Learning Objective

Take Cover

Teacher sheet

30 Rule-breakers

Teacher input required / Medium/some involvement
Framework substrand / 9.2 using grammar accurately and appropriately
Lesson level / C
National Curriculum ref. / 2.3u use grammar accurately in a variety of sentence types
2.3j vary sentence structure for interest, effect and subtleties of meaning

Learning objective

To experiment with the rules of sentence grammar for effect in writing.

Resources required

Student instruction sheet, student resource sheet, lined paper/exercise books, a few thesauruses.

Lesson guidance

· Starter – pairs read the passage, underline the verbs and discuss the possible meanings of any unfamiliar words. Join into fours and share ideas. (10 mins)

· Development – students work in fours to read aloud the information on different types of sentences, find examples of four types, then identify where grammatical rules are broken in the extract. They then amend the extract to make it grammatically correct and discuss the impact of the different versions. This should give them an insight as to why Dickens made certain stylistic choices. Produce own piece of writing using the extract as a model.
(25–35 mins)

· Plenary – in groups again, share examples of their own grammatically incorrect sentences, taking it in turns to give examples of each. The rest of the group has to state how to ‘correct’ the sentences. Students then share own writing by reading aloud their descriptive pieces. (10 mins)

Extension activities / notes for gifted and talented students

These students could write a similar passage in a specific genre (e.g. horror), using sentence fragments and simple sentences for effect.

Student instructions

30 Rule-breakers

Learning objective

To investigate how to break the rules of grammar to write interesting descriptions.

Success criteria

By the end of the lesson I will have:

· read and discussed the meaning of an extract from a novel by Charles Dickens

· identified where Dickens breaks the rules of grammar

· changed the extract to comply with the conventional rules of grammar

· drafted my own descriptive piece that breaks the rules for effect.

Warm up

1. Working with a partner, read this extract and underline all of the verbs.

2. Discuss what you think any unfamiliar words might mean. (As long as you can work out a rough idea of the meaning, you will have enough understanding of the passage to be able to do the work.)

3. Join up with another pair and compare your answers to 1 and 2.

Take Cover 30 Rule-breakers

Your main task!

Part A – analysis

1. Refer to the student resource sheet ‘Types of sentences’. Take it in turns to read aloud the information and examples about the four types of sentences. Identify the sentence fragment in the extract from Bleak House.

a) Rewrite the fragment so that it becomes a simple sentence.

b) Share your sentence with the other members of your group and make a list of the verbs you used. Brainstorm as many more verbs as you can think of that might be suitable to describe the movement, feeling, appearance, position, state etc. of fog so that you aren’t relying only on the verb ‘is’. (Use a thesaurus if you find this really difficult.)

3. Identify any other sentences in the Bleak House extract which seem to be grammatically incorrect and indicate where and how you think each one needs to be changed so that it becomes a proper complex sentence with a main clause that can stand alone.

4. Working in your original pairs, amend the extract (by writing on the sheet) so that it is grammatically correct. Swap your amended version with the other pair in your group. Discuss which sentences you think are most effective … what do you think of the original Dickens’ version and why might he have wanted to break the rules of grammar? What is the effect of using the present (e.g. ‘flows’) and present continuous (e.g. ‘drooping’) tense?

Part B – apply your knowledge

5. Now have a go at breaking some rules yourself! Choose a topic from the list below and use the Dickens’ sentences as a model for your own piece of writing that breaks the rules.

rain / snow / sleet
hail / wind / sunshine

Round it off with this

Get back into your groups of four. Each group member should take a turn to give an example of one of their own sentences. The group should then state how the sentence would look if it was grammatically correct (and, for a bonus mark, work out which type of sentence it is!).

Finally, share your full pieces of writing with the other members of your group.

Extra challenge

Now that you have completed a descriptive passage, apply your understanding of the dramatic effects of sentence fragments and simple sentences to write the opening paragraphs of a ghost story or horror story.

Try to include an example of each of the four types of sentence.

Take Cover 30 Rule-breakers

Student resource sheet

Types of sentences

1. Sentence fragments:
break the rule that ‘every sentence must contain a verb.’ They consist of a word or phrase.

Example: ‘Alone at last.’ or ‘Panic. Thumping heart.’

2. Simple sentences:
contain only one verb (and sometimes nothing else) … and are often short — but if they have many adjectives and adverbs they can be quite long.

Example: ‘Run!’

‘The door slammed.’

‘The lithe, purring cat stretched languidly, like an Olympic gymnast, across the beautiful, slightly threadbare, Persian rug.’

3. Compound sentences:
contain more than one verb. The words ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘or’ are used to join two or more simple sentences together.

Example: ‘The cat sat on the mat and licked his paw.’

4. Complex sentences:
also contain more than one verb.

They are made up of clauses. At least one of these will be a main clause, which contains the main information of the sentence and could stand alone as a simple sentence. There will also be one or more subordinate clauses which give extra information about what is happening. The subordinate clause cannot make sense on its own. There are numerous ways of combining the main and subordinate clauses into a complex sentence – some are listed below.

Examples:

An embedded subordinate clause:

‘The cat, who was eyeing my goldfish hungrily, needed lots of food.’

Beginning with a subordinate clause:

‘Eyeing my goldfish hungrily, the cat paced back and forth beside the fish bowl.’

Ending with a subordinate clause:

‘The goldfish swam lazily around its bowl while the cat eyed it hungrily.