BTC Task- Simple Sentences to Complex Sentences

📘 Complex Sentence Building with Novels – Building Thinking Classroom Task

Boost engagement and critical thinking in your ELA class with this Complex Sentence Building Task—designed specifically for a Thinking Classroom environment! Students use simple sentences pulled from influential novels, such as The Outsiders, A Long Walk to Water, and The Diary of Anne Frank, and then work collaboratively to build rich, grade-level, complex sentences.

This activity encourages deep thinking, discussion, and decision-making as students determine how to combine ideas effectively. It’s more than grammar—it’s about clarity, voice, and analysis rooted in literature.

✅ What’s Included:

• 12 complete sets: 4 simple sentences → one exemplar complex sentence provided
• Text-based exemplars for each set
• Novels featured: The Outsiders, A Long Walk to Water, The Diary of Anne Frank, Refugee, Ghost, and more
• Designed for collaboration, reasoning, and purposeful writing

🧠 Why It Works in a Thinking Classroom:

• Promotes student talk and reasoning as they build sentences together
• Encourages multiple approaches to sentence construction
• Fosters metacognition by analyzing how sentence structure conveys meaning
• Supports collaborative problem-solving with a literacy focus
• Make grammar instruction meaningful, rigorous, and collaborative with this sentence construction task rooted in literature. Ideal for any teacher building a thinking classroom and aligning instruction with real texts students love.