Sentence combining
This lesson is designed for students who write short choppy sentences. Students will learn to combine short choppy sentences that develop their ideas and involve the reader in the action of the story.
A lesson plan for grades 3–4 English Language Arts
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Related pages
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- Stop that run-on!: Run-on sentences inhibit understanding and weaken someone's writing. In this lesson, students will learn to identify run-on sentences and how to fix them. They will then apply those skills to their own writing.
- Story surgery: As early as first grade, children can begin to revise their stories using "Story Surgery." In this lesson, students learn how to use scissors to perform "story surgery" by cutting their stories apart at the point where more information can be added.
Related topics
- Learn more about language arts, language conventions, revisions, sentences, style, and writing.
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Learning outcomes
Students will:
- learn to combine 2 or more simple sentences into complex sentences.
- learn to use commas to punctuate their combined sentences.
Teacher planning
Time required for lesson
1 hour
Materials/resources
- transparency and handouts of “A Day at the Park (pdf | rtf)
- transparency of “Sentence Combinations” (pdf | rtf)
- Blank transparencies and overhead markers (1 for each small group)
Technology resources
Overhead Projector
Activities
Modeling/Mini-lesson
- Read the sample story “A Day at the Park” to students, which consists of nothing but short, choppy sentences.
- Ask the students to react to the story. How did it sound? What did you notice about it?
- Explain to the students that, many times, weak stories are full of very short, choppy sentences. One way writers can make these stories stronger is to learn how to combine short sentences into longer sentences.
- Next display “Sentence Combinations” transparency on the overhead.
- Demonstrate how writers can combine the first sentences into one by using commas of apposition and commas in a series.
- Ask the students to help you combine the remainder of the sentences.
Guided Practice
- Give students copies of the “A Day in the Park” story.
- In small groups, have students revise the story by combining simple sentences into complex sentences.
- Have groups write their revised versions on a blank transparency. Share the different versions on the overhead and discuss the different ways that students combined their sentences.
Independent Practice
- Have students combine 2 or more sentences in their own writing into a single sentence. Share the revised sentence with a partner.
Assessment
Can students successfully combine simple sentences in the “Day in the Park” story into more complex sentences?
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 3
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.08: Focus reflection and revision (with assistance) on target elements by:
- clarifying ideas.
- adding descriptive words and phrases.
- sequencing events and ideas.
- combining short, related sentences.
- strengthening word choice.
- Objective 4.08: Focus reflection and revision (with assistance) on target elements by:
Grade 4
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.08: Focus revision on a specific element such as:
- word choice.
- sequence of events and ideas.
- transitional words.
- sentence patterns.
- Objective 4.08: Focus revision on a specific element such as:
- Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.
- Objective 5.03: Elaborate information and ideas in writing and speaking by using:
- simple and compound sentences.
- regular and irregular verbs.
- adverbs.
- prepositions.
- coordinating conjunctions.
- Objective 5.03: Elaborate information and ideas in writing and speaking by using:
