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GOOD IDEAS FOR SENTENCE BEGINNINGS
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Four good ways of beginning sentences are with the words while or as, or with words ending with –ing or –ly.
Sentences with these beginnings will usually have at least
two parts, so this is a good activity for teaching correct
use of commas.
Having shown the modelled sentence to the class or group,
ask them to write a sentence using the same format, either
individually or with a partner. This might be preceded by
the teacher constructing a sentence of guided writing, using
language suggested by the children.
Grabbing his muddy boots from the floor of the
changing room, the goalkeeper sulkily stared around him at
his faces of his team mates, whose faces showed that he was
to blame for their latest defeat.
While mum tilted her head back and laughed loudly,
dad simply shook his head silently, with a look of complete
disbelief on his tired face.
As Mr. Jones opened the door to the bank’s first
customers of the day, the grey sky seemed unnaturally dark
and the first heavy drops of rain were already forming
streaks on the dirty pavement.
Stupidly, John stood there with a look of total
embarrassment on his face, as he thought about the crazy
thing he had just done.
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Writing Extended Sentences
The aim of the task is to write
one sentence of real quality – two at the most. This can be
looked upon as a writing ‘skill practice’ and is intended to
influence children’s language in more extended pieces of
writing. Where the teacher feels it is appropriate, these
short pieces of writing can be neatly re-written and
displayed.
1. Write the word ‘hands’ on the board. Next to it, write
the word ‘waving’. Tell the children to write a list of
two-word phrases, the first word always being ‘hands’ and
the second word always being an ‘ing’ word, showing what
hands can do.
After one and a half minutes, ask the children to stop writing and
invite them to share one of their phrases with the rest of
the class. The teacher should make a short, positive
response to each contribution and comment on phrases which
show a different ‘feel’ or emotion.
Next to ‘hands waving’, on the board, write the word
‘sadly’, and show the children that this has now become a
three-word phrase. Give the children one minute to add a
third word to some of their two-word phrases, pointing out
that this word must be a ‘ly’ word and it will show how the
hands are doing what the second word described.
After a minute, ask the children to read through their three
–word phrases, then underline their best one and read it to
a partner. Invite children to share their chosen phrase with
the class, again passing comment on the differing moods and
emotions which the phrases create.
On the board, insert the word ‘were’ between ‘hands’ and
‘waving’ to create the four-word phrase, ‘hands were waving
sadly’. Ask the children to do the same with their phrase.
Tell the children that the next task will be to write a
sentence that includes the four-word phrase they have
written. You want their sentence to make clear : Whose
hands? Where was this? When was this?
Perhaps also, why was this?
As a model, read the children the following sentence, based
on ‘hands were waving sadly.
‘On a freezing cold December morning at the railway station,
the children’s hands were waving sadly to their grandparents
who were standing on the platform.’
Ask the children, whose hands were waving, where this was
and when it was. A fourth question could be, why might the
children’s hands have been waving sadly?
Give the children no more than three minutes to write –
remind them that you are only wanting one, really good
sentence. This is enough time to write the sentence, read
through it, make improvements and check which questions they
have answered.
Ask the children to share their sentence with at least one
other person and give the opportunity for some to be read to
the whole class.
From start to finish, this activity should last for no more
than 20 minutes.
2. Exactly the same format as Task 1, but this time start
with ‘eyes’. The second word is ‘staring’ and the third word
is ‘hungrily’, giving the phrase ‘eyes staring hungrily’.
When the children write their list, the second word is an
‘ing’ word and the third is a ‘ly’ word.
The teacher’s modelled sentence is, ‘At the corner of the
street in the crowded town centre, the beggars eyes were
staring hungrily at the people who past him by.’
‘Hands’ and ‘eyes’ are good ones to begin with because there
are numerous possibilities. Other words to try could be,
leaves, raindrops, snowflakes, footsteps.
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DEVELOPING SIMPLE
IDEAS
This is
a really effective way of developing language to describe
characters, settings and events, and how to construct
extended sentences. Begin by giving the children a simple
idea such as, The rain was getting faster, and
ask them how we could make this sentence much more
interesting. The teacher could raise questions such as:
Where
was this?
