Small Moves, Strong Writing: Using 5W Questions to Build Complex Sentences

In this session, 5th Grade teacher Jennifer Concepcion will share how a sentence-level routine from The Writing Revolution help upper elementary students write clearer, more detailed, and more complex sentences. The session centers on the 5Ws strategy—who, did what, where, when, and why—as a practical structure students can use to expand simple ideas into stronger written responses. The session will focus on the instructional routines that supported that growth. Concepcion will walk participants through how to model sentence expansion, build in oral rehearsal, guide collaborative practice, and gradually release responsibility so students can apply the strategy independently. She will also show how this work transfers beyond isolated sentence practice into paragraph writing, short responses, and content-area tasks. Attendees will leave with a concrete, evidence-informed routine that is easy to implement, adaptable across subject areas, and immediately useful for improving student writing.