Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
Why Care About The Sentence?
Making writing work: Using sentence
combining to develop written syntax
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D.
…
…
State University of New York, Albany NY
Anthony Bashir, Ph.D.
Emerson College, Boston MA
…
Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
…
Architects For Learning, Wellesley MA
Later language development has a basis in literacy
development
Students with LLD have difficulty with literacy
development
d
l
t and
d experience
i
shifts
hift iin th
the rate
t and
d
depth of syntactic and lexical development
The Matthew Effect – Stanovich, K.
Reading may resolve, but writing problems persist into
adulthood – Johnson, D.
What is writing?
…
Language deficits are revealed in writing at
the sub-word, word and sentence level.
† spelling (Apel, 2004)
† punctuation
i (M
(MacArthur,
A h 1999)
† lexical access and development (McGregor,
Newman, Reilly, & Capone, 2002)
† written syntax and morphology (Scott and
Windsor, 2000; Singer, 1997)
Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at the blank sheet of paper,
until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
Gene Fowler
1
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Writing is…
Why consider the sentence…
A process of communication
that uses a conventional graphic system
to convey a message
to a reader
Subject
…
…
Writer
November 2007
Boston, MA
Good writing is a first sentence that
makes a reader want to read a second
sentence and so on
A story can be wrecked by a faulty
rhythm in a sentence (Truman Capote)
Reader
Sentence combining is all about…
…
Meaning can be derailed
by entanglement while
trying to express thoughts
within the structure of a
sentence.
Providing direct, mindful practice in
manipulating and re-writing basic or
“kernel” sentences into more syntactically
y
y
mature or varied forms
“The kind of grass I am thinking of is a
dark green kind. It might be any kind
of grass on the other hand, so long as
the other kind is not the kind I am
thinking of.” (Linkletter, 1962).
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
2
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
First…Perspective
Benefits of SC on writing
Effects go beyond the sentence!
Second…Syntactic Flexibility
…
Reduces the choppy or run-on style
sentences students produce
† Elevates
Learning and manipulating syntactic
options in their own writing Æ considering
readers’ perspective
†
How does my writing sound to others?
†
Is there a better way of saying it?
(can you say REVISING?)
Third…Strengthens Punctuation
…
The logic and role of punctuation
†
how it organizes sentence elements
awareness of and familiarity with syntactic
options
ti
† Increases
willingness to experiment
† Increases syntactic flexibility
…
…
†
how it influences what the reader “sees”
first, second, third, etc.
Provide enough practice to make them
comfortable with various options
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
3
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Example…
…
When I came around the corner, a snake was right
in front of me!
Fourth…Fosters Revision
…
Go beyond surface corrections such as
changing a word or adding punctuation
„
…
A snake was right in front of me when I came
around the corner!
Art Linkletter
Teacher:
“What mistake did I make in this
sentence? It was me who volunteered
to work for him”
Student:
“You should never volunteer!”
November 2007
Boston, MA
May adopt a least effort strategy when
revising sentences: change first what is
easiest to change
Revising
By Maren
In school, revising basically is editing in a different word. All
you do is write your piece skipping lines, than your teacher
will give you and Editing Checklist...Once you are done with
that, you trade papers with another student who is also
finished. Correcting spelling, punctuation and grammar and
perhaps re
re-arranging
arranging a few words is basically all that you
do. Unless you are Simon Cowell and are really mean!
Besides if you really revise your friends work a lot, you
would be completely changing his or her own style or writing.
Revising in my book is when you do your own work and
change things until it is the best paper that you could write
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
4
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
SC requires students to…
November 2007
Boston, MA
Fifth…Decreases Cognitive Load
Check the rhythm and flow by asking themselves
questions:
…
†
Are there too many short, choppy sentences?
†
Are there fragments, run
run-ons,
ons, or ramblings?
†
Do too many start with the same word?
†
Are too many of the same length?
Test their sentences to ensure they are accurately
conveying the intended message.
