Teaching Grammar: What Really Works (2010)

Part II. Embedding Grammar in Writing Instruction

Chapter 7. Writing with Compound Sentences That Link Ideas: A Five-Day Lesson Series Embedded in the Writing Process

You may have noticed that your students don’t effectively combine ideas in their writing. The result is a jerky, immature style. We find that many students rely too heavily on simple sentences, which can’t express the relationships between ideas as well as effective compound sentences.

In this chapter, you will learn how to teach students to write compound sentences that create a smoother flow of ideas than short, choppy, simple sentences.

Here are some simple sentences:

1.I forgot my lunch. My mother dropped it off in the main office.

2.I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My brother wanted a salami sandwich.

3.My mother was in a hurry. She brought a peanut butter and salami sandwich by mistake.

4.Actually, it wasn’t so bad. Now I am the only one in the world with a taste for peanut butter and salami.

When we revise these to make them compound sentences, here is the result:

1.I forgot my lunch, but my mother dropped it off in the main office.

2.I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my brother wanted a salami sandwich.

3.My mother was in a hurry, so she brought a peanut butter and salami sandwich by mistake.

4.Actually, it wasn’t so bad; now I am the only one in the world with a taste for peanut butter and salami.

To teach your students how to write compound sentences, you should reinforce a few rules: They can establish equality between two independent clauses by choosing and as the coordinating conjunction. They establish contrast by using but. And they establish cause-and-effect relationships by using so.

In addition, they can establish a close relationship between two similar ideas by using a semicolon. Ideally, the two independent clauses separated by a semicolon have parallel grammatical structure. (Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t.) A semicolon says to the reader: Don’t drop this first sentence into short-term memory just yet: Keep it in mind because a very similar idea follows.

Your students are certainly aware of conjunctions. They use them lavishly in their speech and all too lavishly in their writing. The trouble is, many students use conjunctions, particularly and, ineffectively. In this chapter, we will demonstrate a way to transform mindless overuse into effective use of conjunctions. Along the way, we will discuss how to teach your students to punctuate compound sentences correctly.

Teaching Procedure

Sara teaches eighth grade in a suburban middle school where the students are motivated to succeed and the parents and community expect a high level of achievement. Therefore, they place great value on writing skills. Sara presents the following lesson series during the first month of the school year.

Day One: Introducing Compound Sentences

The students start the semester with a few stories by Poe. To create a connection among the stories, Sara has asked the students to explain how one of the literary elements (plot, theme, character, setting, point of view) is the same in any two stories. Having collected and reviewed a few rough drafts, Sara has selected some sentences that the students wrote, and she writes them on the board:

Both main characters dislike somebody. They both decide on murder.

One murders the guy he works for. The other one murders his friend.

Both of them plan a way to commit the murder. They think that no one will ever find out. They each hide the body.

Sara tells her class: “Each of these sentences gives us a piece of good information. What we want to do is to bring them together a little bit—show how the sentences are related. If we show how some of these sentences are related to each other, it will make more sense to the reader.”

An eager student chimes in: “The sentences are short and choppy.”

Sara smiles. “Yes, they are,” she responds. Obviously, some of the students have learned from a previous teacher to recognize a string of simple sentences as being “short and choppy.” Sara wants to build on that. “One way to make our writing smoother is to use three important words.” She writes on the board:

and

but

so

“What do these words mean?” Sara asks, knowing that the students, of course, know the meanings. The students struggle with formulating definitions of such common words. It’s a good brain exercise for them to describe the purpose of these words, words that they probably use hundreds of times every day. After some lively buzz, Sara adds to the board:

and = added to

but = contrast

so = because of

“Now it happens,” Sara continues, “that these three little words go together. There’s a name for them. And you already know what they mean, so this will be easy: We call these three words conjunctions.” She writes conjunctionson the board and creates a word map that will help students file the new word with familiar related words. (See Figure 5.1, page 72.)

“OK,” Sara goes on, “now let’s see how we can combine some of our sentences on the board to make better relationships—to make them smooth, not short and choppy.”

