Writing Complex Sentences

WALT: write a complex sentence

This lesson is about how to write a complex sentence. Prior to the lesson, students learnt about the features of a complex sentence. What you see in the clip is the middle of the lesson, where students recall the steps for how to write a complex sentence, and have a go at creating their own complex sentences. Together we discuss their sentences, addressing errors along the way.

Click here to view the extended plan .

Reflection: Overall, I felt this lesson went well. The students enjoyed the task and were engaged. I have found that using Mentimeter is a great way to get all learners to participate in the learning. It appears that learners feel more willing to share on the platform compared to asking students to share verbally.

It was important that students had an understanding of what a complex sentence needed to have, before we tried to write our own. From the Quizziz before (not included in this film but you can view it here), I could see that some students had a better understanding than others. As this is a mixed ability group, some students found this task easier than others. However, with the help of their class-mates, all students were able to write interesting complex sentences.

Moving forward I would really like ALL learners to participate and share, and make sure that the same students don't always try and answer. Using more wait time for thinking, and getting students to share what they think to a partner first would help this.

Filming difficulties: Sorry about the sound quality and annoying glare from the curtains. We did try using a microphone however I did not use Quicktime to record, so had trouble downloading the sound files. I will to improve the sound quality. For the glare, I will cover the gaps between the curtains with black paper.

I also had another camera filming and tried to screencast. I was using my Chromebook to teach and was unable to use Quicktime when screen casting. This was an issue as I had trouble downloading and converting my screencasts from webm to mp4. I will need to find a better screencast app, or use my Mac computer when teaching, as it has QuickTime and is better for making screencasts. Also, I didn't check the memory space on the other camera, so it died early on in the lesson.