Decrease demands…
…
Provides content for the student to
Practice expressing ideas without
having to come up with the ideas
„
…
…
Does history repeat itself?
The evolution of instructional pedagogy
Possibility of more than one
"right" answer
Provides a psychologically secure vehicle
for practice.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
5
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Tradition of structured linguistics
…
Christensen (1963) - development of
written syntax
†
†
Short kernel sentences, to which students
attached increasingly sophisticated systems
of initial and final modifying clauses and
phrases
Positive effects on overall writing
November 2007
Boston, MA
Imitation exercises…
Based in classical rhetorical theory and the
assumption that students lack familiarity with
good models of prose style written by superior
writers
… Used the imitation of the syntax of good prose
to improve students’ writing or speaking styles
… Began with direct word for word copying and
patterning of sentences with the gradual
introduction of systematic syntactic change
…
† e.g.,
subordinate clause embedding
Chomksy
“Standing behind imitation as a
teaching method is the simple
p
that an inabilityy to write is
assumption
an inability to design - an inability to
shape effectively the thought of a
sentence, a paragraph, or an essay”
…
…
…
Changed the course of teaching syntax
Students taught
g transformational
grammar where found to reduce errors in
syntax and write more complex sentences
The t-unit emerged as a key measurement
of syntactic maturity
Gruber, 1977, pp. 493-494
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
6
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
…
…
The goal is syntactic maturity
…
Development
p
of increasingly
g y complex
p
thought requires accessibility to an ever
maturing language system to represent
that complexity
† student
can actually think and then write the
Focus on meaning and intention
… Thinking about one’s language - mindfulness
practices - The meta
… Balance between macro and micro goal
requirements - purpose/meaning; word choice
and sequence
… Awareness of syntactic options
… Revision - once again purpose, meaning,
elements
… Perspective taking though decentering
…
By the 80’s objections to structured
linguistic approaches to teaching syntax.
“Sentence combining gives the wrong model for
generating by implying that when we produce a
sentence we are making a package for an
already completed mental act.”
thought
A new perspective
November 2007
Boston, MA
Connors (2000, p. 113) - quoting Elbow:
How to introduce SC
…
…
…
…
Explain that this activity will help the students write
more interesting sentences that sound better to
readers
Suggest
gg that good
g
writers often work with their
sentences to make them sound better
Make it clear that there will usually be more than
one answer to many of the problems and that
mistakes are opportunities for learning
Explain that mistakes are expected, as many of the
students may be experiencing certain sentence
combinations for the first time
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
7
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
Steps in a lesson
…
Begin with whole class discussion
…
Warm-up
† Present
…
† The
† The
…
…
…
…
…
† Ask
boy is happy.
boy is smiling.
Share what your thinking was in performing
the combination and why the new combination
sounds better
Suggest that when combining
sentences you can…
…
kernel sentence clusters on an overhead
student pairs to discuss the kernels and
provide
p
v
examples
p of combinations
† Suggestions provided by several student pairs
can be written down by the teacher, read aloud,
and then discussed for which may “sound” the
best.
† Embrace and encourage group discussions,
feedback, evaluation, reflection, and praise.
Display a simple pair of kernels and model
how to combine them
move words or parts around
delete or change words or the forms of words (i.e.
stand to standing)
add words or parts to the sentences to make them
sound better just as good writers do.
if necessary, circle the words that are the same in
both sentences, and show how redundant
information can be eliminated.
write all the different possibilities on the board, and
explain why some options are better than others
Guided practice
Partner practice sessions: students work
together for several additional kernel
sentence clusters
… Group share/reflection: students write their
responses on a transparency and then
present their versions on the overhead.
… Consider possible solutions for each
problem and discuss freely. Point out the best
options, and discuss why these options are
better
…
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
8
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Keep in mind…
…
…
Even if the student’s writing does not have
many short choppy sentences, it is usually best
to start with combining two simple sentences
What to teach…
…
A part of speech
…
Sentence pattern
Keep the two sentences as similar as possible,
except for the words to be combined
†
Example: “The dog is big. The dog ran fast.”
