- Sentence Writing
Writing Stronger Sentences: A Three-Part Video Series
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Heather Adams: All right, welcome back. Did you have a good lunch?
Students: Yes.
Heather Adams: Awesome. Alright, well, Jeff's here to start writing with us. Say hi.
Students: Hi, Jeff.
Heather Adams: Hi. Jeff is ready. Our class pet is ready and today what we're going to be talking about is sentence combining and we're going to try to answer two questions. Why should I combine sentences and how do I do it?
Narrator: Today, Heather Adams is teaching her third graders at Oak Street Elementary how to transform simple sentences into more complex and interesting ones. They will be combining sentences using conjunctions or connector words.
Heather Adams: So what we're going to talk about is some connector words. And these connector words are called conjunctions. What are they called?
Students: Conjunctions.
Heather Adams: And I know when I talk about conjunctions, I like to think about them as connectors.
Narrator: Knowing when and how to use conjunctions isn't always obvious to students. That's why Ms. Adams is breaking down the role of four key connector words today: and, but, or, and so.
Heather Adams: They all have slightly different jobs to do. So we're going to go through and just understand what job does each one of these conjunctions do, and how can I use them when I'm combining ideas or simple sentences. So we're going to start with this first one. And I know you've used this word lots of times when you've been speaking, when you've been writing, you've seen it in your reading. It's the word and it's used for putting related ideas together. And is for combining two ideas that are the same. So Jeff ... If you are going to share that, Jeff likes tacos and Jeff likes ice cream. These are two related ideas. There are two things that Jeff ...
Students: Likes ...
Heather Adams: Likes, exactly! So we can use that connector word, that conjunction and to make a compound sentence. I think this sounds better. Jeff likes tacos and ice cream. Do you see what and is doing in that sentence? Connecting two similar ideas.
Narrator: Ms. Adams is diving deep into how each conjunction works with explicit and direct instruction. Focusing on these details now will make choosing the right conjunction more automatic for students later on.
Heather Adams: Sometimes though you have two ideas that are different, two things that are not the same. And we want to show that they are contrasting, different ideas and we would use the conjunction but. See this picture, it kind of helps me remember these ideas are not the same. So here's what these simple sentences might sound like. Jeff enjoys sledding. Me too. Jeff doesn't enjoy shoveling. Actually, me neither. So if we wanted to kind of combine these two simple sentences, but they're not the same thing, we might combine them with but. Jeff enjoys sledding, but he doesn't enjoy shoveling. Does that make sense?
Students: Yeah.
Heather Adams: Awesome. Our next one is or, and this is when we might put two options together. We just had lunch. Can you think of a situation where you might use "or" when you're talking about two different choices or two different options? Molly?
Molly: Would you like a chicken patty or a salad?
Heather Adams: Yeah, Molly. Exactly. So we would probably have a choice between a chicken patty or a salad. We weren't eating both of them. They were two options. Exactly. So let's check out Jeff's example of two options. Jeff can read at his desk, or Jeff can read at the library. We know these are two options for Jeff, but combining it with this conjunction or just makes it sound more interesting and sophisticated. Jeff can read at his desk or in the library. And we have one final conjunction left. This one's my favorite. It's so sophisticated because if you notice this last conjunction, what is it?
Students: So.
Heather Adams: So is such an interesting conjunction because it shows how one thing might lead to another thing. How one thing might cause something else to happen. And that's a relationship that we might use a lot in our writing. So let's look at Jeff's example. Jeff listens to directions. Good job. So Jeff understands what to do. Because he listens to directions, he understands what to do. And we might see the conjunction so in lots of places, because we know a lot about cause and effect.
Narrator: Now that they know the role, each conjunction plays, students are ready for the next step. They'll practice picking the right one to create more complex sentences.
Heather Adams: So what we're going to do is we're going to try to put our conjunction knowledge to the test. We're going to try to choose a conjunction connector word that connects some simple sentences.
