Resource for teaching fronted adverbials: 'Something about a Bear' by Jackie Morris

‘Where the water churns with salmon, thick and rich with leaping fishes, there the Brown Bear stands and catches the wild king of the river.’

What a poetic opening this is!  Of course, it is just the rich, beautiful language we have come to expect from Jackie Morris and, once again, she has provided teachers with a quality text for exemplifying certain sentence structures. 

This book could be used to develop understanding around many aspects of grammar, but here we are going to focus on fronted adverbials.  Below are some examples from the text which could be used in the following ways:

1. Using Talk for Writing techniques, children can learn the patterns of the text and innovate/invent their own sentences from these. 
2. Discussing the fronted adverbials will also help children understand this grammatical feature.  For example, is the adverbial position filled with one phrase, more than one phrase, or a clause?
3. In some sentences, there is subject-verb inversion after the fronted adverbial and children could use this pattern for a more literary style.  This structure can be used when the subject is a noun (not a pronoun) and there is an initial place adverbial (position or direction).

I would not discuss sentence structure beyond points 2 and 3 above, since many of the sentences have lengthy, sophisticated constructions and there is no need to understand how these are put together to appreciate the beauty of the language.

On the shore the young bears watch him; still others swim …  (Fronted adverbial phrase)

In the wildest lands of China, in the forests and the mountains, lives the white-and-black Giant Panda, hidden from the world. (Power of 3 opening: 3 adverbials followed by subject-verb inversion and a final, non-finite, adverbial clause.  Note that the third listed adverbial has the preposition ‘in’ omitted for succinctness.)  This would be a great structure for children to imitate, innovate and invent their own.

Through the forest, hunting termites and the honey hives of bees, where the mangos and the fruit trees grow in plenty, walks the shaggy-coated Sloth Bear.  (This is a complicated structure, with two clauses placed between the fronted adverbial and the inverted subject-verb.  The basic sentence is Through the forest walks the shaggy-coated Sloth Bear.  This is split by a non-finite adverbial clause ‘hunting termites and the honey hives of bees,’ and a finite adverbial clause ‘where the mangos and the fruit trees grow in plenty’. Children learning to use fronted adverbials do not need to understand these two clause structures grammatically, but it is useful for the teacher to be aware of them. 

With her cubs aboard her strong back she keeps them safe from danger, for there are tiges in the forests, and wild dogs and leopards too. (Fronted adverbial phrase)

Up in the crowns of tall trees, in the softest nests of green leaves, the Spectacled Bear sunbathes through the heat of the day.  (Two adverbial phrases fronting the sentence.)

By dawn light and dusk light the great Moon Bear of Asia hunts and searches, for insects, and for noney, nuts and berries.  (Fronted adverbial created by a preposition + two noun phrases linked with ‘and’.)

Where the forest meets the snowline she watches from her bear’s nest for the wild leopard of the mountains, who hunts the higher ground.  (Fronted adverbial clause)

In the cool of night he searches…  (Fronted adverbial phrase)

Besides the lakes and in the forests Black Bear fishes in the water, …  (Two adverbial phrases linked with ‘and’ fronting the sentence.)

You will note that many of Jackie Morris’s fronted adverbials are not punctuated with commas, unless embedded clauses or phrases follow.  For more about punctuating fronted adverbials, click here.

The Ice Bear by Jackie Morris: developing synonyms with KS2 children

In addition to the ideas for developing sentence level structures using 'The Ice Bear', this is also a great text for developing synonyms with children. 

In the story, the boy finds amber stones and follows the trail of these, collecting them for his mother.  Jackie Morris uses a variety of synonyms for these stones.

• a pale shard of shining light
• a piece of amber, smoothed by the oceans, coloured, clear and beautiful, ike a fragment of fire, washed ashore from a far-off place.
• a trail of shining amber
• bright jewels
• fallen stars
• each shining piece
• the brightest and the best
• the treasure
• the smooth beads of amber
• the amber treasure
• the amber

Find an object for children to describe in different ways.  How many different synonyms can they create?

Developing KS2 sentence level writing using 'The Ice Bear' by Jackie Morris

This version of an Inuit myth is another beautiful book by Jackie Morris.  As always, her illustrations are stunning and the story is captivating; however, as a teaching and learning text, it can be used in many different ways.  The rich language will help children improve their description and widen their vocabulary, the story provides opportunities for book talk on many different levels  and the variation in sentence structures make this a valuable text for developing different aspects of writing, dependent on the children’s needs.

