Teach Primary Issue 18.6

T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG The terms ‘single clause sentence’ and ‘multi- clause sentence’ may be more helpful. ’ When this appendix was released, it challenged the words I had been using daily in my English lessons as a KS2 teacher, but it also made total sense. An example of a ‘ simple ’ sentence could be: One winter’s night, far far away from the city, a small child lay shivering on a small clump of straw. Meanwhile, perhaps counterintuitively, ‘When he was running, Jim fell over.’ is an example of a complex sentence A complex sentence has a main clause and a subordinate clause; put simply, it needs two verbs. A simple sentence may have a number of adverbials, adjectives and adverbs, but it is grammatically ‘simple’, as it only contains one clause (or verb). I still feel that there is a place for the term ‘compound sentence’, as the word describes what is does, but it is worth knowing the curriculum’s view on the term and the fact that it is not a term referred to in SATs. M y go-to document when it comes to grammar is always Appendix 2 from the English national curriculum. It gives succinct definitions that are easy to understand, and it will be these definitions that are used by the STA when writing SATs papers because, let’s face it, grammar is a grey area! If you want to develop staff’s understanding of grammar, turn Appendix 2 of the national curriculum into a booklet and tell them to have it in their classrooms as a dependable guide. So, what does the appendix say about compound sentences? ‘ A sentence is a group of words which are grammatically connected to each other but not to any words outside the sentence. The form of a sentence’s main clause shows whether it is being used as a statement, a question, a command or an exclamation. A sentence may consist of a single clause or it may contain several clauses held together by subordination or co-ordination. Classifying sentences as ‘simple’, ‘complex’ or ‘compound’ can be confusing, because a ‘simple’ sentence may be complicated, and a ‘complex’ one may be straightforward. What is a compound sentence? A compound sentence is one that has at least two independent clauses, usually joined by a coordinating conjunction or a semi-colon. You, and your pupils, can use the mnemonic ‘FANBOYS’ to remember what the coordinating conjunctions are: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. Some examples of compound sentences include: • I ran to the shops for milk, but I forgot my purse. • You can go to the party now or you can stay at home and watch television. • Isla had an INSET day; she went to Thorpe Park. How to teach compound sentences The team at No More Marking have examined the nearly two million pieces of students’ writing used in their assessment technique to draw some conclusions around children’s writing ( tinyurl.com/tp-NMM ) . Their overriding finding was that children struggle to write accurate sentences, producing ones that are often incomplete or too long (run-on sentences). A game of TWO CLAUSES Laura Dobson breaks down compound sentences “Don’t forget that sometimes a short sentence is most effective” www.teachwire.net | 67