Bookmark

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

60 Understanding Sentences

Understanding Sentences Section Opener

Start-Up Activity

Show students a picture of a box car alone on a track. Ask if it is a train. (Help students talk through the fact that it is really just a box car. It may be full of all kinds of great stuff, but the stuff can't go anywhere.)

Show students a picture of a locomotive alone on a track. Ask if it is a train. (Of course, it is a train engine, and it can go, but until it has something to pull, it really isn't a train.)

Show students a picture of a locomotive with a box car behind it. Ask if it is a train. (Yes. A very basic train, with some freight and an engine to pull it. Some trains have two or more freight cars and two or more engines.)

Now help students see that the box car is like the subject of the sentence. It's the stuff that the sentence is about—the freight the sentences is carrying. The engine is like the predicate of the sentence—the power that moves the train of thought. Just as you don't have a train until you have at least one freight car and one engine, you don't have a sentence until you have at least one subject and one predicate.

Think About It

“When the ideas are coming, I don't stop until the ideas stop because that train doesn't come along all the time.”

—Dr. Dre

State Standards Covered in This Chapter

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1.A

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1.B

LAFS Covered in This Chapter

LAFS.910.L.1.1

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

110.36.c.1.C

110.36.c.9.D

110.37.c.1.C

110.37.c.9.D

110.36.c.9.C

110.37.c.9.C

110.37.c.8.G

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

Page 527 from Write Ahead

Subject and Predicate

Use this page to teach students to identify simple, complete, and compound subjects and predicates.

  • A simple subject is the noun form that names what the sentence is about.
  • The simple predicate is the verb that indicates what the subject is doing or being.
  • The complete subject or predicate is the simple part with all of the words that modify or complete it.
  • A compound subject or predicate is two or more of the simple parts joined with an and or or.

Identifying these parts helps students work with them, taking them apart and putting them together like Legos to form different sentences.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.L.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.1.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.1.C, 110.37.c.9.D
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.d, LA 10.2.1.h

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
Mode:
Writing Basics
English Language Arts:
Correct ConventionsFluid Sentences

Page 528 from Write Ahead

Modifiers

Help your students understand that sentences consist primarily of subjects (nouns) and predicates (verbs). Modifying words and phrases adjust the meaning of those nouns and verbs. Adjectives modify nouns, and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. All modifying phrases or clauses function as either adjectives or adverbs.

Clauses

Show your students that a simple sentence is an independent clause. It has a subject and predicate and can stand alone—independent.

Some groups of words have a subject and verb but can't stand by themselves—dependent. A dependent clause must connect to an independent clause to form a sentence (a complete thought). Dependent clauses start with relative pronouns (who, which, that) or subordinating conjunctions (before, although, unless, because, when, and so on).

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.L.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.1.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.1.C, 110.37.c.9.D
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.d, LA 10.2.1.h

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
Mode:
Writing Basics
English Language Arts:
Fluid SentencesCorrect Conventions

Page 529 from Write Ahead

Phrases

On the facing page, your students learned about clauses, which have a subject and predicate. If a group of words does not have both a subject and a predicate, it is a phrase:

  • Noun phrases function as nouns.
  • Verb phrases function as verbs.
  • Prepositional phrases start with a preposition and function as an adjective or adverb. (See page 556 for more on prepositions.)
  • Verbal phrases start with a verbal (gerund, participle, or infinitive), and can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. (See page 549 for more on verbals.)
State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.L.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.1.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.1.C, 110.37.c.9.D
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.d, LA 10.2.1.h

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
Mode:
Writing Basics
English Language Arts:
Fluid SentencesCorrect Conventions

Page 530 from Write Ahead

Types of Sentences

Teach your students that a simple sentence is an independent clause (a subject and predicate that can stand alone). The subject can be compound (with two or more parts), and the predicate can be compound (with two or more parts). Even so, the subject or subjects share the predicate or predicates.

A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses (simple sentences). Often a comma and coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) joins the two sentences. Sometimes a semicolon joins them.

A complex sentence consists of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.L.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.1.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.1.C, 110.37.c.9.D
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.d, LA 10.2.1.h

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
Mode:
Writing Basics
English Language Arts:
Fluid SentencesCorrect Conventions

Page 531 from Write Ahead

Kinds of Sentences

On the facing pages, students learned about the types of sentences—how they are structured. On this page, help them understand the kinds of sentences—the purpose of each sentence:

  • Statements provide information and are called declarative sentences.
  • Questions ask for information and are called interrogative sentences. (A tag question tags onto the end of a statement.)
  • Commands tell people what to do and are called imperative sentences.
  • Exclamations express strong emothion and are called exclamatory sentences.
Related Minilesson:
State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.L.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.1.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.1.C, 110.37.c.9.D
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.d, LA 10.2.1.h

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
English Language Arts:
Fluid SentencesCorrect Conventions