Sara’s students pair up to rewrite the sentences, adding the conjunctions and, but, so, which she can now refer to as conjunctions. After a few minutes, the students read their newly created compound sentences aloud. As a result, they hear the patterns and acknowledge that several kinds of combinations are possible. There’s no one right way, as long as the two sentences make sense when joined together. Here are some possibilities:

Both main characters dislike somebody, and (or so) they both decide on murder. One murders the guy he works for, and (or but) the other one murders his friend. Both of them plan a way to commit the murder, and (or but) they think that no one will ever find out.

“These sentences have a name,” Sara says. “We call them compound sentences. Did you ever hear of the word compound before? Do a think-pair-share about the word compound.”

The students come up with compounds from science, which refer to two elements joined together, and compound fracture, meaning two breaks.

A student asks: “What about pound? What does that have to do with it?”

Sara smiles. “That’s a good question. Off the top of my head, I’d say nothing! Sometimes, words have sound-alike parts, but it’s just a coincidence. Now, for homework, what I’d like you to do is to find any one sentence in your rough draft that you can add another sentence to, to create a compound sentence. Remember that a compound sentence has to have four things: two sentences, a comma, and a conjunction.”

Sara writes the directions for the homework on the board: “Revise your draft, combining your original sentences to form a compound sentence or adding more ideas to form a compound sentence. Highlight the sentences in one color and the comma and conjunction in a different color.”

You may want to teach this lesson early in the school year before you have student writing samples. If you do, write your own paragraph about a popular movie, TV show, or sports event, using six or more simple sentences. When you introduce compound sentences, use your own paragraph on the board, in place of the student sample. Follow Sara’s lesson plan. For homework, have students write paragraphs about a subject that interests them, perhaps characters in a movie or TV show. Use Sara’s directions for compound sentences and highlighting.

Day Two: Punctuating Compound Sentences

Sara invites the students to write their compound sentences on the board. Of their sentences, some already have commas between the clauses; others are not compound sentences at all.

Now is a teachable moment for two concepts:

1.We use a comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence.

2.The word and can be used to join independent clauses, forming a compound sentence. However, and can also be used to join words or phrases without creating a compound sentence.

Because she has not emphasized that we use a comma to create a compound sentence, Sara is not surprised that some of the students’ sentences lack commas. Using a bold color, she inserts the commas before the coordinating conjunctions and says: “What did I just do?”

The students call out: “You stuck in a comma.” “You put a comma in the middle.” “You added a comma before the and, but, so thing.”

“OK,” she says, “that’s pretty good. You noticed what I did. Now, talk to me like a writer. Use your terminology.”

It takes a while, but with a bit of prodding, Sara’s students articulate that what Sara did was to “place a comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence.”

“OK,” Sara proceeds, “so we have a pattern. In language, a pattern becomes a rule. The rule is that we place a comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence. Now, let’s think-pair-share to explain why we have that rule.”

Sara helps the student understand that the comma between the parts of the compound sentence helps the reader make sense without having to read the sentence twice. “Without the comma,” she says, “the words collide. The and, but, so alone are not strong enough to prevent a collision.” She draws a picture of two cars coming toward each other from opposite directions. “The comma and the coordinating conjunction are both needed to prevent a collision. Either one alone is not enough.”

Sara wants to transition into the term “independent clauses” when talking about compound sentences. “What does it mean to be independent?” she asks.

The students answer, “It means you’re on your own. You can do things by yourself.”

“Right. And if I tell you that this is an independent clause” (she underlines the first clause in one of the sentences that the students see on the board) “and this is an independent clause” (she underlines the other clause), “what do you think an independent clause is?”

Eventually, the students figure out that an independent clause is a group of words that can stand together as a sentence on its own. With this writers’ terminology in place, Sara can continue: “You have plenty of independent clauses in your rough drafts. In fact, your rough drafts are full of independent clauses because an independent clause is just a sentence. But a compound sentence has to have more than one independent clause. So I’m going to take this piece of construction paper and cover up the part of the sentence that comes before the coordinating conjunction. Let’s see if we have an independent clause.” She covers up the first clause in the sentence:

The man committed a murder, and then he hid the body.