Below are some of the grammatical elements you could teach from this book, together with the relevant Sentence Toolkit tools which you can use with these.  Under each element, I have listed a few examples from the text.  Which element you choose to teach will depend on what aspect of writing you want the children to develop, based on their identified next steps.

Expanded noun phrases which provide wonderful description  (Sentence Toolkit: tape measure)

There are many examples in this text of noun phrases using pre-modification only (where the main noun is in final position in the phrase).

• his bone-tipped spear
• thin powder snow
• her golden white fur

The text is very rich in expanded noun phrases which are post-modified with prepositional phrases.  I have emboldened the main verb in the following examples:

• the scent of snow
• a pale shard of shining light
• the smooth beads of amber
• a hiss of hot breath

There are also examples of noun phrases expanded with relative clauses.  Some of these are introduced by the relative pronoun; however in some examples the relative pronoun is elided and the clause starts with a past participle. 

• the great white bear who had held them close in the blue ice cave (relative pronoun ‘who’)
• the place where the boy had sunk to his knees (relative pronoun ‘where’)
• the bear that had taken the life of his child (relative pronoun ‘that’)
• a bundle wrapped in a scrap of white fur (the main noun ‘bundle’ is post-modified by a subordinate structure ‘wrapped in a scrap of white fur’.  This non-finite past participle is in relative clause position and could have been written ‘which was wrapped …’)
• fingers, clawed by the cold (the subordinate relative clause could have been written ‘which were clawed by the cold’)

Similes (Sentence Toolkit: medium size paintbrush)

• like a raven’s wing
• like a fragment of fire

Adverbial phrases of where, how and when  (Sentence Toolkit: saw)

• high into the darkness of winter, over the frozen sea (this could be considered as 3 where adverbials together: high, into the darkness of winter, over the frozen sea)
• on the hard-packed snow (where)
• over his footprints (where)
• with a mittened hand (how)
• like a flame on the cold white (how)
• in the beginning of time (when)
• in the dark months (when)

Compound sentences  (Sentence Toolkit: glue gun)

Compound sentences in this text vary the sentence structures used and create different effects.  For example, the first sentence of the book is a compound structure which links two main points, both of equal importance:

• In the beginning of time people and animals lived together on the earth and there was no difference between them.

Other compound sentences vary pace or build tension in the text:

• The storm came in fast but his dogs moved faster. 
• She dropped the treasure and it lay like a flame on the cold white.  The boy moved to take it, and in flew the bird. 
• He walked over ice ridges and down into valleys. 
• The cold clung to him, it gnawed at him and fear began to suck at his bones. (a list of main clauses in a compound structure)

Subordinate clauses.  There are examples in this text of the four subordinate structures used to create complex sentences (underlined).  (Sentence Toolkit: all four spanners and also the comma screwdriver where the subordinate clause starts the sentence)  

• Into this world they were born, in the dark months, when the cold and the wind turned water to stone. 
• As he reached out a hand to the biggest of the bears(,) the amber treasure fell to the snow.  (Although authors do not always punctuate according to the convention we are teaching in schools, children should learn to use a comma when the sentence starts with a subordinate clause.) 
• As he stooped to pick up the brightest and best, in flew the raven and snatched it away. (As with many of the sentences in this book, sentence structures are complicated with a mix of compound and complex.  I would be using these with more able writers to vary their compositions.)
•  Maddened by grief(,) he followed the trail of the running bears, a river of paw prints on the frozen sea. (The subordinate clause starts the sentence and is introduced by the non-finite past participle.  Again when innovating sentences like these, children will need to demarcate the clause boundary with a comma where the subordinate clause starts the sentence.) 
• He followed the trail, picking up each shining piece, cupping them in his mittens. (2 subordinate clauses introduced by the non-finite present participle.)
•  She held them close to keep them warm in the blue ice cave that was their world. (Infinitive used to introduce subordinate clause.)

     With level 5 and 6 writers I would also use this text to explore the way authors use structures that are not complete sentences to create effects.  Although the phrases used have a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end, unless they have a finite verb, they are not complete sentences in English.  However, many examples can be found that ‘break the rule’ and Jackie Morris uses these to great effect.

