Using Function Questions to Write Expanded Sentences

Ashlea Edwards: Hey guys, how are you?

Students: Good.

Narrator: Today, reading specialist Ashlea Edwards is leading third graders at Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta through a lesson on sentence expansion. This is the process of taking a simple sentence and adding details to make it richer and more complex.

Ashlea Edwards: What we're going to do next is we're going to be writers ourselves. And writers have to ask themselves these function questions in order to add details to their sentences.

Narrator: To prepare to write, they read. The students have been reading the book "Fish in a Tree" as a class, so it's a great source for writing material. All students are familiar with the content, and they'll get to experience how writing can help them better understand a passage.

Ashlea Edwards: Read these sentences together. Are you ready? Go.

All: "'You say purple is the color of royals,' he says. 'They only wore purple because it was the most difficult and expensive color to make.'" 

Ashlea Edwards: Let's keep going. 

All: "'In medieval times, they needed to collect three thousand Murex brandaris snails to have enough slime to make one cloak.'"

Narrator: Ms. Edwards uses this text to create a simple sentence — a sentence with just a subject and an action — from the passage they're reading.

Ashlea Edwards: So our simple sentence is going to be, "Cloaks were worn."

Narrator: To expand on the simple sentence "Cloaks were worn," Ms. Edwards asks what she calls function questions. These are simple questions like "When?", "Where?", "Why?", or "How?" that function as tools to dig up more detail to build the simple sentence up.

Ashlea Edwards: So thinking about that text and the cloaks that were worn, what kind of cloaks were worn?

Students: Purple.

Ashlea Edwards: Purple coats, yes. Okay. So who wore purple coats?

Students: Royals.

Ashlea Edwards: Royals. Or royalty, we could say.

Narrator: Working from a passage the students have in front of them is important. All the answers to the function questions are right there in the text, waiting to be found.

Ashlea Edwards: Okay. Purple cloaks were worn by royalty when?

Students: In medieval times.

Ashlea Edwards: Yeah. What was it?

Student: Medieval times.

Ashlea Edwards: In medieval times, very good.

Narrator: Once the function questions are answered, the next step is to take those details and build a new, more complex sentence.

Ashlea Edwards: Okay. So now we have answered all of these questions about the cloaks being worn, but can I just say: "Cloaks were worn purple royalty, medieval times, so expensive snail snot 3000 snails?" I can't just say it like that. So now we have to figure out how to put this sentence together. So our simple sentence is "Cloaks were worn." And the first thing that I think we should start our sentence with is "When?" So when were purple cloaks worn?

Students: In medieval times.

Ashlea Edwards: In medieval times. And then we need to take our simple sentence and include it. So should we say "cloaks were worn" or can we be more specific?

Students: Purple cloaks.

Ashlea Edwards: Purple cloaks. And now we're going to have to decide ... how are we going to describe these purple cloaks? As being so expensive? As it taking 3000 snails?

Narrator: The goal isn't to stuff every detail into one sentence. It's to build a sentence that's more complex and still makes sense.

Ashlea Edwards: By who?

Students: Royalty. Royals.

Ashlea Edwards: Because ...?

Student: Because they're so expensive to make.

Ashlea Edwards: Okay. Let's see if this makes sense. Y'all want to read it with me? All eyes up here and let's read it.

All: "In medieval times, purple cloaks were worn by royalty, because they are hard to make."

Ashlea Edwards: Or I heard some of you say they're expensive to make. I like that.

Narrator: Now students get to practice their new skills and expand sentences using function questions on their own. They'll start by reading a new passage from the book.

Ashlea Edwards: "'So, good for you. I'd prefer beige.' He turns to me. 'What about you, Ally? Slime or beige?'"
Okay, so the sentence that you're going to work on, and I'm going to give you a piece of paper, is "Albert smiles." I want you to take the sentence "Albert smiles" and I want you to expand it to show why he's smiling, how he's feeling. And there's not one right answer. You might have a different idea than Lincoln has, or Chase has, and that's okay. All of our sentences can be different because we're going to choose different words and we're going to choose different ways to describe it.

Narrator: Because sentence expansion lives at the intersection of writing and comprehension, this practice strengthens both skills at once.

Ashlea Edwards: Okay. I heard so many great ideas as I was walking around. So when he asked her, "slime or beige," that made him smile. Why did that make him smile? Think about it. Why did that make him smile? Kingston had a really good answer that I'm going to ask him to share.

Kingston: He thought he was clever.

Ashlea Edwards: Yes, Kingston, very good.

Narrator: For the last step in today's lesson, Ms. Edwards models how to take the details students found and shape them into a complete complex sentence.

Ashlea Edwards: Okay, so let's try to put this together in an expanded sentence and we'll just say it. Everyone say, "Albert smiles."

Students: "Albert smiles ..."

Ashlea Edwards: when he asks Shay the questions ..."

Students: "when he asks Shay the questions ..."

Ashlea Edwards: "because he was clever. .."

Students: "because he was clever ..."

Ashlea Edwards: "and outsmarted her."

Students: "and outsmarted her."

Ashlea Edwards: Very good friends.

Narrator: Each time these third graders ask themselves "When?", "Where?", "Why?", and "How?" about a text, they're deepening their comprehension, and now they have the tools to turn that understanding into more complex writing.

Ashlea Edwards: Y'all have done such amazing work. Thank you so, so much. Kiss your brains, pat your friend on the back.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy, Reading is Essential for All People, and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.