Today we analyzed a simple sentence. That is not to say that the sentence was short. It had two phrases and looked every bit as long as some of the complex sentences we have looked at. I loved seeing how comfortable the students have become with making logical decisions and using resources. When I ask, “How do you know that?” students can point to evidence in either a dictionary or their Grammar Examiner (interactive notebook). Armed with that evidence, they look at how the words behave in the sentence and use reasoning to make their final decisions.
Just in case you are wondering who Fido and Sumo are, here’s a picture.
Fido is on the floor, and Sumo is on the couch.
My friend Julie Bogart, from Bravewriter.com, refers to phrases between commas as “captured in commas” (as the appositive phrase is in your sentence). I share this because I find kids like the term “captured in commas” and they tend to remember it. Any idea that helps with memory stickiness is worth sharing!