Convey Tone & Mood with Sentence Length

Before expecting students to vary their sentence lengths, we first have to define what constitutes different lengths. Explain that short sentences include 1-3 words, medium sentences include 4-9 words, and long sentences include 10 or more words.

Using a mentor text, show students how to gauge the different lengths of sentences by stretching a Slinky. As you read through the text, stretch the Slinky based on the number of words in each sentence. Let the students see how the Slinky moves as the sentence length varies.
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