Sentence Expansion — Who/What/When/Where/Why/How

Teacher reads a bare-bones sentence ('The dog barked.'). Class generates one expansion question at a time aloud.

• Show that each question adds INFORMATION
• Resist demand for one perfect expansion — variety is the point

Hochman gave writers a tool — to grow a thin sentence into a thick one, ASK QUESTIONS of it. WHO did it? WHAT happened? WHEN did it happen? WHERE? WHY? HOW? Each question answered becomes a phrase you add. Watch: 'The dog barked.' → WHO? My neighbor's dog. WHEN? At midnight. WHY? Because a raccoon was on the porch. New sentence: 'My neighbor's dog barked at midnight because a raccoon was on the porch.'

• Notice — WHEN (after school), WHAT KIND (warm chocolate-chip), WHERE (in my kitchen), WHY (because I was starving).

  model After school, I ate three warm chocolate-chip cookies in my kitchen because I was starving.

  prompt Expand: I ate cookies.

• Which WH-question did I just answer when I added 'in my kitchen'?
• Could the same sentence be expanded with different answers and still be true?

M-2-F-WR-04-A Chart

Six-card chart laid out in a row: WHO (silhouette icon, blue), WHAT (box icon, orange), WHEN (clock icon, red), WHERE (pin-on-map icon, green), WHY (arrow-back icon, purple), HOW (gear icon, brown). Each card includes the question word in 60pt font and a sample answer phrase below in 24pt. Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

• Hochman expansion drill — teacher provides 5 bare sentences ('Maya ran.', 'The cat slept.', 'Dad cooked.', 'We laughed.', 'Mom drove.'). Children write expanded versions answering at least 3 WH-questions.

  scaffold WH-card set on desk
• Color-code: in your strongest expansion, underline WHO in blue, WHEN in red, WHERE in green, WHY in purple.

M-2-F-WR-04-B Diagram

Two-panel diagram. LEFT: thin bare sentence 'The dog barked.' shown as a stick figure of a dog. RIGHT: thick expanded sentence 'My neighbor's dog barked at midnight because a raccoon was on the porch.' shown as fuller scene illustration with a dog mid-bark, a moon, and a raccoon on a porch. Color-coded annotations point from each WH-card to the new phrase. Print-ready 11x17.

• Take 'My family laughed.' and expand it by answering THREE WH-questions in one sentence.

• Read your best expanded sentence to your partner — partner names which WH-questions were answered.
• Tomorrow: adjectives and adverbs — words that color a sentence.

• Pick a bare sentence about your day ('I went to ___') and expand it by answering three WH-questions. Write in notebook.