Understanding sentence structure can be a challenge for middle school students. Every year I see students start off struggling with correctly writing strong sentences as well as using sentence variety. They often don’t know that a complete sentence must have a subject and a predicate. I don’t know why this continues to shock me year after year, but it does. I wanted to share what works for my students (and makes my life soooo much easier) as well as give you a couple FREEBIES!!
To get students to understand and relate to why it’s so important that they are able to write strong sentences, I tell them about the first email I got from our team mom in baseball a few years ago. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say in the email. It naturally caused me to have a preconceived idea that this individual was uneducated. I explained that the way you write in a professional setting versus when you text a friend is often not the same at all, and students must be aware of this as this is often the first impression they make on someone.
I was also well aware that students seem to dread any assignment that has to do with grammar or writing. That’s when I started to create activities that would not only keep my students engaged but would also help them master sentence structure. I’ve found that the key to engagement is interaction and collaboration with the activities which almost always have both a printable and digital version.
1. Parts of Speech
In order for students to be able to write a strong sentence, they have to understand the types of words that are included in sentences. I like to scaffold learning to avoid overwhelming students, and it makes it easier for them to master the concepts.
2. Subjects & Predicates
3. Independent & Dependent Clauses – Simple, Compound, & Complex Sentences
Once students can clearly identify independent clauses, we move into compound sentences. We go over coordinating conjunctions using FANBOYS, and students have a chance to not only use the color-codes to highlight the subject and predicate in the compound sentence, but they also drag a circle over the conjunction word.
4. Use Sentence Structure Digital Escape Rooms
This is my students’ personal favorite!! It serves as a great review of simple, compound, and complex sentences. It also requires zero prep for teachers, as do the majority of these digital resources. You simply share the link with students, and they’re on their way.
5. Use assessments where students receive immediate feedback
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