Early Writing: - Sentence Building - Paragraph Writing

Prepared by : PISMP TESL 1 SEM 4 Akashah bin Osman Chai Xiao Ling Hema a/p Sriranga Pillai Ng Pin Ting Ong Pei Shan

Early Writing
During this stage of writing, a child begins to develop basic understanding of the mechanics of writing.
Effective writing requires a sound understanding of the mechanics of good writing. A useful analogy in thinking about the mechanics of writing is that of driving a car. Important information includes the various components of the car (parts of speech in writing) how these components function together (the rules of grammar) what is needed to keep the car moving along, stopping and starting in the right places, and pausing whenever it is necessary (punctuation)

Sentence construction and paragraph writing

An integral part of writing is the ability to construct sentences and paragraphs. It is important for a teacher or parent to teach child to write using systematic methods and various activities. The main principles in teaching children to write are : provide meaningful context for writing - create opportunities for children to write, examples birthday card to daddy, thank you card to grandma, writing shopping lists, copying food labels give children insights into writing - create an awareness and develop a deeper understanding of the various forms and functions of writing

 develop childrens curiosity and thinking skills - encourage the desire to put their thoughts into writing for example, a child writes a simple poem expressing his sadness that the local council has cut down his favourite tree in the park - create in them the curiosity to know the consequences of their writing for example the above childs poem gets published in the local press resulting in an explanation by the council that the tree was old and termite-infested , therefore it was cut down. Subsequently a new tree was planted to replace the old tree. read to children - reading aloud and participatory reading of stories provide rich resources for children to develop ideas to write as well as increasing their vocabulary range. Adults (teachers, grandparents, parents) need to set aside time and take the effort to read to children.

What is a sentence?
A sentence is a set of words that contain: a subject (what the sentence is about, the topic of the sentence) a predicate (what is said about the subject) Look at this simple example: <----- sentence ----->subject +predicate +verb You speak English.

Why Sentence Structure Matters?

Just as a good driver uses different gears, a good writer uses different types of sentences in different situations: a long complex sentence will show what information depends on what other information; a compound sentence will emphasize balance and parallelism; a short simple sentence will grab a reader's attention; a declarative sentence will avoid any special emotional impact; an exclamatory sentence, used sparingly, will jolt the reader; an interrogative sentence will force the reader to think about what you are writing; and an imperative sentence will make it clear that you want the reader to act right away.

The Simple Sentence

The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence, which contains only one clause. Melt! Ice melts. The ice melts quickly. The ice on the river melts quickly under the warm March sun. Lying exposed without its blanket of snow, the ice on the river melts quickly under the warm March sun. It is the first kind which children learn to speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people of all ages.

The Compound Sentence

A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses(or simple sentences) joined by co-ordinating conjunctions like for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (FANBOYS). Simple: Canada is a rich country. Simple: Still, it has many poor people. Compound: Canada is a rich country, but still it has many poor people. Small children learn to use them early on to connect their ideas and to avoid pausing (and allowing an adult to interrupt): Eg: Today at school Mr. Moore brought in his pet rabbit, and he showed it to the class, and I got to pet it, and Kate held it, and we coloured pictures of it, and it ate part of my carrot at lunch, and ...

The Complex Sentence

A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which. A complex sentence contains clauses which are not equal. Simple: My friend invited me to a party. I do not want to go. Compound: My friend invited me to a party, but I do not want to go. Complex : Although my friend invited me to a party, I do not want to go.

Teaching children to write sentences can be difficult because of the abstract concept of the two parts of a sentence the subject and predicate. Children mistakenly use sentence fragments in their writing because that is how people commonly speak. Modeling proper sentence structure and activities that help students understand necessary parts of a sentence will teach children to write them correctly.

Exercise: Sentence or not a sentence?

One of the first things I try to teach my students is to recognize sentences. They learn that sentences express a complete idea. Have each student make two cards (one will say SENTENCE and the other will say NOT A SENTENCE). The teacher then reads phrases aloud. If its a sentence, the children must raise the correct card. If its not a sentence, they must raise the other card.

What is a paragraph?
A paragraph is a series of sentences that are about one topic. A paragraph is made up of three parts: a topic sentence(expresses the main idea of the paragraph), supporting ideas(Details give writing flavor), and a clincher(summarizes the main ideas or feelings in a paragraph and lets the reader know when the paragraph is done).

Hamburger Paragraph Writing

The top bun is your topic sentence, and the bottom bun is your concluding sentence. What is in between are the details supporting the topic sentence (thesis), and whatever comes after the lettuce, tomato, and burger are an example or examples to support each detail.

References
http://tpfox.blogspot.com/2013/03/hamburgerparagraph-writing.html http://www.nacc.edu/englishdept/wtg-perfectparagraph.htm http://www.powermediaplus.com/furtherlearnin g/pdfs/cl958-03cvxws.pdf http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergram mar/bldsent.html http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergram mar/paragrph.html