Syntax Surgery seemed to really make the thinking processes visible for making inferences. Sentence Combining and Sentence Deconstruction work well to help comprehension coherence as well.
Sentence Combining:
I learned about sentence combining from Killgallon and Noden. But again, this work was not woven into what I understood about teaching comprehension. I used it to help students write better.
Here's some permutations and options.
Before reading:
1. Preview the text and select a sentence that is syntactically complex: (These are the examples from the Reading Academy, slide 29.)
He wanted to slide down to the floor and speak to her, but he didn't dare.
She was wearing a white sweater, tweed skirt, white wool socks, and sneakers.
2. Break the sentence into multiple sentences. Write them on sentence strips.
He wanted to slide down to the floor.
He wanted to speak to her.
He didn't dare.
She was wearing a white sweater.
She was wearing a tweed skirt.
She was wearing white wool socks.
She was wearing sneakers.
3. Ask students to use what they know to combine the sentences meaningfully. Have students read their combinations aloud. Discuss the connotations and implications of those combinations. (It doesn't make much difference in the sentence with items in a series, but the way you combine the first example changes the meaning by changing the context/scene.)
4. If you want to explore specific grammatical features such as compounding or subordination, offer those elements on index cards and ask students to use them when they combine the sentences.
5. Reveal the original sentence and discuss. Make predictions about the text.
After Reading:
1. Reveal the original sentence from the text.
2. Ask the students to break the sentence into parts.
3. Discuss the changes, craft, and impact.
4. Have students enter a piece of their writing to find a place where they have choppy or repetitive sentences like the deconstructed sentences. Have students imitate the way the original sentence was combined. Or have students find a place in their writing where they have already included the feature in the original sentence. Have them check for punctuation and logical coherence.
Sentence Deconstruction:
I did NOT know about this strategy. During the reading academy, there were many aha's when we revealed the insights present in what was missing from the sentences. See if you feel the same way. Sometimes kids don't comprehend, because they don't see things that are implied, or that are just common sense in the sequence of events. This is particularly evident when passive voice is used. Who is doing the action?
During Shared Reading:
1. Find a sentence with a syntactic element that is complex. It should be one that you would like like to practice using.
2. Display the original sentence.
3. Model how breaking apart a sentence like this reveals things that are implied, or understood, by the reader.
Original Sentence:
After two days, the cement was dry, and the wooden structures were broken down and taken away, leaving the dried cement blocks.
4. Show students how to deconstruct the ideas present in the original sentence.
two days
the cement was dry
wooden structures were broken down
and taken away
leaving the dried cement blocks
5. Work through each of the ideas, making a complete sentence. Fill in the /who/subject/ or what/verb/ that is missing from each idea.
The workers waited two days. (The workers, the people doing the action, are never mentioned in the original sentence.)
The cement was then dry. (shows the cause and effect relationship of why they waited)
The workers [broke] down the wooden structures.
They [the workers] [took] the wooden structures away.
They [the workers[ [left] the dried cement blocks.
The dam was finished. Implied.
It ASTONISHES me how much is missing in the sentence. No wonder kids have trouble teasing out the meaning and coming to the inference implied by the sentence.
This process won't need to be done every time, but wouldn't it make you feel better to know that nothing's wrong with you when you read? Wouldn't it make you feel better to realize specifically what the teacher means when she asks you to read between the lines? The stuff in RED makes that silly statement mean something that you can use when you read. You can break the sentence into idea units and then fill in what's missing. This kind of thinking is a process we all go through, but deconstructing the sentence and filling in the missing pieces like this makes that process concrete and visible instead of ephemeral and unattainable for those who struggle.
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