The students see that there is indeed an independent clause on either side of the comma and coordinating conjunction.

Now, Sara goes to this example of student writing:

The man started to go crazy, and thought he heard the beating of the dead guy’s heart.

This is a typical mistake that students make when learning to create compound sentences: This student has mistaken a sentence with a compound verb (The man started... and thought.. .) for a true compound sentence. The subject (The man) performs two actions—started and thought—but the sentence does not contain two independent clauses. When Sara uses construction paper to cover up the first clause, the students detect that “. . . thought he heard the beating of the dead guy’s heart” is not an independent clause.

When asked, “What would you have to add in there to make it an independent clause?” the students respond: “The word he.” This response shows that the students can indeed use their intuitive knowledge of language to test whether a group of words constitutes an independent clause.

Sara often uses the “Guess what?” test for independent clauses explained on page 6. Her students keep an index card in their notebooks with several “sentence testers” on it, so they can determine whether they do indeed have a complete sentence.

Next, Sara assigns homework, asking students to use their knowledge of compound sentences to revise their first-draft paragraphs:]

“Go back to your rough draft and adjust your sentences so you have at least three compound sentences. You may either add new independent clauses or use a comma and conjunction to combine sentences that you already wrote. Highlight your independent clauses with one color and your comma and conjunction with a contrasting color.

If you need to test your sentences to be certain you have two independent clauses, you can cover one at a time with your finger, the same way we did in class with construction paper, or you can apply that convenient ‘Guess what?’ test.”

Day Three: Distinguishing the Roles of and

Just as she did the day before, Sara invites students to the board to display the compound sentences that they wrote for homework. Today, she wants to clarify something that she calls “BIG AND” and “LITTLE AND”: The and that combines two independent clauses in a compound sentence will be called BIG AND, while the and that links pairs or the last item of a series will be called LITTLE AND.

One of the students writes on the board:

Poe liked to write about people who go insane, and the narrators of “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” both say that they are not insane at the beginning.

Sara circles the and that appears between “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” and asks: “Why is there no comma here?” She leads the students toward the answer: We don’t use a comma with and when all we have is words or phrases (unless we’re talking about the optional comma that comes before the last item in a series). From there, she says: “OK, let’s call the and that does the big job of combining independent clauses in a compound sentence BIG AND. Now, we know that BIG AND needs a comma to go with it because combining independent clauses in a compound sentence is a big job. And let’s call the and that is doing the little job of joining words or phrases LITTLE AND.”

This concept is easier to see when and joins nouns or modifiers than when and joins verbs. For example, students may struggle to punctuate a sentence like this one:

The narrator in “The Black Cat” hates many of his animals and plans to hurt them in terrible ways.

Sara clarifies why there is no comma before the and in this sentence. Using the construction-paper cover-up technique, she leads the class to discover that “The narrator in ‘The Black Cat’ hates many of his animals” is an independent clause (complete sentence), but “plans to hurt them in terrible ways” is not. “So what we have here is actually LITTLE AND doing the job of connecting two verbs, not two independent clauses. Therefore, no comma! In your sentences, you can perform the same test as I did with the construction paper by covering one part of your sentence with your finger and reading the other part to see whether it is an independent clause.”

As homework, Sara directs students to their literature: “Let’s see how Edgar Allan Poe uses coordinating conjunctions. For homework, find two compound sentences with different coordinating conjunctions and copy them into your writer’s journal. In your journal, color-code them, as you did in your previous homework. If you are unsure about calling a sentence a compound sentence, test each part of the sentence. Use your finger to cover one part to see whether the part is an independent clause.”

Day Four: Learning to Use Semicolons

It’s an easy step now to teach that a semicolon is an alternative to the comma and coordinating conjunction. Sara demonstrates how the comma and coordinating conjunction in one of the students’ compound sentences can be replaced by a semicolon. “When you use a semicolon in a compound sentence, don’t forget that an independent clause has to go before and after the semicolon.”

A student asks: “How do you know when to use the semicolon instead of the conjunction?”

