Before sentence-combining is begun in revision, please take time to review the types of sentences. Review declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Teach simple, compound, and complex, and in some cases, teach the compound-complex sentence. Review your standards and the expectations for your students to see what they should know and be able to use in their own writing. Again, do not teach these in isolation. Of course, you must model and use mini-lessons. Rather than have students copy 40 sentences from their grammar books and label them (though there is a place for a grammar book as a resource), have them find these sentences in their writing, in their library books, and in exemplary papers that you share. Have them write some of their own as a ticket- out-the- door. Listen for the types of sentences in class discussions and note them. Chart examples and post them around the classroom. Students need a reference as they begin revision of their own papers, especially the sentence-combining component. Isolated grammar instruction appears to have little or no positive impact in helping poor writers become better writers. (Graham and Penn 2007) Let’s keep that in mind.
Start by asking students what it means to combine something. Explain that sentences are combined to help improve style and voice and to keep their writing from being monotonous. It is about changing sentence structure. The purpose is NOT to produce longer sentences but to produce more effective ones. We need to model sentences of different types and lengths and then expect to see these used in student writing. Variety is the key to more interesting papers.
Tips:
1. Combine two simple sentences into a compound one by using a comma and a conjunction or by using a semi-colon. You may need to stop and teach these skills at this time. Talk about independent clauses.
2. Combine elements within a sentence. Rather than write “Sally laughed at her sister. She also hugged her.” Talk with the students about compound verbs. “Sally laughed at her sister and hugged her.”
3. Use appositives to connect ideas. “My brother is a doctor. He lives in St. Louis.” becomes “My brother, the doctor, lives in St. Louis.” You talk at that time about how to use commas with appositives.
4. For practice, give pairs or groups of students kernel sentences and specific instructions on combining them. Once they practice, have them apply immediately the knowledge to their own writing.
5. Have all students share orally one place they used sentence-combining.
6. Talk about differences in dependent and independent clauses and then practice complex sentences. Discuss comma usage with complex sentences. Have students find a couple of places in their papers to apply this concept.
You need to inspect what you expect so conferencing with all students is very important.
Now you are equipped with all four strategies for cleaning up the M-E-S-S. Please let me know any success stories you have with your students as they continue writing.
Coming Next: Do I Really Have to Use Technology?