What
part of the day and year could this be?
Were
any people there? How did they react? How were they
affected?
Can we
think of words to describe how the rain was falling?
What
could we say about the sky?
The
teacher then constructs a sentence using the children’s
suggested ideas. Tell them you want to get the bare bones of
the sentence down quickly, before improving it further.
Having done this, read the sentence back to the children
before asking further questions, such as:
Can
anyone think of extra words which would make our sentence
even better?
Does
anyone want to ‘press the delete button’ on any part
of the sentence and replace it with something else?
There
will be lots of suggestions and to channel these, the
teacher could ask the children to copy out the sentence, but
make changes to it, so it becomes their sentence,
rather than ours. Some children will only make a
couple of changes, but others will make many changes, while
keeping to the format of the original sentence. Give the
children the opportunity to share their sentence with a
partner, a table group or with the whole class.
The
next step is to ask the children to develop another simple
idea, either individually or with a partner. eg. The
leaves were coming off the trees.
Before
they start, raise questions for them to consider relating to
the setting, part of day, colours, people or animals
involved, words to describe the movement of the leaves in
the air. Teacher questioning is very important in writing
activities. Often these questions do not need a verbal
response, but are aimed at drawing ideas and planting seeds
in the children’s minds.
Simple
ideas to develop are limitless. Here are some more I have
used:
The
teacher came into the classroom.
A
woman was at the school gates.
Snowflakes were falling.
There were some people on the beach.
The
headteacher walked into the hall.
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VITAL INGREDIENTS OF DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
Write the following letters vertically on the board:
C S M L/D W/C X
Tell the children they are really important ingredients to
include when describing settings, characters and events,
whether they are real or imaginary. Ask the children if they
can think what the letters stand for. Some prompting might
be required, but eventually the children will come up with:
Colour
Sound
Movement
Light
/ Dark
Warm
/ Cold
Tell them the last one is the
X
factor and you never know what it is until that moment when
someone reads there writing out to the class and everyone
turns towards them open-mouthed, including the teacher, as
to say, “Wow! Where did that come from? I wish I’d thought
of that” It’s that spark of flair and originality which
makes a piece of writing stand out as being extra special.
The children can use the 5 elements when analyzing a
writers’ work, to find out how well each has been used. To
do this I give them a text like the one below, which is an
extract from
The Wind In the Willows, and ask them to write directly on to the text, a
C where a colour is found,
M and
S where movement
and sound words occur and
W/C
or
L/D. If one is hardly used in a text it is worth asking the
children why the writer has not included many
sound
words, for example. The
teacher might also say,” If you could give some advice to
Roald Dahl or Tolkien or J.K. Rowling about their work, what
would you tell them?”
The Home Stretch
The rapid rainfall of mid-December had closed in on the
little village as they approached it on soft feet over a
first thin fall of powdery snow. Little could be seen except
the squares of orange-red on either side of the street,
where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed
through the windows into the dark world outside. Most of the
windows had no blinds, and the travellers outside saw the
people inside, gathered round the tea-table, working, or
talking and laughing. Moving from one window to another, the
two of them, so far from home themselves, had something of
sadness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a
sleepy child being picked up and carried off to bed, or a
tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a log
in the fire.
Then a gust of wind took them in the back of the neck and a
small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as if from
a dream. Their toes were cold, their legs tired and their
own home a long distance.
Once beyond the village, where the cottages stopped
suddenly, on either side of the road they could smell
through the darkness the friendly fields again. They braced
themselves for the last long stretch that they knew was
bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door latch,
the sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things. They
plodded along, steadily and silently, each of them thinking
his own thoughts.
Children should be aware of the 5 factors when they are
doing their own writing. When drafting, it is worth giving
them the task of going through their own writing, alone or
with a partner, and getting them to write the 5 capital
letters on their work. Then they know which ones they have
made good use of and on which they need to focus when they
carry on writing.
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