely and writing analytically, Woods also provides literally hundreds of sentences (categorized for thematic unit use) as examples with teaching ideas for immediate classroom use. This book will be one that I reach to again and again for ideas and inspiration.

Susan Barber , AP Literature Teacher and
Consultant, Atlanta, GA

As we all spend more time online power-browsing and skimming text at warp speed, its more important than ever that we also slow down and read carefully. Sentence: A Period-to-Period Guide to Building Better Readers and Writers is chock full of classroom-ready activities that support teachers as they guide their students in becoming better writers and thinkers. As a writing teacher for over 30 years, I appreciate Woodss diverse set of examples and insightful analysis. Whether youre looking for a way to fill a few minutes at the end of class or build an entire session around one sentence, this book has you covered.

Chris Sloan, Ph.D. , English Department Chair, Judge Memorial
Catholic High School, Salt Lake City, UT

Geraldine Woods does teachers a great service by offering this book. She not only serves up an instructional guide for how to help students understand the importance of sentence crafting, she also gives numerous practical examples and lesson suggestions. Of particular note is her interdisciplinary section, which should help writing teachers venture beyond their own disciplines to help students realize that a well-wrought sentence is a powerhouse in any field.

David G. Miller , Professor, Department of English and
Philosophy Honors Faculty, Mississippi College

As a high school English teacher, Im always looking for new ways to engage students. For years, Ive been thinking about the big picture and how my lessons and units can connect to the larger narrative in society. In her engrossing new book, Sentence. , Geraldine Woods argues that we should be going small. By focusing on a single sentence, teachers can change the lens through which we view a text and find a new way to reach students. Woodss book provides concrete and engaging examples that any teacher can use tomorrow in their classroom.

Kabby Hong , English Teacher, Verona Area High School

With clarity her cause and passion her method, Geraldine Woods clarifies the workings of one of our most significant and old-time technologies: the sentence. Her latest offering promises to engage teachers new and old seeking to shape lessons toward close reading and writing. That she curates from vivid contemporary sources will spark the stellar writer in her readers.

Edie Meidav , Novelist and Associate Professor of
English at University of Massachusetts Amherst

In Song of Myself, Walt Whitman writes: I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. In a related spirit, Geraldine Woodss phenomenal book Sentence.: A Period-To-Period Guide to Building Better Readers and Writers encourages students, teachers, readers, and writers to think at the level of the sentence. Rather than beginning with big ideas and then attending to the granular, Woods locates big ideas in the granular. Grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and history come alive in the alchemy of a string of words. Woodss unique method for teaching literary composition and criticism is flexible enough to accommodate everyone from adults learning to read for the first time to advanced graduate students of literature. And perhaps most important of all, the book makes an implicit case for how an understanding of the sentence strengthens students ability to participate in civic life and elevates the level of public discourse. In an age of tweets and declining readership, Woods makes a compelling case for the relationship between the sentence and how we speak, write, and listen to one another. Never before has the teaching of grammar, syntax, diction, and the literary imagination felt closer to pure poetry than in this beautifully crafted book!

Andrew McCarron , Chair of the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Department at Trinity School in Manhattan, New York, Faculty Associate at
Bard Colleges Institute of Writing and Thinking, and author of
The Ballad of Sara and Thor: a novella (Station Hill Press, 2017)

Norton Books in Education

Note to Readers: Models and/or techniques described in this volume are illustrative or are included for general informational purposes only; neither the publisher nor the author(s) can guarantee the efficacy or appropriateness of any particular recommendation in every circumstance. As of press time, the URLs displayed in this book link or refer to existing sites. The publisher and author are not responsible for any content that appears on third-party websites.

1(a. Copyright 1958, 1986, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

I Have a Dream reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright 1963 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Renewed 1991 by Coretta Scott King.

Illustrations from PERSEPOLIS 2: THE STORY OF A RETURN by Marjane Satrapi, translated by Anjali Singh, translation copyright 2004 by Anjali Singh. Used by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Artwork from Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi published by Jonathan Cape. Copyright 2004. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

Copyright 2021 by Geraldine Woods

All rights reserved

First Edition

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Cover design: Sally Rinehart

Production manager: Katelyn MacKenzie

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Woods, Geraldine, author.

Title: Sentence : a period-to-period guide to building better readers and writers / Geraldine Woods.

Description: First edition. | New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2021. | Series: Norton books in education | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020023934 | ISBN 9780393714814 (paperback) | ISBN 9780393714821 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: English languageSentencesStudy and teaching (Secondary) | English languageSentencesStudy and teaching (Higher) | English languageComposition and exercisesStudy and teaching (Secondary) | English languageComposition and exercisesStudy and teaching (Higher)

Classification: LCC PE1441 .W673 2021 | DDC 428.0071dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023934

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In honor of teachers, chronically overworked and underfunded, who accomplish the impossible every single day. Because you care, students learn.