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Heather Adams: So what we're going to do is we're going to try to put our conjunction knowledge to the test. We're going to try to choose a conjunction, a connector word that connects some simple sentences, but we really have to think about which one are we using. Are we combining two ideas that are similar and related? Are we showing that two ideas are different than each other?
Narrator: Conjunctions help young writers connect ideas or combine sentences in a meaningful way. These third grade students in Heather Adams' class have already learned four essential conjunctions: and, but, or, and so. Now she's giving them a chance to practice choosing the right one. First, as a class. Then on their own.
Heather Adams: We've been reading "Matilda" and we're not quite finished yet, but we've gotten to know the main character Matilda, and we know a lot about her.
Narrator: You'll notice Ms. Adams provides pre-written short sentences on a topic that her students are familiar with. This lets them focus on just the task at hand — picking the correct conjunction.
Heather Adams: Here are two simple sentences about Matilda from our read aloud. Matilda reads at the library. Yeah, we know that to be true. Matilda reads in her bedroom. Now, we know Matilda would read just about anywhere, but we want to think about, are these two ideas related in a certain way? Matilda reads at the library. Matilda reads in her bedroom. Which of our conjunctions, which of our connecting words, would make sense if we wanted to combine these two simple sentences into a really sophisticated compound sentence? Which one? London?
London: And.
Heather Adams: And. Exactly. And London, why did you choose and as your connector where your conjunction?
London: Because it's kind of related.
Heather Adams: Right? These ideas are related. They're both about ...
Students: Reading.
Heather Adams: They're both about Matilda reading in different places. Exactly. Are you ready for another one?
Students: Yes.
Heather Adams: I think you're going to like this one. Mr. Wormwood is mean to Matilda. Matilda plays pranks on Mr. Wormwood Owen, which conjunction are you thinking makes sense here?
Owen: So, because it's kind of like cause and effect.
Heather Adams: Right? What's the cause here, Owen?
Owen: Mr. Wormwood is mean to Matilda, so Matilda plays pranks on Mr. Wormwood.
Heather Adams: Yeah. If he wasn't mean, she wouldn't have played those pranks, right? I agree. When we want to show cause and effect, we want to use the connector word, the conjunction, so. If I put that together as one complete sentence, it might sound like this — Mr. Wormwood is mean to Matilda, so Matilda plays pranks on Mr. Wormwood. I almost want to make another little change. Tell me what you think about this. Mr. Wormwood is mean to Matilda, so she plays pranks on Mr. Wormwood, or she plays pranks on ...
Students: Him.
Heather Adams: Him, that's what I was thinking. Sometimes when we do sentence combining, we might want to take out some words if they're a little repetitive, and that's something that you can choose to do as this sort of writer artist. So now it's going to be your turn and we're going to work with partners. We're going to try to look at more examples, just like you just did, and choose a conjunction. Think about how are these two simple sentences related and which conjunction makes sense.
Narrator: It's partner time. Now students get to practice on their own, exploring firsthand how each conjunction affects the flow or meaning of the sentences they're building.
Students: "And." Or. You divide, you can skip count or you can use, yeah, multiplication. I think that one.
Heather Adams: Alright, which number were we on?
Student: Six.
Heather Adams: Six. Okay. So let's read those two simple sentences and think about how they're related. That'll help us choose our conjunction. Alright, what's the first simple sentence?
Student: Oak Street is our school.
Heather Adams: Oak Street is our school. And what's the second one?
Daniel: Oak Street is a special place.
Heather Adams: That's true. What do we think about these two ideas? Are they related? Are they contrasting? Does one cause the other? What do you think? Which conjunction makes sense here?
Daniel: I think and.
Heather Adams: I was kind of thinking and too. What made you choose and for this one?
Daniel: Because if we did but it wouldn't really make sense because it would go, Oak Street is our school, but Oak Street is a special place.
