3.10 Explicitly Teach Conjunctions

You and your students are likely to be very familiar with conjunctions due to their heavy use in oral language. They probably hear the famous conjunctions and, but, and or hundreds of times a day! 

The goal of our instruction here is to leverage what they already know about conjunctions and help them identify the job of each conjunction in a sentence. 

The overall function, or job, of a conjunction is to connect words, phrases, or clauses that have equal importance in a sentence:

Jamila and Ron rode to the soccer game.
Would you like grapes or blueberries?
The squirrel wanted the nut, but a crow was guarding it.

And, but, and or are part of a group of conjunctions called coordinating conjunctions. They're a great place to start for young readers. (You'll know subordinating conjunctions, including because, while, and if. Those will come later for your students … in 3rd or 4th grade.) 

There are only seven coordinating conjunctions, and we can easily remember them with the acronym FANBOYS:

For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So

For example, take a look at this sentence: 

Trees need water and air to survive.   

And is the coordinating conjunction that signals equal ideas, in this case, two things that trees need to survive.

Here's a sentence with a different coordinating conjunction, or:

I will plant roses or tulips. 

The word or is the coordinating conjunction that signals a choice or alternatives.

Now look at this sentence:

She was going to plant the flowers, but it rained.

But is the coordinating conjunction that signals a contrast or a change in direction.

When we teach students about coordinating conjunctions, we want them to be able to do more than identify the conjunction. We want students to understand the different types of connections they can make.

Watch teacher Heather Adams review the role conjunctions play with her third graders at Oak Street Elementary in Franklin, MA. 

Before you teach this model lesson, you'll need a picture of a dog and cat sitting. We've provided you this example to print or post on your whiteboard.

Next we'll share a short example lesson for teaching conjunctions. You can decide which ones you would like to focus your instruction on and how many to introduce in one lesson.

Think of this as the I Do section of your lesson. 

Some students can handle learning and, but, and or all in the same lesson.

Depending on your students, you might introduce just one conjunction per lesson, usually starting with and. 

Say,

The function, or job, for some words is to join, or connect, words together. One of those words is and.

I'm going to ask Everly and Rico to come sit beside me here.

Everly is sitting on a chair. Rico is sitting on a chair

Another way to say this is "Everly and Rico are sitting on chairs." 

Let's say the sentence together.

You all say together,

Everly and Rico are sitting on chairs.

Say,

The word and tells us that both people are sitting on chairs: Everly and Rico. We connected our friends using the word and.

 Put this picture on the board and write the following sentence under it:

The dog and the cat sat.

Say,

Let's look at the picture and read this sentence together.

Read together,

The dog and the cat sat.

Say,

In this sentence I see a word that joins the words dog and cat together: and.

Circle and on the board.

Since both the dog and cat did the same thing — they sat — we used the word and to connect them.

Let's look at another example together.

Think about this next part as the We Do section of your lesson. 

Moving on to the next example, write the following sentences on the board:

I want a dog and a cat.
I want a dog or a cat.
I want a dog but not a cat.

Say,

Let's read the first sentence:

You all read together,

I want a dog and a cat.

Say,

What word do we see that joins things together?

Students say,

And.

Say,

And tells me that the person who said this sentence wants both animals. When we use and in a sentence, it shows that two things are equal.

 Let's read the next sentence: 

You all read together:

I want a dog or a cat.

You ask,

What word do we see that joins things together?

Students say,

Or.

Say,

That's right. Or tells me that there is a choice. This person cannot have both animals, or doesn't want both animals, so they have to pick one, either the dog or the cat.

Let's read the last sentence:

You all read together:

I want a dog but not a cat.

You ask,

What word do we see that joins ideas together?

Students say,

But.

Say,

But tells me that there is something different, or contrasting. This person wants a dog. They do not want a cat. 

Words like and, or, and but are called conjunctions. Conjunctions join or link words, phrases, or clauses together. They help us understand the meaning of what we listen to or read. They may be small words, but they make a big difference in meaning.

As with the other grammatical building blocks, your students may grasp the concept of pronouns pretty quickly, or it may take more time and more guided practice.

When your students show they understand pronouns in the We Do section, you can move on to the You Do section. 

You can use your dictation time in your phonics block to reinforce this learning. This requires some intentional planning! 

Let's say you're teaching magic 'e'. Select simple sentences (opens in new window) (kernel sentences) that relate to each other, like these:

The fish swam in the lake.
The fish ate a bug.

The duck dove for a snack.
The snake ate the snack.

When you are dictating sentences, we recommend following this predictable routine:

1. Say one sentence and have students repeat it.
2. Students write the sentence.
3. Teacher and students check spelling together.

Repeat this routine with each sentence. After all sentences have been dictated, you'll ask your students to read each sentence together. After that is when you'll bring in your work on conjunctions.

Say,

Let's look at the first two sentences together: 

The fish swam in the lake.
The fish ate a bug.

What conjunction could we use to combine them?

A student says,

And!

Say,

That could work! Everybody give it a try! Go ahead and write a new sentence that combines those two sentences using a conjunction.

Walk around the room and make sure everyone's got it. Then say,

Yes, there are a few ways you could do this. You could write The fish swam in the lake, and the fish ate a bug. Or you could write The fish swam in the lake and ate a bug. You've connected two things that the fish did … swimming and eating.

Next, I want you to try combining these last two sentences:

The duck dove for a snack.
The snake ate the snack.

Don't say it out loud! Think about what conjunction you would use. Would it be And? Or? But? So? Now write your new sentence.

Walk around the room and make sure everyone's got it.

You might wonder, isn't this a writing exercise? Yes! Yes, it is! Writing and language comprehension overlap, and you'll end up teaching each of them across both types of lessons.