In my previous post, I shared that I implemented a foundations of literacy component to my language program to support students in developing the knowledge and skills that the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum (2023) states they need to learn to become confident, competent writers and readers. In my previous post, I also focused on how I’m explicitly teaching students sentence structures that includes sentence types and sentence forms, and I provided a brief overview of a lesson I taught. In this post, I’ll share additional strategies and insights to how I’m further supporting students in developing their ability to comprehend and compose a variety of sentence forms by teaching them about conjunctions.
Specific expectation B3.2 which focuses on grammar states that students need to demonstrate an understanding of the parts of speech, their function in a sentence and use that knowledge to support understanding and practicing expressive and receptive communication clearly.
Conjunctions are one of the nine parts of speech listed in expectation B3.2 and they are a defining component of compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences because they connect the clauses within the sentence. For example, in a compound sentence students need to understand that a coordinating conjunction can be used to connect the two or more independent clauses contained within the sentence. In a complex sentence, they need to understand that a subordinating conjunction connects an independent clause with one or more dependent clauses contained within the sentence. In a compound-complex sentence they need to understand that the sentence includes both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions that connect two independent clauses with one or more dependent clause or clauses contained within the sentence. They also need to know that some coordinating conjunctions include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so while some subordinating conjunctions include when, if, although, before, after, since, even though, unless.
I think the value of teaching conjunctions in relation to sentence forms is that this approach helps students to deepen their understanding of one of the nine parts of speech in practice, while also supporting them in further developing their vocabulary knowledge and their ability to communicate and understand increasingly complex thoughts and ideas in written form.
Next, I’ll share a lesson and strategies I’ve used when explicitly teaching conjunctions in relation to sentence forms while working with students in intermediate grades 7 and 8. I’ll end this post with an insight I gained from my teaching experience that may be useful to other educators.
As usual practice, I began my lessons by sharing a learning goal and success criteria with students to inform them of what they were learning, why they were learning it, and how they would know when they had been successful in their learning. A sample learning goal I shared with students while explicitly teaching conjunctions was, I am practicing writing compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions and the new vocabulary I am learning to apply my understanding of both in written form. The success criteria I used to accompany this learning goal was, I can create a compound sentence using a coordinating conjunction and one of my new vocabulary words. I then provided additional insight to the learning goal and success criteria by informing students that they were learning to include and connect multiple thoughts within a single sentence using conjunctions.
I then shared a list of coordinating conjunctions along with an acronym to help students retain the information. The acronym I shared was FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or yet, so. After reviewing the acronym, I provided insight to how each conjunction works within a sentence by telling students a meaning associated with the conjunction; I did this to support building students’ vocabulary knowledge. For example, I shared that the conjunction for can show a reason that an action occurred within a sentence. And can provides additional information within a sentence, while but and yet can show contrast within a sentence.
Next, I provided an example of each conjunction in use within a sentence then examined the way that the conjunction connected the two independent clauses within a single sentence. My purpose for doing this work was to help students develop the background knowledge I believed they needed to successfully construct compound and later compound-complex sentences.
Following the review of the sample sentences, I modeled creating compound sentences using the coordinating conjunctions for, and, nor. Then I invited students to co-construct compound sentences using the coordinating conjunctions but, or, yet, so. I concluded the lesson by having students work in groups of 2 – 4 to create 7 compound sentences using one the coordinating conjunctions found in the FANBOYS acronym. I used this as a consolidation activity to see how well students were able construct compound sentences at the conclusion of our initial lesson.
I recently completed my second foundations of literacy assessment. Again, to monitor and measure my instructional impact on student learning along with a more formal opportunity for them to demonstrate their learning. On the assessment, I included a question where I asked students to identify and explain 1 thing that they had learned about sentence forms, sentence types, or conjunctions since we began studying them. When reading student responses, I noticed that a significant number of students commented that they learned how conjunctions worked to connect ideas within sentences.
The insight I gained from the experience and believe to be worth sharing with other educators is I/we should avoid assuming that students in intermediate grades arrive to our classrooms with a clear knowledge and understanding of how to connect ideas within a sentence using conjunctions or that they even understand the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. I think that at times reviewing and at other times explicitly teaching students how conjunctions function within a sentence serves to positively impact all students learning.