Heather Adams: Yeah, those aren't different ideas. They're both true. I agree, Daniel, and I kind of like how Daniel put a conjunction in and then he was like, wait, that doesn't sound right. It just sounded wrong to you, didn't it? Let's put it in with and. Let's see how it sounds. Oak Street is our school, and Oak Street is a special place. I like that a lot. Daniel even included that comma before the conjunction. Way to go.
All right, let's pause where we are. Some people are in the middle of rewriting their sentences, but I saw a lot of people working really hard on choosing their conjunction and a lot of good discussions about why a particular conjunction works. Oak Street is our school. Oak Street is a special place. Which conjunction, Ford, makes sense there?
Ford: And.
Heather Adams: And. Exactly. And when we put this together, me and this team, we were talking a little bit about how that would sound. We said this — Oak Street is our school and Oak Street is a special place. We made a little bit of a move as a writer here where we decided that we were actually going to take out some words. It sounded a little repetitive to us. Did it sound a little repetitive to some of you? I thought we were saying which words too much.
Students: Oak Street.
Heather Adams: Oak Street. Me too. So we changed it a little bit and we said, Oak Street is our school, and it is a special place. So sometimes we can make those choices as writers when we're using conjunctions to combine simple sentences. Tomorrow what we're going to do is use these conjunctions, these connector words, to help us write complex compound sentences about our animal research.
Narrator: Connecting writing lessons to other subjects, like science and social studies, boosts vocabulary and builds knowledge, key resources for reading and writing success.
Heather Adams: Let's do this. Yes, you can have a personal confetti party and high five, your partner!
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Heather Adams: Yesterday we talked about how we can turn our simple sentences into more interesting compound, complex sentences. And what did we learn about? What kind of words did we add into our sentences? We did some adding. What were those kinds of words? Say, if you remember.
Students: Conjunction. Connecting words.
Heather Adams: I heard two answers. I heard conjunctions. If you said conjunctions, pat on the back. And I heard connecting words. If you said connecting words also, pat on the back. Conjunctions are connecting words, right?
Narrator: Third grade teacher Heather Adams is guiding her students through day two of a lesson on sentence combining. Today they'll be writing their own sentences about animals they've been studying in science, and they'll try out the conjunctions they practice with yesterday — and, but, or, and so. She starts with a quick review.
Heather Adams: We're going to start writing about our animals. As you know, we're writing what kind of books?
Students: Who Would Win!
Heather Adams: Who Would Win books, right? And so this is a chance for us to write about some of the animals that we've researched and almost like a pretend battle, right?
Narrator: But adding conjunctions is just one piece of the puzzle. They also need to know when to replace, rearrange, or take out words to make their writing flow smoothly.
Heather Adams: And we also learned some other strategies. Sometimes we realize we should take out some words. We don't want to be super repetitive and sometimes we even move them around or replace them. We use they or it. So we're going to be using all of these strategies that we talked about yesterday, and these are just some different ways of sentence combining, and there's not just one right way to do it. Remember last time some of us added different conjunctions or replaced different words. So we're going to get to have some fun and really just kind of show that artistic side of writing today. Here's a sentence that I have up here, and I was looking at the important body parts part of my notes. So I wrote, tigers have sharp teeth. Tigers have sharp claws. Tigers have a tail. What's something you notice about the way those sentences are written?
Student: They're very short.
Heather Adams: Exactly. These sentences are really, really short. I noticed that too. What word do you notice that I used over and over? What word?
Students: Have. Tiger.
Heather Adams: Tigers. Exactly. And tigers is repeated and every sentence starts with "tigers have." Tigers have. Tigers have. It almost makes my writing sound like another list. And we don't want our writing to sound like a list. A lot of you suggested that maybe I should use this powerful strategy. Adding conjunctions helps me to make simple sentences into combined complex compound sentences. So let's try to see if maybe we can do better. Are there any details here that are related? Remember our "and" conjunction puts related ideas together. If you had to pick two related ideas here, what are kind of related? What are sort of related ideas in my simple sentences? Molly.
