How to Teach Compound Sentences

Co-authored by Diane Stubbs

Last Updated: December 9, 2022 References

Teaching complex sentences might seem a little challenging at first, but there are lots of ways that you can get creative with teaching this basic sentence structure. Just remember to start with simple instructions and not to move on until your students are ready. You can always make things more challenging for the advanced learners in your class and spend extra time helping out others who need a little more coaching. Take your time, be patient, and have fun.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Introducing the Concept

1
Go over independent clauses to refresh past learning. Remind students that a simple sentence is made up of a main (or independent clause) that can stand alone. In other words, it is a clause that can be an entire sentence. Give students a verbal example so that they can hear what you are talking about.^{[1]
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- Say something like, “Here’s an example of an independent clause: Olivia came last.” Ask the students if they have any questions about what you just went over.
- You could use, "Huck ran fast" as another example. You can also ask students to come up with their own examples.
2
Explain that a compound sentence is 2 clauses joined by a conjunction. Once your learners have a firm grasp on what an independent clause is, move on to explaining conjunctions. Tell them that a conjunction is a word that links 2 independent clauses to form what is known as a compound sentence. Give them the words “and,” “or,” “but,” and “yet,” as examples of common conjunctions. ^{[2]
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- You can use some of the independent clauses from your review to demonstrate how to make a compound sentence. For example, "Huck ran fast, so Olivia came last." Explain that "so" is the conjunction.
- Ask students if they have any questions and let them know that you are happy to go over this information again if it would be helpful. They might need to hear it a couple of times to help it sink in.
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3
Demonstrate when to use commas. Comma usage can be tricky, even for people who have a pretty good grasp of grammar. For this lesson, stick to the basics. Show your students that a compound sentence needs a comma if there are more than 2 items in a series, and the comma goes before the conjunction.^{[3]
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- For example, "Huck, Liv, and Paul are fast runners." "And" is the conjunction, so the comma goes before that word.
4
Write down examples to show students what you mean. Many students are visual learners so it’s a great idea to use the whiteboard or smartboard in your classroom to give them written examples of compound sentences. Write out several compound sentences on the board as you're talking. Point out the independent clause and the conjunction so that students can clearly see each part of the sentence. You can write examples such as:^{[4]
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- Kary wants pizza, but Karl wants noodles.
- It was very cold, so we stayed home.
- Our team practiced hard, and we won the game.
5
Keep the lesson to 15 minutes to avoid confusion or boredom. Young learners tend to have pretty short attention spans, so it’s a good idea to keep your lectures or explanations pretty short. Try spending no more than 15 minutes explaining the concept of compound sentences. This should be enough time for students to start to understand the information, but not so much that they become either frustrated or overwhelmed.^{[5]
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- Break up your presentation by writing on the board and asking the students to participate. Try not to just talk at the class. That’s not much fun for anyone, including you.
6
Review the material throughout the week to help students process it. Students need time to process new information, and they’ll have an easier time doing that when it’s presented in small amounts. Try presenting your mini-lesson at the beginning of the week and then reinforcing it throughout the week. You can spend 5-15 minutes reviewing each day.^{[6]
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- You can help them retain the information by doing activities and even playing games. This will give students a chance to keep learning and will reinforce the information you’ve presented to them.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Reinforcement Activities

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Use the FANBOYS acronym to teach popular conjunctions. Explain that FANBOYS stands for the words, “For”, “And”, “Nor”, “But, “Or”, “Yet”, and “So”. Tell students that by memorizing what FANBOYS stands for, they’ll always know a range of words to use to help them identify and write compound sentences.^{[7]
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- For a fun activity, have the class quietly and slowly chant the words to FANBOYS out loud. As you lead the chant, gradually get louder and faster so it turns into a tongue twister by the end. You and your students will probably all be laughing and they will most likely remember FANBOYS for a long time.
2
Have students identify sentence parts in pairs for cooperative learning. Give students a worksheet with several compound sentences on it. Ask each pair to circle the conjunctions and underline each independent clause in the sentence. This helps them visually recognize each sentence part, which makes it easier to retain the information.^{[8]
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- Feel free to change this up however you like. Students could use colored highlighters to mark different parts of sentences, for example.
- You can either make up your own worksheet or download one from an online teaching site.
3
Write different parts of sentences on colored paper to create a jumble. Gather a marker, 3 different colors of paper, and some scissors. Write independent clauses on 2 colors of paper and cut each example into strips. On the last color of paper, write down conjunctions and cut those examples into small strips of paper. Scatter the different colors of paper onto desks and have students create compound sentences by joining papers together.^{[9]
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- For example, they can pick 2 independent clauses that go well together and choose a conjunction to join them.
- You can let students work in pairs or small groups for this activity.
4
Ask students to search through their books for compound sentences. This one is really simple and effective. Have students choose a book that they are currently reading in the classroom (or one from home). Any book works! Ask them to page through it and find examples of compound sentences. You could have them flag their finds with post-it notes.^{[10]
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- If your students are a little more advanced, they can write down the examples they find and read them aloud to you.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Learning Games

1
Challenge students to a race to create compound sentences. Set a timer for 3 minutes and have students write as many compound sentences as they can. When the time is up, have each student pass their paper to a partner to check that each sentence is compound. Whoever has the most compound sentences wins! Just remember to encourage all of the students and let them know that they are all making great progress.^{[11]
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- You can modify this if your students aren’t great at writing yet. For example, you can see who can find the most compound sentences on a short story that you pass out instead.
2
Place students in pairs and have them create sentences to share. Give each pair a set of notecards. On each notecard, have the students write 2 compound sentences and 1 simple sentence. Have them exchange cards and see if they can correctly identify the structure of each sentence.^{[12]
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- Encourage your students to have fun with this one. They can write goofy sentences or even jokes for one another to laugh at.
- This one is great practice for both writing and identifying compound sentences.
3
Divide students into groups to sort out a jumble of sentences. This game is a modification of the activity with the different colored strips of paper. Divide the students into small groups of 3-4 and give each group a large jumble of different colored strips of paper. Ask each group to create complete sentences using the different strips. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Whichever group creates the most sentences will win!^{[13]
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