by Maria V
Helping kids understand the difference between a complete sentence and a sentence fragment.
This is a lesson for 12 - 14 year olds, or 7th and 8th grade students, about how to make sure their academic writing includes only complete sentences and not fragments. Kids will learn the difference between the two.
When kids are asked to write academically, which means to write in a more formalized manner and following grammar, mechanics, and punctuation rules, they have to be able to use only complete sentences. For example, if a teacher asks the students to write an essay about a chapter in a book they just read, the writing should be academic in nature. That creates some pressure on the child. So how do we make it easier on them?
We teach them to use their knowledge of complete sentences, which consist of a subject and complete predicate, and use a simple trick to show them how to make sure they have a complete sentence.
To write using a complete sentence means to use a subject and complete predicate. Without this formula, you will have a sentence fragment.
At the beginning of their journey into writing sentences, kids learned about nouns and verbs. Let’s review what each is:
Noun:
Let’s call him Norbert!
Everyone loves a pink house, right?
A baseball is a need when you want to actually play baseball.
Some people feel joy when dancing.
Kids also learned about verbs, which are action words or things we do.
Here are some verbs:
Verb:
Jeremy likes to run away from his sister.
The girls jumped as high as they could for the picture.
Sheila likes to eat rice for lunch.
John plays with his truck.
When put together correctly, a noun and verb will become a COMPLETE SENTENCE:
Noun (subject) + Verb (complete predicate)
John + plays.
Yes, even a short, two-word sentence is a complete sentence if you have a subject and complete predicate.
Here’s where it gets tricky, and this is where kids this age tend to make some mistakes. As they are asked to add more complexity to their sentence, instead of writing a complete sentence they end up writing a fragment.
It happens when we start to ADD to the sentence to make it more interesting:
As he waits for the bus, John happily plays with his truck
As we ADD TO A SENTENCE, sometimes kids begin to write fragments instead of complete sentences. Let’s take our last sentence example:
As he waits for the bus, John happily plays with his truck.
In this instance, kids tend to put a period where the comma is, which is not correct. Let’s take a look:
As he waits for the bus. John happily plays with his truck.
As he waits for the bus. → This is NOT a complete sentence.
Even though we have a noun (bus) and a verb (waits), it is not a complete thought and it is not in the correct order.
John happily plays with his truck. → This IS a complete sentence. The noun (John) is before the verb (plays) and it makes a complete thought.
The REMEDY:
Here is an easy way to figure out if a sentence is a complete sentence or a fragment:
Add “Do I know that” in front of the sentence to see if it makes sense.
(DO I KNOW THAT) As he waits for the bus. → This DOES NOT make sense because we are waiting for the rest of the question; therefore it is a fragment and not a complete sentence.
(DO I KNOW THAT) John happily plays with his truck. → This DOES make sense because I can answer the question; therefore, it is a complete sentence.
Print out this page and cut out this strip that says “Do I know that” and have your child use that as he or she checks their work to see if their sentences are complete.
Worksheet for practice:
Directions: On the line provided, write whether what is written is a complete sentence (CS) or a fragment (F).
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