Developing Sentence Skills Learning Objective To understand complex sentences. Key Words Main Clause Sub-clause Do whatever you do with your class – talk it through, copy it down etc etc... Note that pupils don’t need to know what a complex sentence is or the clause stuff; that’s what they’re going to learn (or recap as they seem to always forget...)

sub marine sub stitute sub human Starter Explain to pupils that they are going to see three words or part-words. There is something that we can add to the start of each word to create a new word. Can they work out what it is? They can use the visual clues to help them. The word and clue will appear with a click of the mouse/press of the spacebar. Draw attention to ‘sub’ – what exactly does sub mean? Guide towards the idea of ‘under’ or ‘lesser’. sub human

If marine means ‘water’, what does ‘submarine’ really mean...? ‘Sub’ is a prefix. This means that we ‘fix’ it to the start of words to alter their meaning. If marine means ‘water’, what does ‘submarine’ really mean...? Read through the slide with pupils; check comprehension and answer question.

Tired from the trek, I sat down to rest. MAIN TASK 1 Now think about sentences. A complex sentence has a main clause and a subordinate clause or a sub-clause for short. Now you know what ‘sub’ means, can you work out which part of this sentence is the sub-clause and which part is the main clause? Tired from the trek, I sat down to rest. Follow slide with class by pressing space bar; guide pupils towards identifying the red text as the sub-clause. Given that they know ‘sub’ means ‘under’ or ‘lesser’, guide them towards understanding that the sub-clause won’t make sense on its own and that it helps the main clause by adding information.

Feeling subdued, I walked along the beach. I walked along the beach feeling subdued. I walked, feeling subdued, along the beach. Pupils to identify the sub and main clause in the three sentences; by now they should correctly identify the sub-clause as the bit that doesn’t make sense on its own. Press space or click the mouse to have the submarine move to the sub-clause in each sentence. The crucial point for pupils to understand here is the idea of clause mobility i.e. The sub-clause can move but, wherever it is it is the sub-clause and the main clause is still the main clause. Bonus teaching points for getting pupils to use their understanding of ‘sub’ to work out what ‘subdued’ might mean.

Now look at your work sheet. Use a code to identify the main clause and the sub-clause in each of the sentences. Remember, the sub-clause won’t make sense on its own and adds information to the main clause. Follow instructions on slide; make sure that you go through an example as a class using the worksheet. Pupils can choose their own codes e.g. A wiggly line under the sub-clause and a straight line under the main. A lot of pupils will be able to work independently on the sheet now; for those who aren’t yet ready, go to the next slide for an active model of what to do.

The pirate, looking menacing, drew his sword. Screeching in delight, the parrot soared over the trees. The boy dug filled with nerves. First three sentences from the sheet are on the board; pupils to pick out main and sub-clause. Hit space or click the mouse for the code to appear. Note, main clause code appears first, then sub. Code Main clause: Sub clause:

Now look at your second worksheet. There are 3 sections, A, B and C. Follow the instructions carefully to learn how to use commas to punctuate your complex sentences. First of all, you need to know the comma rules... Depending on your class, you might be able to let them loose to move through the sheet on their own at this point. However, you may have a few (or a whole class) who still need support. If so, have a look at the next slide.

MAIN TASK 2 I know a lot about clauses. After all, I’m a crab – I’ve got two claws myself... So, here are the comma rules for you... If the sub-clause is first, the comma goes next. If the sub-clause is last, the comma goes afterwards. If the sub-clause is in the middle, comma either side, Now I’m off to my hole to hide! The magic comma crab is at the forefront of contemporary pedagogy. He’s a hilarious chap and he even rhymes! Be amazed! Hit space or click twice to see all that he has to say – getting kids to remember the rhyme is great. Later, unfortunately, you will need to teach about sentences where a comma may be needed for the purposes of clause separation even when the sub-clause comes last, but, for basic complex sentences these rules hold pretty firm.

, , , , The pirate scared of the soldiers jumped into the sea. Scared of the soldiers the pirate jumped into the sea. , The pirate jumped into the sea scared of the soldiers . Have a look at these and have pupils apply the crab’s rules; hit the space or click the mouse for the commas to appear. For part B and C of the sheet, verbal modelling and discussion should suffice.

Plenary What is a complex sentence? What is the purpose of a sub-clause? How might complex sentences help you to improve your descriptive writing? Go through sheet with pupils and have them read out their own complex sentences; others to try to pick out main and sub-clause by listening. Then look at questions: disucss ‘em, write down answers – whatever you want. 1 – push the idea of using sentences with more than one clause and developing comma use 2 – Push the idea of adding information in a stylish way i.e. ‘Feeling tired, the man kept running’ instead of ‘The man kept running. He felt tired’ etc etc... 3 – Question three is the key – guide pupils towards the idea of VARYING sentence type and adding descriptive detail to their work e.g. They can say what a person is doing and what they are feeling in one sentence; also look at starting sentences with verbs/adverbs to improve engagement and so on. THE END x