• So small.  (Adjective phrase)
• His last hunt before true winter.  (Expanded noun phrase)
• Two eyes, black as midwinter. (Expanded noun phrase)
• Dark hair like a raven’s wing. (Expanded noun phrase)
• Two hands, fingers clawed by the cold. (Expanded noun phrase)
• A child. (Noun phrase)
• A piece of amber, smoothed by the oceans, coloured, clear and beautiful, like a fragment of fire, washed ashore from a far-off place.  (Amber is the main noun and this is post-modified by the three relative clauses starting with past participles ‘smoothed’, ‘coloured’ and ‘washed’.  Although these three verbs are used, since they are non-finite, there is no main clause and the whole structure is an expanded noun phrase.  With support, more able writers will be able to see the pattern of participles and use this structure themselves with an element of understanding about how it is formed.  Others will be able to imitate the pattern.)

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link.

Developing punctuation using an authentic text - Ask Dr K Fisher about Animals

I’ve been asked to recommend a text that a teacher could use to develop children’s understanding and use of punctuation, beyond full stops. 

‘Ask Dr K Fisher about Animals’ by Claire Llewellyn is a great text to develop a range of punctuation marks; depending on where your punctuation focus lies, it can be used in different ways.  Obviously, when you are teaching these punctuation marks, this will be alongside teaching of the grammatical feature with which they are used.  For example commas within lists of adjectives in a noun phrase, or commas/dashes/brackets to enclose additional information, writer's comment, etc.

There are other books in the ‘Ask Dr. Fisher’ series, but in this text a teacher could explore the use of the following punctuation (page references for examples provided):

• question marks: 4, 6, 10, 12, 16, 22, 24, 28 
•  exclamation marks: 7, 8, 9, 13, 18, 19, 23, 28, 29
• commas in lists: 4, 6, 11, 12, 15, 18, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31 (not page 10 as these clauses are comma spliced, but you could make a teaching point and correct with use of semi-colons!)
• commas to demarcate clauses: 5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 19, 20 (for relative clause), 21, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, 31 (relative clauses)
•  commas surrounding additional information/embedded clauses: 7, 11, 13, 17, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31
• apostrophes for contractions: 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 22, 23, 24, 28
•  hyphens: 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 30, 31
•  dashes: 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 25, 29
•  brackets: 10, 13, 15, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 (some of these used to support text structure and organisation (layout of text), rather than use within a sentence)
•  colons: 4, 13, 14 & 15 (for list), 19, 22, 28 (the colons used within sentences in the text -as opposed to those introducing a list - are excellent examples.  The information after the colon elaborates or explains the statement before.)
• apostrophes for possession: 8, 9, 29

The only punctuation I wouldn't use would be the Oxford commas before 'and', which are used occasionally in this text.  It's a comma used traditionally by printers/editors at OUP and can be used to clarify meaning in some long, complicated lists of clauses.  However, it isn't really needed in this book to clarify meaning.

I may have missed a few, but I hope there's enough here to be going on with!

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link. 

More dragons: developing sentence structure using online texts

If you’re running with the theme of dragons, then a great online text is ‘A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons’.  Containing extracts from the book, this online resource contains a number of pages which provide descriptions and details about some of the deadly dragons. 

I would use this text to help children develop:

·         Description (linked to adjective, simile and noun phrase tools in the Sentence Toolkit).  This could range from adding one or two adjectives to describe an attribute, to building up more subtle descriptions, e.g. ‘all shades of brown’; ‘as black as your darkest nightmare’.  It could also be used to help the children understand the difference between description suitable for narrative and the more precise description used in non-fiction texts (although this is still a fantasy based text, so contains some narrative-like description in places).

·         Punctuation (screwdrivers in the Sentence Toolkit).  There are some good examples in this text demonstrating correct use of commas in lists and to demarcate clauses, but also use of hyphens, brackets and dashes.  However, there is perhaps rather more use of ellipses than you would want to see in your children’s writing.

Once you have investigated the dragons with the children and explored the sentence structures and punctuation you want to develop, children could design their own dragons.  These could then be used to compile a group or class book of more deadly dragons.

Poppy has designed her dragon below.  I would use a picture such as this for shared writing, so that I could model writing each stage of the description and the detailed paragraph.

 

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link.

Tell Me A Dragon: teaching sentence structures through a great text

Tell Me A Dragon, by Jackie Morris, is a beautiful book.  It has the most wonderful illustrations, which will both support and motivate children to write more descriptively, and the structure of the sentences on each page provide children with models for writing which they can imitate or innovate. 

How you use the text will depend on the year group you are teaching and the grammatical features you have identified for development with your pupils.   I've provided a few examples from the text for each grammatical element, together with the relevant Sentence Toolkit tools which you could use with these.  Once children have understood how to use the structure and had fun with writing their own examples, they could perhaps produce a class or group book, writing sentences to describe their own dragons.

