And to me, this is a situation in which grammar blends so smoothly into mini lessons for writing workshop. It has such an authentic purpose.
Lori On 7/5/07 6:42 AM, "RASINSKI, TIMOTHY" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I love sentence combining and think it has been woefully neglected in our > classrooms. Here's some proof: > > See the Journal of Educational Psychology, 2005, Vol 97, pp 43-54. > Title: The effects of peer-assisted sentence-combining instruction on the > writing performance of more and less skilled young writers. > Authors: Bruce Saddler and Steve Graham > >> From the abstract 'The authors examined whether instruction designed to >> improve sentence-construction skills was beneficial for more and less skilled >> 4th-grade writers. In comparison with peers receiving grammar instruction, >> students in the exp treatment became more adept at combining simpler >> sentences into more complex sentences. For the exp students, the sentence >> combining skills produced improved story writing as well as the use of these >> skills when revising." > > Timothy Rasinski > 404 White Hall > Kent State University > Kent, OH 44242 > 330-672-0649 > Cell -- 330-962-6251 > FAX 330-672-2025 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > informational website: www.timrasinski.com > professional development DVD: http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/ > <https://exchange.kent.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.roadtocomprehe > nsion.com/> > > ________________________________ > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of thomas > Sent: Thu 7/5/2007 8:43 AM > To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Sentence Combining > > > > > > > On 7/4/07 10:15 PM, "kimberlee hannan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> She said it was mainly a revision strategy, but I can see it being used for >> a whole lot more than that. >> >> She took a long drawn paragraph from Across Five Aprils. She broke it down >> into its smallest pieces. We combined it together and discussed the vision >> we were getting as we dealt with each part. Finally we read the actual >> paragraph. Not only was our sentence very close to the actual author's, the >> paragraph made complete sense. She said if we did that with shared novels >> before we got to the complicated ones, they made much more sense to the kids >> and they are familiar. >> >> I thought there would be books about this strategy. I moved since the CATE >> conference and the paperwork is in a box somewhere on the back patio. >> Hopefully, I will find it before may daughters inherit it. >> Kim >> > There is actually research that shows sentence combining does have an impact > on writing - not huge - but an impact nevertheless. I did just what your > prof did with my 5/6 graders. We would do usually one paragraph (or several > long sentences) from a novel we were reading. I would look for interesting > sentence structure possibilities. It was a great way to discuss not just > simple grammar issues and choices and punctuation involved in putting > sentences together in particular ways, but also the author's style. > > I also did one other paragraph (or several sentences) - also interesting > ones - where my students created their own sentences using the skeleton > grammatical structures of the given sentences. My students loved this > activity, maybe even more than the sentence combining. I long long ago read > a piece of research by James Christie which showed that being able to put > together (compose) particular sentence structures had an impact then on > being able to read them. His examples tended to be more like the "imitation" > I just described than the sentence combining but I think it would work the > same way. Primary teachers have long been doing this with variations on > texts. "If I were in charge of the world, ......" and kids write their own > variations. And we've been talking about that with music/songs! > > They also loved then running into these spots in the story. I think both > had an impact on their comprehension (a really close reading obviously) and > their writing. I saw a particularly big impact on their writing. They no > longer settled for simple or compound sentences or even for adjective or > adverb clauses. Rather they tended to use more sophistical structures like > nominative absolutes, appoisitives, and so on - that kind of piling on of > details in sentences through phrases that is so much more characteristic of > sophisticated writing. I definitely didn't over do it. Most work on writing > came through writing workshop and most reading through reading - reading > workshop in all its glory! > > Sally > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach & Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute "Literate Lives: A Human Right" July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
