1. Investigating how language works: sentence structure
Y8 Language Detectives
Investigating how language works: sentence structure

2. What is a sentence? Stop! I held my breath.
Like a wave that has been building its strength over a thousand miles of ocean, and which makes little stir in the deep water, but which when it reaches the shallows rears itself up high into the sky, terrifying the shore-dwellers, before crashing down on the land with irresistible power - so Iorek Byrnison rose up against Iofur, exploding upwards from his firm footing on the dry rock and slashing with a ferocious left hand at the exposed jaw of Iofur Raknison.
(from Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, describing a fight between two bears)
TASK: Ask students with a partner, or in a small group, to use these examples in order to explain to each other what a sentence is (or what a sentence needs if that’s easier). You can use the True/False/Not Sure slide that comes next as a way of taking feedback from students – ask them to decide each statement on the basis of the examples on this slide.

3. What is a sentence? Rate each statement True/False/Not Sure
A sentence should be about ten words long.
A sentence can end with either a comma or a full stop.
A sentence can have more than one verb in it.
This is designed to investigate common student conceptions/misconceptions about the sentence e.g. that a sentence should be a certain length or that commas and full stops do the same job. Don’t try to ‘clear up’ any misconceptions at this point but simply list them where students can see them and say you will come back to them at the end of the lesson.
1 = false (sentences can be any length)
2 = false (boundary punctuation must be a full stop, question or exclamation mark, or a colon or semi-colon used to join two clauses)
3 = true (a single clause sentence has one main/finite verb; multi clause sentences have two or more main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses)
NB Explaining ‘clause’ is a genuinely difficult thing to do BUT the most important thing for students to know at this point is that a clause has a subject and a verb and that a sentence may have one or more clauses, one of which will have a main or finite verb that makes the sense complete. You can use the next slide to emphasise these points but skip if you think it will just confuse at this point. The examples are taken from the extract from ‘Millions’ shown on slide 5.

4. Subordinate clause or main clause?
there was someone at the front door
when I heard it
the key turning in the lock
I raced back up the ladder
How many different sentences can you make using these clauses?
Try joining the clauses with different conjunctions e.g. and, but, so, when, because, as, while
Can you invent new main clauses (sentences) and new subordinate clauses and practise joining them?
You can name ‘when I heard it’; ‘the key turning in the lock’ as subordinate clauses and the other two examples as main clauses. Mark in the capital letters and full stops during feedback. Stress that a main clause is a sentence and that a subordinate clause is dependent on a main clause for its meaning. The terms finite/non-finite verb can be useful.
Examples of sentences made from the clauses:
When I heard it, I raced back up the ladder.
When I heard it, the key turning in the lock, I raced back up the ladder.
There was someone at the front door so I raced back up the ladder.
You could model changing the subordinate clauses into main clauses and the main clauses into subordinate clauses to see what happens to the verbs eg The key was turning in the lock (finite auxiliary ‘was’ + present participle ‘turning’); The key turned in the lock (finite verb, simple past tense); racing back up the ladder (racing = non-finite present participle); ‘I was racing up the ladder’ (finite auxiliary + present participle)
NB ‘when I heard it’ – ‘heard’ is a main/finite verb: one way of forming a subordinate clause is to use a subordinating conjunction before a finite verb e.g. ‘as I raced up the ladder’; ‘because there was someone at the front door’
Drawing attention to the form of the verb in the clause is more helpful than going on whether or not the clause/sentence ‘makes sense on its own’.
Examples of invented clauses that are joined:
I listened to the key turning in the lock and I was scared.
Frightened, I held my breath.
I kept quiet, wondering who was at the door.

5. How do writers deliberately shape sentences to create the effect they want?
Writers deliberately design the length and structure of their sentences to achieve the effect they want. In this extract, the writer wants to stress that the boy (who is hiding stolen money in the attic of his house when he hears someone coming into the house) is frightened and in a panic:
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. There was someone at the front door. I held my breath. It was OK. They couldn’t get in. I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there. It wasn’t. I’d left it in the front door. I could hear it turning in the lock now. I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me. When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs. I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
(From Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce)
Stress that the point of knowing about sentences is to be able to deliberately design them in our writing to create intentional effects. Link back to the opening slide – Philip Pullman is deliberately writing a long multi-clause sentence to make the bear fight sound epic and dramatic; the imperative verb ‘stop’ says all it needs to, quickly! (implied subject = ‘you’)
Read the extract from Millions aloud with students. Think, pair, share – how do you know - from the way the writer writes this - that the boy feels scared? Which do you think is the most dramatic bit?
You don’t need to take feedback but if you do, you could focus it by asking for one comment about word choices especially lexical verbs (raced/pushed/slid/hauled etc) and one comment about sentence length.

