COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE STRUCTURES

Goal: For students to demonstrate their developed understandings of simple,

compound, and complex sentences structures and the associated punctuation by
creating grammatically correct compound-complex sentence formulas and writing
appropriate sentences for each
Before introducing compound-complex sentences, review:
Use a coordinate conjunction or a semicolon to join sentences that could make
sense on their own.
o I,cI
=
could be 2 sentences
o I;I
=
could be 2 sentences
Clauses (subject/predicate) that begin with a subordinate conjunction create a
dependent clause that needs an independent clause to make sense.
o D,I
=
one complete sentence
o ID
=
one complete sentence
Compound-complex sentences contain more than two clauses.
Apply prior knowledge to construct understanding of compound-complex sentence
structures.
Take 2 independent clauses and 1 dependent clause and combine them to create 8
different formulas.
Hint: identify the I the D is dependent on before deciding where to add the correct
punctuation.
ID;I
ID,cI
I;D,I
I,cD,I
I,cID
I;ID
D,I,cI
D,I;I
Write sentences to match the formulas.
As students become experts, challenge them occasionally with a compound-complex
formula and have them add punctuation, write the sentence, identify the parts, and check
eachothers work.