Standard 5: Language

Students will apply knowledge of grammar and rhetorical style to reading and writing.

8.5.W.2 Students will compose simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences and questions to signal differing relationships among ideas.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will write using different sentence structures to indicate how ideas are related.
• Students compose a simple sentence that contain a subject and predicate.
• Students compose compound sentence and identify the independent clauses in their compound sentence.

• Teachers explain and model how to develop effective sentence structures using simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to write questions to signal differing relationships among ideas.

• Teachers will provide opportunities for students to create well-crafted sentence variety that will make their writing more meaningful and show different connections among ideas.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on how to recognize simple, compound, and complex sentences and questions to signal differing relationships among ideas.

• Teachers model composing a simple sentence that contains one independent clause. An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone as a complete thought.

• Ex: English class is fun.

• Teachers model composing a compound sentence that has more than one independent clauses joined together with appropriate punctuation and/or conjunctions.

• Ex: English class is fun, but I also enjoy math.

• Teachers model composing a complex sentence that has one clause must be an independent clause-a complete thought (simple sentence) that could stand alone. The other clause or clause are dependent clause and cannot stand alone because they begin with a subordinating conjunction.

• See SDE Grammar Companion for Subordinating conjunction or relative pronouns

• Ex. English class is fun because our language is interesting.

• Teachers instruct students on the relationship between ideas when determining how to combine independent clauses.

• Teachers model composing a compound/complex sentence that contains three or more clauses.

• Teachers explain that two of the clauses are independent and are connected by a coordinating conjunction.  

• Teachers explain the other clause or clause are dependent, so they begin with a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. 

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights

• Khan Academy:simple and compound sentences
• Khan Academy:complex sentences
• Khan Academy:simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
• OWL Purdue:types of sentences
• http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/sentence_combining
• NCTE/Sentence Combining: Building Skills through Reading and Writing 

• As a writing objective, the goal is for students to be able to effectively and intentionally use a variety of sentence types that transition effectively from one idea to the next.

• A simple sentence contains one independent clause. An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone as a complete thought.

• Ex: English class is fun.

• A compound sentence has more than one independent clauses joined together with appropriate punctuation and/or conjunctions.

• Ex: English class is fun, but I also enjoy math.

• A complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause (a group of words with a subject and verb but cannot stand alone as a complete thought).

• Ex. English class is fun because our language is interesting.

• A compound-complex sentence has more than one independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

• Ex: English class is fun, but I also enjoy math because numbers don’t have as many exceptions to the rules.

• It is important to emphasize the relationship between ideas when determining how to combine independent clauses. Students will often memorize the methods of combining sentences but miss the idea behind linking ideas together. Be sure to guide them in when ideas should not be combined into one sentence.

• Signaling differing relationships among ideas involves fluid transitions from one idea to the next.

• The University of Wisconsin Writing Center provides a list of transition words categorized by their function.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.