Sentence Center
by Truman L.

A quick, fun, and easy way to get ahead during the school year and over the summer is to take a class at Sentence Center.

The first thing you do at Sentence Center is play a fun, educational game to warm up your brain. You play games such as Boggle, Faux-Cabulary, Apples to Apples and so on. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed playing Apples to Apples with my class so much that I bought the game. After playing an amusing game, you read a sample essay that either Chino or his students wrote. After listening to that piece of writing, you write your own five-paragraph essay based around the same topic of his model. You have about thirty minutes to complete this. That may seem like a short amount of time, but after a little practice, you’ll get it easily. Sentence Center also encourages students to use stronger vocabulary by using flashcards and challenges. If you use three vocabulary words in your writing, you can get a Skittle or an M&M. There are also other challenges that you can do to earn those treats.

In the past, I always had trouble writing. My mom dragged me to many writing tutors, but all of them weren’t for me. At that time I was really weak at writing and hated reading. Other tutors made me do many “response to reading” questions, but Sentence Center is so much better. Over here you just write, and writing many essays improves your skills drastically. Chino also gives you great feedback that I use a lot when I continue writing. Because of Sentence Center, I now love reading and get 4s on my report card for writing, which is an above-average grade.

Chino, the main instructor for Sentence Center, has a vast experience of teaching kids and an extensive knowledge of writing. He is very friendly and can help whenever you’re in class. Sentence Center was founded by him, and he is a great teacher. In addition, the kids that attend his classes are very friendly. Chino introduces all of us well and makes you feel welcome even if you don’t know anyone or are very shy.

Sentence Center is the best way to pull ahead of your class in writing. It really worked out for me, so you should definitely try it.

A World of Learning
by TJ S.

Have you ever written an essay so badly that it didn't even make sense? Or maybe you've had a really bad English grade? Well, at Sentence Center, you can improve your writing so that you may get an A+ in every essay at school.

First, the class starts off with a word game such as Taboo, Faux-Cabulary, or Apples to Apples. This is to get our brains thinking so that we can write with a focused mind. My favorite game is Taboo. As an hourglass runs, the person who has the Taboo card must describe the word on the card without saying the other listed “taboo” words. The people in the class guess, and whoever has the most cards when time runs out wins. After about 10 to 15 minutes, we stop and start reading the model essay for the day’s writing prompt.

When we write, we either do a Narrative, Informative, or an Argument essay. First, we look at the example essay and think about our possible thesis statement. Then we start writing. All you can hear is the intense clicking and scratching of pens and pencils as they fly across the page to form paragraphs. After a quiet 30 minutes of writing, we stop and share our masterpieces.

As soon as we stop, the students look and listen to the speaker narrating their extraordinary essays to us. After reading their paragraphs, the students and Chino, the teacher, tell the reader what they liked and what they think they can improve in their essay. Then, we all go home to type up our essays that we turn in the next day.

My principal was the one who suggested Sentence Center. I was cocky at the time, claiming that I could bring up my grade without a problem. However, I found out that I couldn't. I am glad that I came because now I can write well structured essays. I am confident that I will bring my grade up this year. If you do go to Sentence Center, tell Chino that I sent you. He will be glad you came.