TYPE 1: Provide A Cue…
November 2007
Boston, MA
…
Rhetorical effect (Style) of sentences
and entire compositions
Work with related sentences
“The Cobra”
…
Combine specified elements
1. The cake was delicious.
The cake was chocolate.
2. The cat chased the ball.
The cat was old.
3. The girl looked at the boy.
She looked sadly.
The snake was lying in the grass.
The snake was a cobra.
A mouse ran by.
The mouse was tiny.
It ran quickly.
It ran all of a sudden.
“The Cobra”
The cobra was lying in
grass. All of a
the g
sudden, a tiny mouse ran
by quickly. Instantly, he
deadly cobra struck.
The cobra struck.
It struck instantly.
The cobra was deadly.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
9
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Intervention: Units of instruction
…
Unit 1 - Insert Adjectives & Adverbs
…
Unit 2 – Insert Adjective & Adverb Phrases
…
Unit 3 – Mobility of phrases
TYPE 2: No Cue
…
…
…
…
…
…
Unit 4 – Use connectors (because, for, and, nor,
but, or, yet, so)
…
Unit 5 – Embed phrases and clauses
…
Unit 6 – Embed and connect
Evaluative Questions for Collaborative
Learning Groups (S)
1. Which of the versions do you think is the best? Why?
2. Which versions seem to handle the material most creatively?
Have any of them changed or added to the original
wording? If so, do the changes make an improvement? Why?
Or why not?
3 Which
3.
Whi h versions
i
offer
ff th
the mostt variety
i t in
i sentence
t
structure?
t t ?
Which have tried the most unusual or interesting structures?
4. Which is the most rhythmically effective version? How is this
effectiveness achieved?
5. Are any of the versions weak in coherence? How might these
flaws be corrected?
6. In what major ways do the versions differ?
November 2007
Boston, MA
…
…
The boy struggled to ride his bike.
The boy is four years old and he is feisty.
The bike is new and it is a light blue color.
The boyy received the bike for his birthday.
y
He struggled for two hours.
However, he was unsuccessful in riding the bike.
The feisty, four-year-old boy struggled
unsuccessfully for two hours to ride his new,
light blue, birthday bike.
Purdue University Writing Lab
Y’all Do It…
The blizzard contained strong winds and heavy snow.
During the snowstorm, the roof of the town library
collapsed. The roof of the post office did the same.
The blowing snow covered the county roads. Schools
cancelled classes due to the white
white-out
out conditions.
conditions
•
The blizzard’s strong winds and heavy snow caused
the roofs of the town library and the post office to
collapse, created white-out conditions on county
roads, and forced schools to cancel classes.
Which begins best?
Which version has the most effective conclusion?
What about the length and complexity of the sentences?
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
Purdue University Writing Lab
10
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
The animal trainer dove into the pool. The trainer
was skilled and athletic. She was excited when she
dove into the pool. She swam with two dolphins. The
dolphins were babies. The dolphins were playful.
The trainer swam with the dolphins for over an hour
hour.
When the trainer swam with the dolphins, she was
happy.
•
November 2007
Boston, MA
How are you doing that?
It’s not just language…
The skilled, athletic animal trainer dove into the pool
excitedly and swam happily for over an hour with two
playful, baby dolphins.
Purdue University Writing Lab
A match made in heaven…
“In both comprehension and production, we must
deal with the problem of how the language system
and the spatial representation system interface.”
LANGUAGE
SPACE
Syntactic meaning arises from SPATIAL context
…
…
…
…
De Vega, et al. (2001). Language and visuo-spatial representations. p. 112
Verb “put” refers to action involving placement
Preposition “in” is associated with objects that have the
property of enclosure or containment or objects that
have an interior
†
Put the spoon in the cup
†
Put the coffee in the cup
“Put” stay constant, but its meaning changes.
“Cup” stays constant, but “in” takes on different
meanings.