Molly: Sharp claws and teeth.
Heather Adams: Yeah, I noticed Molly when she just said that she said sharp claws and teeth.
Wow. Molly, first of all, deserves an air high five, because I want to show you what Molly just did. Tigers have sharp claws and teeth. So Molly not only added a conjunction, she took out a repeated word that wasn't really needed. It makes more sense and I think it sounds better. When I heard Molly's sentence, I was like, that's it. It sounds right. So what we just did here was we used a few of these different strategies. We added conjunctions, we took out repetitive words that just didn't make our sentences sound polished. They didn't make our sentences sound sophisticated. We don't need to say tigers 800 times. We don't need to say tigers have this, tigers have this, tigers have this. We're going to use the power of conjunctions, the power of taking out unnecessary words, maybe even rearranging words or replacing them with words that sound better. And that's how we're going to start writing our first paragraph. Our first part for each one of our animals.
Narrator: I am going to come right back to talk with you guys as she moves around the room. Ms. Adams weaves reminders about sentence combining strategies into her feedback to help them stick.
Heather Adams: How are you guys doing over here? Did you figure out any conjunction spots yet? Because they have short tail and short lakes. Maybe those would be related ideas that you could combine. How's it going? Were you able yet to use any of our sentence combining strategies? Anybody want to share one? Beckett? You want to share one?
Beckett: They also have fins so they can swim fast away from creatures that want to eat them.
Heather Adams: Ooh, I heard that so conjunction, right? And that so conjunction means that there's a cause and effect. So because they have fins, they can swim so fast away from predators. I love that. It sounds so much better than if Beckett had written like they have fins. Puffer fish have fins. Period. So much more interesting. Anybody else have one?
Student: A giant squid has big eyes and sucker rings so they can catch and see prey really easy.
Heather Adams: I think I heard three conjunctions in that sentence. So I love how you kind of combined some of the body parts, but not in a listy way. It sounded like it had a purpose sharing these. They have this and this so they can do this and this. Guys, great job. Keep on drafting and think about all those sentence combining strategies you can add, you can take out words, move them around. That's the fun part of being a writer and being an artist in this way. Nice job. All right, let's just pause for just a second everyone. First of all, two thumbs up to you. We have turned some really sort of boring lists of facts and body parts into interesting sentences. And we've combined these ideas in such a way that I think readers are going to be excited to read them and it's going to help them really picture everything that that animal has to offer.
Narrator: Ms. Adams and her students have accomplished a lot in two days. Their writing journey started with direct instruction on conjunctions and has taken them to a place where they are now drafting and revising their very own Who Will Win books?
Heather Adams: Lena, would you share yours? Awesome. Alright, Lena, maybe you wouldn't mind sharing this one that starts with orcas have ...
Lena: Orcas have fins and tails, but they are mammals.
Heather Adams: Ooh. Did you hear some conjunctions in Lena's writing? Can you tell me one of the conjunctions that you heard in Lena's sentence?
Students: But.
Heather Adams: Exactly. So I love how Lena combined tails, fins, and mammals. Those were three separate facts that she had about orcas. And it's a little surprising for mammals, like humans, to have fins and tails. And so I love that she kind of surprised us with that fact, "but they are mammals." That was awesome, Lena, nice job. Air high five to Lena. Alright, so everybody I'm so proud of just, we've just barely started this writing project and you've already brought your animals to life.
Narrator: With intentional scaffolding throughout her lessons, Ms. Adams is helping her students build confidence with writing tools so they can focus less on the mechanics of language and more on the stories they want to tell.
Heather Adams: So nice job. Let's do an air high five to a partner.
Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Keys to Literacy, Franklin Public Schools, and Oak Street Elementary, located in Franklin, Massachusetts. 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.
