Grammar Instructional Strategies and Application

The purpose of this action research study was to determine the effects of sentence combining strategies and practice on the understanding of grammatical rules concerning conjunctions and the efficacy and clarity of student writing. The study took place in two middle school classes during a fiveweek timeline. A single sixth grade class of 29 students and a single seventh grade class of 29 students participated in the study. Teaching strategies included the use of preassessments, checkpoints, classroom practice, and postassessments that covered conjunction identification, application, and the ability to distinguish between a correct and incorrect clause and idea combinations. Informal data was also collected through teacher observations and teacherstudent conversations. Results were inconclusive whether teaching sentence combining strategies is more effective at increasing student understanding of conjunction rules; however, the practice of sentence combining did positively impact the quality and clarity of student writing. This research implies that clear and concise writing requires high quality examples and continuous student practice