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Sure, if you think about all the elements of a house, you know what’s needed to make it sound. There’s the foundation, the frame, the plumbing and wiring, etc. But could you actually build it? That’s the idea behind applied grammar. Students are often told what a noun is and what a conjunction is, and they can certainly circle them on an assignment, but can they truly build a strong sentence?

During the edLeader Panel “Enhancing Writing and Communication Through Sentence Building: A Pedagogical Approach,” educators and experts explained how to approach applied grammar to not only develop strong writers but also create overall effective communicators.

Using Grammar Knowledge in Practical Contexts

The focus of applied grammar is straightforward. Instead of students dissecting prewritten sentences with no connection, the students use their grammar knowledge in practical contexts. This means that from the first lesson, they are writing their own copy. In addition, while students are exposed to grammar, such as proper use of punctuation, there isn’t the early emphasis on memorizing rules and terms. So, a student may learn to include a direct object before they know the technical definition.

Starting in kindergarten, sentence building with applied grammar features a detailed progression of research-based methods for developing confident writers. Students begin with writing a core sentence, which is just a noun and an action verb. Using picture prompts, like a man on a ship in an ocean, they identify the people, places, and things in the image. Then, the teacher has students think about what action is happening, for example, standing or watching. Next, the students put that together into a simple sentence (e.g., A sailor watches.).

Even with these early sentences, students learn to capitalize the beginning of the sentence and put a period at the end. They also focus on verbs that show the action instead of using forms of “to be.” It’s okay for students to struggle with coming up with appropriate words. Using Socratic inquiry, teachers lead students to think about the image and its different components. It’s also beneficial for students to share their word lists with the class, since the goal is to have each student take those words and make that first sentence.

Once students have mastered constructing core sentences, the next step is to add in additional concepts, like conjunctions or the W-H questions (who, what, where, when, why, and how). Again, though, this isn’t done with a formal lesson on conjunctions and just having the students insert them into a sentence. They first need to understand the concept of connection.

So, with the image, the teacher might ask students to think about two nouns or two verbs and come up with two sentences. For instance:

• The man stands.
• The man watches.

Having students work through choppy sentence structure lets them internalize how the word and works to make a better sentence:

• A sailor stands and watches.

Following that lesson, teachers can ask students to think about the W-H questions, and they might write:

• A sailor stands and watches the ocean. (This answers the question of “what.”)

Now, the student is learning about prepositions from a practical context. They want to provide more information in their sentences, and they are developing the skills to do that, even if they aren’t starting with memorizing details about prepositions. Then, students work on skills to help them vary sentence structure. It could be two sets of prepositions with a conjunction:

• The sailor stands on the ship and watches the ocean.

Students also focus on adding adjectives:

• The eager sailor stands on the ship and watches the wild ocean.

Teachers can then have them focus on sentence mobility and how pieces of a sentence can move around, adding in sentence interrupters, and including adverbs. Again, as students proceed through the grade levels, they are developing the ability to write increasingly complex sentences.

Even more important, though, is that these skills aren’t confined to ELA grammar assignments. Of course, learning to write strong sentences and how the structure of sentences impacts meaning can help with longer-form writing. However, these lessons also positively impact reading comprehension. From learning how to write a sentence that includes a noun and an action verb, students can more easily identify those parts in a reading passage. And as they incorporate more advanced ideas like similes and metaphors into their writing, they can understand their use in texts. When students learn something on the sentence level, they learn how to make sense of the words in the writing of others.

Learning to write effectively often seems like a difficult task for students because there are so many things to focus on. By starting with the core sentence, applied grammar scaffolds the skills. The method doesn’t ask them to do everything at once, reducing the cognitive load and helping them internalize the skill before the students move on. Words open doors and let students express what they feel and what they need. Through this approach, the ultimate goal is to give children from a young age the tools to communicate.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Enhancing Writing and Communication Through Sentence Building: A Pedagogical Approach, sponsored by Triple C Writing.

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Article by Stacey Pusey, based on this edLeader Panel