Noun phrases which provide beautiful description, using both pre- and post-modification of the noun  (Sentence Toolkit: tape measure)

• the silver moon-path,  (premodification only)
• the secret music of the wind (postmodified with prepositional phrase)
• whisper-thin wings of rainbow-hues (wings are pre-modified with 'whisper-thin' and post-modified with 'of rainbow hues')

Adjectival phrases (Sentence Toolkit: large paint brush)

•  snaggle-toothed, fierce and brave
• jade-winged and amber-eyed with a tail as long as a river (the adjectival phrases is extended by adding a prepositional phrase introduced by 'with'.  Within this prepositional phrase, the noun phrase 'a tail' is also post-modified with a simile.  The children don't need to analyse the structure in a technical way, but the model is fantastic for imitating and innovating.  E.g. My dragon is steely-scaled and stony-eyed with spikes as hard as granite.)  

  Similes (Sentence Toolkit: medium size paintbrush)

• as big as a village
• as long as a river

Simple adverbial phrases of where and when, suitable as models for writers beginning to use adverbials (Sentence Toolkit: saw)

• across the sky
• in the waves
• all day
• from far away and long ago
• around my pillow
• into my dreams

Subordinate clauses.  There are two subordinate structures I would use this text for.  (Sentence Toolkit: spanners - the conjunction spanner and the -ed spanner - and also the comma screwdriver) 

If I were developing subordination of time (Year 2), the model  I would use would be:

• When she laughs, petals ride on her breath. 

 Introducing the use of 'when' to start the sentence, will lead to the children automatically creating subordinate structures.  Alongside this, you and the class should note how the comma has been used to separate the two parts (clauses, but you wouldn't be using that term in Year 2 necessarily) of the sentence.  Children could think of other things their dragon might do, e.g. When he snarls, When she flies, and go on to complete the sentence with a main clause.

If I were developing other ways of creating complex sentences, in order to vary sentence structure, I would use the  model below.  I would use this with Year 5 and 6 pupils who were already using conjunctions for subordinate clauses:

• Curled around my ear, my dragon sings sweet songs and tells me strange stories from far away and long ago.
• Curled around my pillow...

This structure uses a past participle followed by a prepositional phrase to introduce the subordinate clause.  Children could use this pattern to develop their own dragon sentences.  Where else could the dragon be curled?  Around my arm, neck, shoulder? What other verbs could be used here?  Children could brainstorm their own past participles: wrapped (around my arm), rested (on my shoulder), draped (over my shoulder), hidden (under my hat).  Have some fun with it and get children used to the structure.  Even if they don't know the terminology, they will be able to start sentences with the pattern and will, therefore, be varying their construction of complex sentences.

Punctuation (Sentence Toolkit: screwdrivers, hyphens)
The text provides good models of punctuation, in particular use of commas to mark phrases and clauses and hyphens to create compound constructions to modify/describe nouns.  For example: snaggle-toothed, jade-winged, amber-eyed, sea-dragon, ice-dragon.

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link.

Survival at 40°C Above: developing sentence structures with KS2 children

I've recently discovered Debbie S Miller's book: Survival at 40°C Above.  This book would be ideal for linking cross-curricular topic work on habitats with literacy, as it is beautifully written and exemplifies many of the sentence elements that we would want to introduce and develop with children.  As soon as I started reading it, I could hear the mellifluous tones of David Attenborough in my head, guiding me through the Simpson Desert in the literary, non-fiction style that has become a genre of its own.  I haven't read any of Debbie Miller's other books yet, but am looking forward to Survival at 40°C Below!

With a text as good as this, it would be possible to develop many aspects of children sentence level writing but, of course, a literacy unit would probably only focus on one or two of these at most.  There are excellent models of the following elements; I've provided a few examples from the text for each one, together with the relevant Sentence Toolkit tools which you could use with these.

Noun phrases which provide beautiful description as well as precise vocabulary.  Although the content is non-fiction, these phrases help create the literary style of this text.   (Sentence Toolkit: tape measure)

• This vast, rippled desert (premodification only)
• the tan coloured skin of this large lizard (postmodified with prepositional phrase)
• the long, wind shaped dunes that twist and turn across Australia (postmodified with relative clause)

 Powerful verbs and verb phrases (Sentence Toolkit: hammers)

• The goanna detects the shadow of this predator with the tiny sensor eye on top of his head and immediately races to hide in a tuft of spinifex.
• Darting across the sand, this striped lizard discovers a perfect spot to bask in the sunlight that also offers a good lookout for possible predators.
• Triops erupt from this new source of life.