6. How do writers deliberately shape sentences to create the effect they want?
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. There was someone at the front door. I held my breath. It was OK. They couldn’t get in. I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there. It wasn’t. I’d left it in the front door. I could hear it turning in the lock now. I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me. When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs. I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
Count how many sentences have only one verb (single-clause sentences)
Count how many words there are in each of the single-clause sentences.
Where has the writer placed the shortest single-clause sentences?
How well do you think these sentences suggest Damian’s fear and panic?
See next slide for ‘answers’. Allow time for pair discussion but move to whole class discussion using next slide if students are clearly struggling.

7. How do writers deliberately shape sentences to create the effect they want?
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. There was someone at the front door. I held my breath. It was OK. They couldn’t get in. I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there. It wasn’t. I’d left it in the front door. I could hear it turning in the lock now. I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me. When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs. I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
Count how many sentences have only one verb (single-clause sentences)
Count how many words there are in each of the single-clause sentences.
Where has the writer placed the shortest single-clause sentences?
How well do you think these sentences suggest Damian’s fear and panic?
Use feedback from the task to clarify understanding of single-clause (simple) sentences. Expand the shortened forms to make the verbs clear eg ‘I had left it’; ‘it was not’; ‘they could not’. Remind that verbs can be single words ‘I held my breath’ and a verb phrase ‘they couldn’t get in’; ‘I had left it’. Use the term auxiliary verb if helpful.
Note that the effects here are to do with combination of sentence structure and sentence length – all the simple sentences are also short sentences. In terms of where these sentences are placed, you might want to stress how they mark the moment when he realises that it isn’t OK, and that someone really is coming through the door. The sentence structure and length suggests the ‘frozen’ moment of fear before he decides what to do next.
TASK: Pairs: Use this text example to explain to each other what a simple (single-clause) sentence is and the effect that they have in this piece of writing.

8. How do writers deliberately shape sentences to create the effect they want?
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. There was someone at the front door. I held my breath. It was OK. They couldn’t get in. I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there. It wasn’t. I’d left it in the front door. I could hear it turning in the lock now. I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me. When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs. I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
Look at the sentences that have more than one verb (multi-clause sentences)
How many sentences have 2 verbs? 3 verbs? 4 verbs?
Where are the longest sentences placed?
How well do you think these sentences show Damian’s fear and panic?
Multi-clause = the sentences not in red. Get students to stress where the verbs are in the remaining sentences – if they are looking for ‘doing words’, they may not immediately count ‘was’ as a verb.

9. How do writers deliberately shape sentences to create the effect they want?
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. There was someone at the front door. I held my breath. It was OK. They couldn’t get in. I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there. It wasn’t. I’d left it in the front door. I could hear it turning in the lock now. I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me. When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs. I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
Look at the sentences that have more than one verb (multi-clause sentences)
How many sentences have 2 verbs? 3 verbs? 4 verbs?
Where are the longest sentences placed?
How well do you think these sentences show Damian’s fear and panic?
2 verb sentences:
I was just pushing the lower half of the ladder back up when I heard it. Note that the verb phrase is ‘was pushing’ and ‘just’ is an adverb but included in underlining to stress that ‘was’ and ‘pushing’ are not separate verbs here
I could hear it turning in the lock now.
I raced back up the ladder and hauled it after me.
3 verb sentences:
I slid my hand into my pocket to make sure the key was still there.
I quickly pulled the hatch back into place and scrabbled over to the water tank, holding my breath.
4 verb sentences:
When I reached down to pull the hatch back up, I could hear someone coming up the stairs.
In feedback you could stress that multi-clause sentences show simultaneous actions and can be a way of quickening the pace in a narrative. Note that many of the verbs in these clauses are lexical verbs that stress Damian’s panic and that these verb choices work together with sentence length to suggest quick, frightened actions e.g. ‘hauled’, ‘pulled’, ‘raced’, ‘scrabbled’. Encourage students to verbalise what they think the effects of sentence choices are – e.g. that the longest two sentences are placed after Damian hears the door opening, so they show how fast he has to react.

10. Try it out
Write the opening paragraph to a story based on the image, where you think you are being followed on your way home. You could start:
I was just a few streets away from home when I heard it.
Can you deliberately shape your sentences to convey your sense of fear and panic?
Consolidation/extension: individually or in pairs.
Remind of the focus on lexical verb choices, single and multi clause sentences and sentence length. You can show the previous slide again as a model.
Provide uninterrupted writing time for opening paragraph to narrative based on image.
Encourage students to annotate their writing to highlight intended effects of sentence choices. If you like, you can use the next slide to frame feedback, with students evaluating their own versions in comparison, or you can use to model the task.

11. Can you deliberately shape your sentences to convey your sense of fear and panic?
I was just a few streets away from home when I heard it. Someone was following me. I could definitely hear footsteps. They were close behind me. I quickened my pace. The footsteps followed. I didn’t dare turn round to look. When I reached the alleyway near my house I dodged into it and flattened myself against the wall, hoping the shadowy figure hadn’t noticed. I held my breath as the footsteps drew closer and closer.
Consolidation/extension:
Use to model the task or to encourage evaluation and feedback. You could ask for suggested improvements to verb choices, position of clauses and sentence length in order to make the narrator sound more frightened and panicked.