POP Reading Applications: Compound Sentences

Hi Stylish Readers and Patterns of Power fans!

This post has reading Applications that align to POP Middle and High School Lessons focusing on compound sentences and the use of conjunctions. Throughout these lessons, students study the use of conjunctions and must reread and discuss the connections between sentences in a short reading passage.  Each reading application allows students to study the pattern in a more in-depth way and allows for an easy bridge between writing and reading instruction. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the POP process, go to my Blog post called POP Reading Applications: Fragments to get a better idea of what that is.  

In the classroom, students first need to explore conjunctions and their purpose and function.  By using the Patterns of Power process, they will be exposed to model sentences and have access to an anchor chart to support their learning.  Placement of the conjunction is another layer to the lessons.  Teaching the placement initially focusing on the first sample below sentence - ,conjunction - sentence, is appropriate with students that need more scaffolding or have not been overtly taught the design of a compound sentence.  This solely depends on the age and skill level of the students, as well as your comfort level.  Also consider the third pattern below and how often students see author's start a sentence with a conjunction - they use a period, instead of a comma.  Having students explore this and consider why an author would choose to use a period instead can prove to be a robust conversation.  

Placement of Conjunctions

Conjunctions Defined

Reading Applications: Compound Sentences

Here is a brief teaching guide to support compound sentence Reading Applications. There are two options for applying to reading.  Once removes the conjunctions and has students play with adding conjunctions where they may be needed.  Another has students just consider the conjunction in the text and play with using a different conjunction to see if it changes meaning.  Either option can be applied to any of the texts below.  

Reading Application Options for Compound Sentences: 

• Middle School POP - Lessons 5.1-5.5
• High School POP - Lessons 5.1 and 9.5
  • Dispatches From the Edge, by Anderson Cooper
  • "Cruel, Cruel World", by Phantogram 
  • How We Got to the Moon, by John Rocco
  • Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi
  • Fairy Tale, by Stephen King
  • What We Keep, by Bill Shapiro with Naomi Wax

Happy teaching!  Keep an eye out for more blog posts with reading applications that align to different lessons.