Hi Susan,

I teach basic writing at a community college.  One of the reasons basic
writers have difficulty writing, and reading, complicated sentence
structures is because they don't know how sentences work.  The strategy I
use is to first present the basic sentence (what I call the core sentence),
consisting of a subject and predicate.  Then, students learn how to add
additions to that core sentence structure: relative clauses, "definition
additions," "-ing additions," "-ed additions." Students recognize through
the examples gleaned from literature and through a series of exercises,
including sentence combining,  that these groups of words are additions to a
core sentence.  That sounds simplistic, but students understand it.  As they
practice these sentence patterns, they learn to use commas to set off
introductory words and words interrupting the flow of thought in a sentence.
In the process, students realize how commas signal meaning, and they
understand how to distinguish an addition from the core sentence.  The
section on writing with sentence variety ends with a chapter that calls
these additions "starters" and "interrupters."   Through this approach,
students understand how sentences work, and knowing this, they are able to
both write and read all kinds of complex sentences.  The strategy has worked
for me and is part of Rhythms of Writing, to be published by Houghton
Mifflin this August.

The research that informed this approach focused on two areas: the
differences between the structures of talking and writing, and how language
is processed and produced.  Basic writers talk and write in phrases and
clauses because that is how language is processed and produced.  I therefore
begin with what students already know, the phrases and clauses of talking
(thinking), and show them how those structures can be presented in writing.

So, to answer your concluding sentence: No, I do not think we can wait for
kids to mature so they develop these abilities on their own.  In fact, I
don't think they will develop them on their own, especially living in our
oral culture.  I believe students need guidance on understanding how the
structures of writing work.

Pam Dykstra

Pam Dykstra
South Suburban College
15800 South State Street
South Holland, IL 60473-9978
tel: 708-596-2000 ext. 2648
email: [log in to unmask]


>I noticed on this page that there is a section on reading and grammar.  I
>am interested in looking into the connections between sentence structure
>and reading comprehension.  Does anyone have any references about research
>into this area?  Specifically, I'm looking at older age ranges, after
>initial decoding skills are learned.  Especially middle school and high
>school, but possibly as early as 4th grade.  I know that people have
>identified that longer, more complicated sentence structures are harder for
>kids to understand.  People have also noted that vocabulary problems get in
>the way of comprehension.  I am aware of a number of teaching strategies
>and interventions to help kids cope with vocabulary problems, but do not
>know if the same kinds of strategies and interventions have been developed
>to help kids comprehend longer sentence structures.  Is the only known
>method of dealing with this is simply to wait for kids to mature so that
>they develop these abilities on their own?
>
>Does anyone know of any research on this issue?
>
>Susan Mari Witt
>
>
>
>240 ERML, MC-051
>1201 W. Gregory
>Urbana, IL  61801
>
>Phone:  (217) 333-1965
>Fax:      (217) 333-4777
>
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