What it is. Several related facts can be combined into one sentence without saying anything twice.
Why our test works. Combining is where sentence variety actually comes from. At four facts the usual failure appears — repeating the subject in every clause — and the check catches it directly. This is also the move that most improves how a paragraph reads, which is the year's subject.
Leans on. Grade 3's three-fact combining.
Watch for. A combined sentence worse than the four short ones is a fair result. Say so and ask why.
Practice one sentence move: combine four facts into one sentence. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher writes a plain sentence, then makes the move once, saying what changed and why the The class reads Writing Book 5, p.55 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U7 set 1, U10 set 1, U11 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher writes a plain sentence, then makes the move once, saying what changed and why the new version is better. For example: “The river rose. It rose quickly. It rose after the storm. It flooded the field.” becomes “After the storm the river rose quickly and flooded the field.”. Both stay on the board. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class makes the same move on two sentences together, saying the change aloud before writing it. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 5 to page 55 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: In your notebook: make this move on four sentences, double-spaced.
You close on the exit direction — Read one sentence before and after the move. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Four facts, one sentence, nothing repeated.
A combined sentence worse than the four short ones is a fair result. Say so and ask why.