De Vega, et al. (2001). Language and visuo-spatial representations.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
11
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
“The mailbox is in front of the
tree.”
…
…
To understand, the hearer must visualize the tree,
the mailbox, and himself because trees don’t have a
“front.”
The mailbox is at some p
point between the speaker
p
and the tree.
November 2007
Boston, MA
MENTAL SPACES…
…
“Mental spaces are…built up in any discourse
according to the guidelines provided by the
linguistic expression.”
…
Mental spaces are context-dependent
…
At that time, my husband was a traveling salesman
he changed professions
OR
† she got a new husband
†
Fauconnier, 1994, Mental Spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language, (p. 16)
“As discourse unfolds, much is going on behind the
scenes: New domains appear, links are forged,
abstract mappings operate, internal structure
emerges and spreads, viewpoint and focus keep
shifting. Everyday talk and commonsense reasoning
are supported by invisible, highly abstract, mental
creations, which grammar helps to guide, but
does not by itself define.”
Fauconnier, 1994, Cognitive Mappings for Language and Thought, p. xxii-xxiii)
Spatial
Meaning arises in “mental spaces”
Semantics
MEANING
Metalinguistics
Syntax
De Vega, M., et al. (2001). In M. Denis, et al.,
Imagery, Language, and Visuo-spatial thinking.
Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis Group.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
12
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
Literature series or classroom books
Making it happen with kids…
How do I create practice activities?
…
…
Reduce a passage into kernel sentences
Reduce well-known stories to kernels and then
have student pairs re
re-write
write
Read new versions aloud and
discuss rhetorical effect
Make up sentences about
…
Classroom activities
…
S h l hhappenings
School
i
…
Lives and interests of the students
themselves
Use students’ own prose…
Practice controlling and manipulating syntactic
options within their actual writing
… Most naturalistic way to engage students at their
level of understanding and need
… Direct resolution of problems associated with a
current piece of writing
… Since sentences build one upon another, students
can explore the effect a change in rhythm or
meaning of one sentence may have upon others
…
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
13
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Journals
…
…
…
November 2007
Boston, MA
DE-combining exercises
Journal starters
…
Mini-assignments
g
to structure transition
times between other tasks
Use famous quotations
Textbooks, newspapers, magazines
Review new
concepts or
reinforce content
while practicing
writing
Early to rise and early to bed make a
male healthy, wealthy, and dead.
(James Thurber)
Early to bed makes a male healthy.
It makes him wealthy.
It makes him dead.
Classroom content – Social Studies
Washington was famous.
He was our first president. (because)
_________________________________________________________________
Washington was a President.
Li l was a President.
Lincoln
P id t (and)
( d)
_________________________________________________________________
They were famous.
They helped many people. (because)
_________________________________________________________________
Lincoln has a big monument.
Washington’s monument is taller. (but)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
14
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Geography
…
CUED
Some continents have rainforests.
They are very warm.
________________________________________
…
UNCUED
The earth has land.
The earth has water.
________________________________________
Tom made a bet with Billy.
Joe made a bet with Billy.
November 2007
Boston, MA
Paragraph Revising Practice
Billy would win 50$.
Billy had to eat 15 worms.
Billy had to eat a worm every day.
Billy had to eat every bit of the worm.
Joe thought Billy would quit.
Billy did not want to quit.
Billy wanted to win the bet.
Billy wanted to win the $50.
Joe tried to trick Billy to stop him from eating worms.
Billy figured out Joe’s tricks.
Billy ate all the worms.
Billy won the bet.
“Bookend” principle
…
…
…
…
Give two SC clusters
Have students add text in between
Story Starters
The City
1. We set up our equipment.
We made come measurements.
The measurements were preliminary.
We prepared ourselves mentally.
Basic act in revising where new connections or
content is added
2. The city lay in the valley.
The city was ravaged.
The valley was treeless.
Smoke still rose in columns.
Directions: include these transformed sentences
(in any order) somewhere in a narrative
3. We stumbled forward.
We surveyed the destruction.