Adverbial phrases of where, when and how (Sentence Toolkit: saw)

•  By noon the sand is blistering hot beneath a cloudless sky.
• During this scorching time, the goanna moves to a grove of gidgee trees.
• Each shiny strand acts like a tiny mirror.

Subordinate clauses.  There are a variety of these - adverbial and relative, using conjunctions and non-finite forms, particularly the present participle.  The text exemplifies how subordinate clauses can be placed in different positions in the sentence for effect.  (Sentence Toolkit: spanners for adverbial clauses and tape measure for relative clauses)

• As the night sky melts away, the Simpson Desert horizon glows like a campfire. (adverbial, finite)
• Flicking his tongue, the goanna laps up a good meal of protein. (adverbial, non-finite)
• Seeds lie dormant, lacking enough moisture to sprout. (adverbial, non-finite)
• Some of the kangaroos lick their arms and paws to cool themselves. (adverbial, non-finite)
•  The moon casts soft light on new seedlings that will turn dust bowls into lush carpets of plants. (relative)

Punctuation (Sentence Toolkit: screwdrivers)
The text provides good models of punctuation, in particular brackets and commas to mark phrases and clauses.

To see other texts recommended on this blog, click here.  And for more Texts that Teach, check out this link.

Developing sentences with young children

I spent a great day with colleagues yesterday, considering books that we could use in literacy lesson.  One of my favourites was 'What Happens When...' by Delphine Chedru.

Teachers often ask me how to help children understand where full stops should be used. Well, where do we put a full stop?  At the end of a sentence, of course!  But that's not much help to children if they don't understand what a sentence is.  Where is the end of the sentence?  Well, it's where the full stop is!  When I use Excel, I sometimes get a message telling me I have a circular reference; the messages we give to children can also set up confusing loops in their understanding. So, how to we help children grasp the concept of a sentence - before they even start to write?

Sentences in English are all about the verb: something happens or just is.  We must be careful that 'doing' word does not become synonymous with 'verb' in children's minds, because the verb could also be a 'being' or 'having' word.  I think it's quite interesting that the verbs we use seem to fit into categories of the primary auxiliary verbs we use in our language (to be, to do and to have).  Do let me know if you think of other categories though!

We need to create sentences with children and discuss them so that children can understand their structure and the function of the words used, but this needs to be an enjoyable experience and foster a curiosity about their language.  'What Happens When...' is a wonderful book for developing sentences to discuss with the children.  On each double page spread there is a question and a picture of an object (great for developing questions too!)  The picture then unfolds to another double page picture which portrays one possible answer.  I would use the book in this way.

Look at the first question with the children: 'What happens when my balloon floats up, out of the zoo...?' Discuss what is happening in the picture.  What is the balloon doing?  What is happening? What is floating?  Where is it floating? What is the bird doing?  Where is the balloon?  Encourage them to answer in sentences by prompting for more information if they just answer 'floating' or 'in the sky'. Use specific praise for 'a good sentence'.  It's important to use the terminology 'sentence' with them as a matter of course, so they get used to hearing it alongside good examples and their own successes.

Ask the children what might happen next to the balloon.  Encourage them to answer in sentences and ask questions about the sentence.  For example, they might say 'The bird will pop the balloon.' This could lead to questions such as 'What will the bird do?', 'Who will pop the balloon? or 'What will the bird pop?'.  This gets the children used to talking about their sentences, but also develops an awareness of subject, verb and object (although, of course, not using this terminology).  Encourage peer questioning about sentences too.

When they have come up with some suggestions, turn the page and see what the author suggests.  This next picture could lead to further sentences and discussion.  For young children, this would make an ideal guided activity.

You could develop the exercise further to model writing one of the sentences and show children that, after a sentence with one thing 'happening', we need to add a full stop.  I would use the full stop screwdriver from the Sentence Toolkit to model the action of fixing my full stop at the end of my oral sentence and encourage them to use this at the end of each of their oral sentences.


The acting out of sentences with a mimed full stop added, followed by discussion about that sentence, can be incorporated into many different lessons.  For those of you who teach phonics, this discussion about what is going on in sentences is the grammatical equivalent of oral blending and segmenting.  These sorts of activities with children help them to create oral sentences, which can be gradually extended as their writing develops.  It's always good to 'test out' a sentence orally before writing, to see how it sounds and what sense it makes.  An early start in this will help writing composition later.  And the discussion about what is happening, and how many things are happening, in their sentences before they use their full stop screwdriver should help reduce the number of sentences which all run into each other, with no punctuation in sight!