Exemplar Sentences: Using Student Texts to Strengthen Sentence Skills

Teaching sentence writing doesn’t have to be dry or disconnected from your reading time. In fact, some of the best sentence-writing lessons come straight from the books your students are already enjoying. 

To keep things simple, we’ll be using an example from The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. This classic story offers beautifully crafted yet accessible sentences, which are perfect for modeling grammar, punctuation, and sentence fluency. But you can use these ideas with any book or story your students are reading! With just a few short activities, you can help students move from reading good writing to creating it.

Start with a Strong Mentor Sentence

Start by finding a strong sentence that models one or more of the sentence composition standards and goals you have for your students, depending on their grade level and readiness. For example, if your students are learning about compound sentences, semi-colons, or conjunctions, this example from The Tale of Peter Rabbit would work well:

“Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.”

This sentence models:

• Emotional depth through descriptive language (most dreadfully frightened)
  
  
• Sentence fluency with a semicolon joining two related ideas
  
  
• A strong cause-and-effect connection using the conjunction for
  
  
• Varied structure that goes beyond simple sentences (this example is a compound sentence with three independent clauses) while remaining accessible

You can use this sentence to help students break down how emotion, action, and explanation can work together in one clear, fluid thought.

A great way to decide which grammar and sentence concepts to explore with students is to begin with what you're already teaching in the EB Grammar Program. Once you’ve identified the skill, you can look for exemplar sentences that reflect that concept in the texts your class is reading. This keeps grammar instruction meaningful and connected to real reading and writing experiences.

Activity 1: Sentence Exploration

What students do:

• Copy the sentence.
  
  
• Highlight or label:
  
  
• Each subject and verb
  
  
• The punctuation (semicolon, comma)
  
  
• The conjunction (for)
  
  

Class discussion prompts:

• What is Peter feeling in this sentence? How do we know?
  
  
• Why is a semicolon used instead of a period or a comma?
  
  
• What does the word for tell us about how the two parts are connected?
  
  

Activity 2: Sentence Remodeling

Break the sentence into pieces:

Peter was frightened.
He ran all over the garden.
He forgot how to get back to the gate.

Student task: Combine these into a single sentence that is different from the original.

Possible student sentence:

“Peter was terribly scared; he ran all around because he had forgotten the way out.”

Challenge: Have students try multiple versions, using different emotional words or transitional connectors (because, since, so).

Activity 3: Sentence Creation

Use this sentence structure as a writing prompt:

[Character] was [emotion]; [they did something], for [explanation].

Example:

“Elena was completely overwhelmed; she grabbed her books and ran out the door, for she had missed the bus.”

Students can write their own character-based sentences or revise a sentence from a recent writing assignment using this model.

Next Steps: 

If you want to take this further, you can ask students to elaborate by:

• Adding descriptive details (e.g., what kind of books? how did she run?)
  
  
• Including a prepositional phrase (down the crowded hallway)
  
  
• Expanding the explanation to show more of the cause (because she had stayed up late and overslept)
  
  

Example elaboration:

“Elena was completely overwhelmed; she grabbed her heavy backpack and ran out the door, for she had stayed up too late and missed the bus again.”

Optional prompts:

• How could you make the action more vivid?
  
  
• Can you add where, when, or how?
  
  
• What extra detail could help the reader picture the moment more clearly?
  
  

This practice strengthens not only sentence structure, but also descriptive writing and narrative voice.

Use Literature as Your Sentence Bank

As you read with your class, take note of sentences that:

• Model punctuation in a natural, readable way
  
  
• Combine ideas smoothly and effectively
  
  
• Include clear emotion, action, or a structure like cause-and-effect, compare/contrast, etc.
  
  

Save them to a “sentence wall” or mentor sentence journal. Refer to them during writing lessons or use them as quick daily warm-ups. You can even encourage students to share the well-crafted sentences they find in their reading, to add to the wall. This will help students to “read like writers” and, with practice, write like readers!

Bringing It to Their Own Writing

When students see well-crafted sentences in the stories they are reading, and are shown how those sentences work, they gain real tools to improve their own writing. With activities like these, your students will not just be reading — they will be building a foundation for fluency, variety, and voice in writing.

As students grow more confident analyzing and modeling sentences from literature, they can begin to apply those same sentence skills to their own writing. Encourage students to revisit a recent draft and revise a few sentences using what they've learned. For example, perhaps they could combine two short ideas, add a new structure, or replace a simple verb with one that shows emotion or action more vividly. Encourage them to think about who will be reading their writing, and choose sentence structures or details that will help their audience understand, imagine, or feel something more clearly.

One helpful way to support this process is by using the Application to Writing Checklists from the EB Grammar Program. These checklists give students clear, skill-aligned reminders that help them intentionally incorporate what they've learned into their own drafts.

These small adjustments help students take ownership of their writing voice and strengthen their fluency over time. The goal is not just to copy great writing, but to become great writers, one sentence at a time.