What it is. You have met these and used them with help. Now you use them with none.
Why our test works. At this level no sentence stems are offered at all — that is what the final stage of the strand MEANS, not a description of how hard it feels. A child who has depended on the stem without noticing will discover it here, which is uncomfortable and is the point: better in Grade 8, in class, than in Grade 9 in an exam. The test is phrased as a plain question about the blank page because that is the actual condition of every piece of writing after this one.
Leans on. Grades 6 and 7 met these units with stems available.
Watch for. If the class cannot work without stems, do not reissue them. Do fewer items, unaided. Reach is not the goal this year; ownership is.
Use 12 school words in sentences of your own, and choose which version suits who is reading. The worked example is built on Qualify that claim. She qualified for the team., ringing qualify. The class reads Writing Book 8, p.54 — 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.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word qualify alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then make less absolute / be eligible arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: Qualify that claim. She qualified for the team.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class rewrites two everyday sentences into school-word, then judges one case where the everyday version is BETTER. Discuss in pairs using the frames. 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 8 to page 54 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 through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: Only one of yours may use the frame. Choose which one needs it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using qualify. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The sentence around it decides which meaning is live.
If the class cannot work without stems, do not reissue them. Do fewer items, unaided. Reach is not the goal this year; ownership is.