“Good question,” Sara responds. “It’s pretty much up to the writer, as long as the two sentences have a close relationship.” Sara shows an example:

“The Black Cat” takes place inside the narrator’s home; “The Cask of Amontillado” takes place inside the cellar of the narrator’s home.

Sara continues: “You see how these two sentences are similar? They have a lot of similar meaning, but it’s more than that: They are set up in similar ways. They’re parallel. So this is a great place for a semicolon. You don’t have touse the semicolon, but this is a great place for one.”

Sara wants the students to know that writers often use semicolons with however and therefore to help the reader see a causal relationship between the first and second independent clause. In this case, a comma should follow however or therefore.

The narrator doesn’t want the body to be found; therefore, he lures his friend into the cellar where he will build a wall to hide his body.

The narrator in the “The Tell-Tale Heart” thinks he has committed the perfect crime; however, the police show up because someone has reported hearing a scream.

Of course, there’s more to say about semicolons and words like therefore and however, which are called conjunctive adverbs (see Figure 5-1: Common Hitching Devices).

Here Come the Visuals

On this first encounter with semicolons, Sara wants her students to see the placement of the semicolon at the end of the first independent clause. She asks for student volunteers who will hold up some poster-board clauses in front of the class and function as “human sentences,” an activity explained on page 90.

Two students hold clauses, another student holds up a semicolon, another has the word however, and another a comma. As they move into place, the class can see clearly the function of the semicolon and the comma:

Poe’s narrator claims to be sane; however, his actions reveal his insanity.

Sara asks the students to explain the function played by the semicolon and then the comma. Afterward, when Sara moves the students holding the semicolon and comma into the wrong order, class members recognize how the punctuation marks fail to function as separators of full ideas:

*Poe’s narrator claims to be sane, however; his actions reveal his insanity.

After the human sentence activity, the students are ready to work independently with semicolons. For homework, Sara tells her students to insert two compound sentences with semicolons into their writing samples. This time students should highlight the semicolon and comma with one color and the hitching word (however or therefore) with another.

Day Five: Learning More Coordinating Conjunctions

Sara’s students are excited about their compound sentences with semicolons and enjoy sharing them on the board. As the class reviews each sentence, Sara emphasizes their use of therefore and however to aid the reader’s understanding. She finds one incorrectly punctuated sentence that needs clarification:

*The narrator of “The Black Cat” thinks he hid the cat’s body well, however; he begins to hear loud sounds coming from behind the bricked-up wall.

“Let’s think about where the reader stops when the semicolon comes after however,” she tells the class. She reads the sentence aloud twice so students hear the differing effects of placing the semicolon directly after the independent clause compared with after the word however. The placement of the semicolon confuses some students, so Sara takes time to show the proper punctuation to the entire class.

By now, Sara’s students are finding it easier to write compound sentences that use coordinate conjunctions and semicolons. Now, she wants them to employ more coordinate conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs—replacing therefore and however with words like consequently and thus—so she provides a fuller list with this visual. (See Figure 5.1, Common Hitching Devices, page 72.) She reads a sample for her class:

The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” imagines the loud beating of the heart; consequently, he becomes more and more nervous.

Sara asks students to work in pairs writing compound sentences so they can focus on using several of the conjunctions and hitching words. As they work, she walks around, helping anyone who is struggling. Her students finish this lesson by reading their best sentences aloud and enunciating the punctuation as they read. In other words, Sara wants them to say the words semicolon and comma for auditory reinforcement.

Now what?

In subsequent weeks, students begin to take ownership of the concept, using compound sentences in all their written pieces and highlighting those sentences. They are encouraged to look for compound sentences in literature, and they compile a list of the compound sentences that they find in their readings. The best classroom visuals of the coordinating conjunctions remain displayed.

Some teachers give their students a fuller list of conjunctions, using the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. In our classes, we find that the rhyming combination—and, but, or / yet, so, for (nor)—is easier for students to commit to memory. Our students learn the rhyming combination by repeating it aloud about five times each day for a few days. Since they can retrieve the rhyme easily, they use it when composing and punctuating sentences.

Figure 7.1 Chapter7 Overview Chart