We understood something.
Our training had been top-secret. (WHY)
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
15
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
Base clause expansion
The new president was elected
…
Students modify such starters
to fit their own ideas
Help me expand this with details...
…
…
Arrange transformation in any
order
…
…
D t il handsome,
Details:
h d
ffriendly,
i dl skilled,
kill d debonair,
d b i demanding
d
di
Attributes: a skilled speaker, a sensitive and dedicated
individual, a person whose shoes are untied
Actions: struggled desperately to get responses, helped the
class to understand clause expansion
Home grown SC exercises
…
Analyze student’s writing sample to
determine what skills need to be acquired
†
†
…
adverbial clauses
embedded clauses
Summary writing
Sentence Combining on Steroids
If several students or a whole class lack
the same skill, you can teach these
activities to the entire group
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
16
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
November 2007
Boston, MA
Summarizing Strategy
Include only
FACTS and
REASONS
Make a Telling Brain
Frame
Frame.
Identify what the text is
about (the TOPIC)
TOPIC).
Scan the titles
subtitles,
pictures,
graphs, etc.
Read to
understand in
detail
Number ideas & write
your summary.
summary
Add no more
than ONE
sentence that
summarizes
each paragraph
Combine
sentences to
make it even
shorter
Sea monsters actually exist! Researchers recently found a
humongous,150-million year-old skeleton of a reptile with other
fossils in the Arctic Ocean. This discovery will help researchers
identify similar bones found in other parts of the world.
Writing Next (Graham & Perin, 2007)
Effect size
Meta-analysis of effective writing instruction
.80 = large/strong
.50 = medium/moderate
Writing Strategies
.82
3
Summarization
.82
3
Collaborative writing
.75
Specific product goals
.70
Word processing
Sentence combining
.55
.50
Pre-writing
.32
3
Inquiry activities
.32
Process writing approach
.32
.20 = small/mild Why does summarizing affect writing
quality so strongly?
Reading comprehension
Visualization
… Semantic and syntactic analysis
… Integrating
I t
ti id
ideas
… Semantic and syntactic flexibility
… Representing meaning in a spatial context
… Reinforce and teach the logic of punctuation
… PURPOSEFUL meaning making
…
…
Study of models
.25
Writing for content area learning .23
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
17
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D., Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. & Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention
Work for generalization to
connected writing
A bit of advice…
…
…
Keep the sessions short - no more than 10
to 15 minutes, several times per week for
an extended period.
…
…
Make sessions fun with an atmosphere of
exploration
…
Final practice…
…
Combine the following sentences:
We thank you for coming.
† You came to our presentation.
p
† The presentation is scheduled early in
the morning.
† The morning is a Saturday.
________________________________
________________________________
†
November 2007
Boston, MA
An exercise is only good if it changes actual
writing behaviors
Have students read each others stories and
find examples of sentence combinations taught
or places where they could be used
Help students “see” composing and revising as
sentence combining activities
Resources For Sentence Combining
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
William Strong - Sentence Combining: A composing book. (amazon.com)
Toomey, M.M. (1998). Expanding and Combining Sentences. Marblehead, MA: Circuit
Publications.
Saddler, B., & Asaro, K. (in press). The effects of peer assisted sentence combining practice
on four writers with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal.
Saddler, B.
Saddler
B & Behforooz,
Behforooz B.
B (in press).
press) The effects of sentence combining instruction on the
writing of fourth grade students with learning disabilities. Journal of Special Education.
Saddler, B. (2007). Best practices in teaching sentence construction skills. In S. Graham, C.
MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction. New York: Guilford.
Saddler, B. & Preschern, J. (2007). Improving sentence writing ability through sentencecombining practice. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39, 3, 6-11.
Saddler, B. & Graham, S. (2005). The effects of peer-assisted sentence combining
instruction on the writing of more and less skilled young writers. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 97(1), 43-54.
© 2007 Architects For Learning / All Rights Reserved / www.architectsforlearning.com
18