'Putting sentences together' tutor notes

The aim of the 'putting sentences together' topic area is to revise how to put complete simple sentences together into longer, compound sentences using conjunctions. Comma splicing is also covered here.
We recommend that students look at the commas and making simple sentences sections of the site, before tackling this module.

How does this tie in with the curriculums?

• England
  Rs/L1.1 - 'Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge ... to predict meaning, try out plausible meanings and to read and check for sense.'
  Ws/L1.1 - 'write in complete sentences ...understand that sentences can be joined with a wider range of conjunctions than 'as', 'and', 'but'. E.g. 'if', 'so', 'while', 'though', 'since', 'when' ...'
  'understand that complete sentences should not be strung together with commas (comma splicing) but should be split into separate sentences or be correctly joined...'
  
• Wales
  As England.
• Northern Ireland
  As England.
• Scotland
  See www.aloscotland.com for details of the Scottish curriculum.

In the Skillswise module you'll find:

Putting sentences together - games
There are now 3 games in this section. These games are very similar in structure to the games in the 'Making simple sentences' module. In game 1 learners simply spot the compound sentence and in game 2 they chose the correct ending for the compound sentence. Both these games pull in sentences each time from a 'pot' of 50 sentences, so the game can be played several times before encountering all the same sentences.
Game 3 is a little different as it practises 'drag and drop', where learners need quite good mouse control to 'drag' items from a list and 'drop' them into the correct place in a text. In this game learners can chose from 6 different texts to drop in commas, conjunctions and full-stops.
Please do tell us what you think of these games.

Putting sentences together - quiz
3 levels of quiz to test compound sentence skills. The learner can choose their level. Level A asks learners to spot the joining word, level B asks learners to choose the best joining word to fill the gap and level C asks learners to choose from joining words, commas and full-stops and concentrates on how different joining words can effect meaning.
We have now put in place a system that will allow the student to print out a certificate if they score 50% or more in the quiz. This will appear as a link on the results page - click on the link and the certificate will appear in a new window. Learners can write their name in once the certificate is printed.

Putting sentences together - factsheets
There are two factsheets in this section. They both give hints and tips and examples for using conjunctions to bring two sentences together into a longer, compound sentence.
The first factsheet looks at the most common conjunctions (and, although, as, because, but, if, or). The second looks at some less common conjunctions that are specified in level 1 of the curriculum (see below for curriculum references).

Putting sentences together - worksheets
There are four printable worksheets with answersheets in this section. The first looks at the most common conjunctions, numbers two and three look at using some less common conjunctions and worksheet four deals with comma splicing.
Worksheets are fairly easy to add, so if you have a good idea for a worksheet that practises using conjunctions tell us about it!

Technical help:

To get the most out of this topic area you need the following 'plug-ins':

• Flash
  The game in this topic section uses Flash. This is free to download and should only take a few minutes. You can follow the BBC WebWise instructions to download it to your machine.
  Find out more.

If you don't have Flash the same learning points are covered in the quiz and in the worksheets and factsheets.
If you are new to the web, why not try the BBC WebWise online course, Becoming WebWise? It's free, you can do it in your own time from any computer and it will take you through everything you need to know to use the web successfully in your teaching.
Get WebWise.

You can find out more about the technical requirements for Skillswise in our Help - Technical Information section.

Taking it further:

With Skillswise:
Don't forget to check out the Skillswise Lesson plans and Teaching inspirations areas for more ideas about teaching sentences.

On the web:
Here's a few suggestions of other places on the web that you might find useful resources that you can adapt for teaching compound sentences.

• BBC Bitesize - Key Stage 3
  Exercise designed for Key Stage 3 school pupils, but the context is adult enough to use with adult students if you print out the page and remove references to 'Key Stage 3'.
  There is another printable worksheet on this Key Stage 3 site which may also be helpful, covering both compound and complex sentences. Learners have to fill the gaps in a story from a selection of given conjunctions.
• Conjunctions quiz
  This is a French based site designed for EFL students, but it is written entirely in English and has a large selection of free activities to choose from.
  The conjunctions quiz is multiple-choice, with immediate feedback. Learners have to choose the most appropriate way of linking the sentences / clauses given.
• Another quiz!
  Another ESL site, this time created by the Internet TESL journal. Loads of free activities. The conjunctions quiz practises a lot of the conjunctions covered in this module, but it might be better used as a printed resource as it isn't actually interactive!
• Hunt the conjunction
  A bizarre little tool that allows you to search for examples of conjunctions in places like the Bible, Agatha Christie stories and some newspaper and business publications.
  Type a conjunction into the text box that says 'search string', then choose your 'corpus' (e.g. Agatha Christie), then hit the 'search for concordances' button.
• Time for a song
  If you need cheering up, this should do it. This is a song from SchoolHouse Rock, a series of educational programmes from ABC television in the USA. The song is all about conjunctions! The lyrics are here and if you scroll right to the bottom you'll see a tiny link saying 'conjunction junction wav' - click on this to hear some of the song.

Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other websites.

Do you know of any great online resources for practising compound sentences? Tell us about them!