Lesson video

Hi everybody, welcome.

You might notice something a little bit different.

My name is Ms. Richards, and I'm taking over the grammar unit now I'm going to to see you all the way through to the end of this unit.

Really, really looking forward to working on some grammar with you.

We're going to revisit some things that you've done in the previous lessons.

And we're also going to move forward and really stretch some of your understanding too.

So, let's get ready to begin, you're going to need pen and notebook.

If you can, it would be great, if you could go somewhere nice and quiet without any distractions.

Turn any notifications off on all your devices if you can.

You might want to pause the video, just to get yourself set up, to find that pen or that paper.

That's absolutely fine.

When you're ready, just press play and we'll get started.

Today's lesson is focusing on fragments.

But before we can look at fragments, we need to think about some of our prior knowledge and some of the things we already know.

So we're going to go back and think, what is a sentence? We're going to remind ourselves of two terms that you should have come across in the previous grammar work called subject and verb.

Then we're going to move on to what is a fragment? Then you're going to have a go at identifying and working with some fragments.

And you've got a quiz right at the end.

So let's start.

What is a sentence? When I ask students to think, what is a sentence? Or what do we include in a sentence? Most of them will tell me, that sentence is an idea.

And they'll know as well, that in a sentence I have to have a capital letter at the start.

I have to have punctuation at the end, and they might say it ends in a full stop, but we do know that it might end in a question mark or an exclamation mark.

These tend to be the details that my students tell me when they think about what is the sentence? Or what components we have in a sentence? But actually there's two more things that we always need.

So a sentence contains a subject and a verb.

That's really important.

If we look at my example now, Charlotte watched television.

We know that's a sentence because it has a subject and a verb.

Okay, I'd like you to complete this definition for me.

So a sentence contains a blank and blank.

Please write it down, pause this video while you write and then press play when you're ready to go.

Did you get it? I'm sure you did.

I'm sure you got it.

A sentence contains a subject and a verb, well done.

If you didn't just go back and correct that and obviously check your spellings as well.

A sentence contains a subject and a verb.

So let's recap our key terms of subject and verb, because it's all very well and good knowing that sentence has a subject and a verb in it.

But if we're not sure what those terms mean, then actually that doesn't really help us as a definition.

We're going to start with subject.

The subject of a sentence is who or what is doing the main action.

The subject of a sentence is who or what is doing the main action.

So if we go back to that earlier example of Charlotte watched television.

Then our subject is Charlotte.

It is Charlotte watching television.

It's Charlotte doing our main action.

Now that's quite easy when it's a person doing something.

But the thing that most students will forget is that the subject doesn't have to be a person.

So when we look at this example, The plate needed washing up.

The plate, the noun "The plate" is our subject.

It's the plate that needs something.

It's the plate that needs our main action.

And the other thing that can catch a student out is that the subject can be more than one thing or more than one person.

So if we use this example, Nehal, Shona, and Aidan went to a restaurant.

Nehal, Shona, and Aidan are the subject.

All three of them went to the restaurant, all three of them are doing the main action, so we include all three as the subject of our sentence.

We're going to have a go and have a little practise now of finding the subject in each of the sentences on the screen.

So there were four there for you to do.

I'd like you to write them out and underline the subject in each of these sentences.

Pause the video now to complete your task and then press play when you're ready to start.

How'd you get on? Do your answers match mine? Let's go through them together.

If you've got another coloured pen you could pick up and mark that's fine.

If not use the pen that you're writing in anyway.

So, for a.

Tim threw the paper in the bin.

Tim is the subject of our sentence.

It's Tim who is doing the action.

b.

The rain comes flooding in Shropshire.

The rain is the subject of our sentence.

c.

Leaves, twigs and sticks, littered the ground.

Just like our previous example with Nehal, Shona and Aidan, there's more than one subject here.

So leaves, twigs and sticks are all the subjects because they are all littering the ground.

And then d now I threw in d to trick you.

Quite often, students think that the subject is always at the beginning.

So they'd look at d Although he loved the theatre, Sam was not confident enough to go to the audition.

And they think the subject must be he because that's the first time we meet somebody or a noun in the sentence.

That's not the case with d, d Is quite hard one.

"Although he loved the theatre," is a subordinate clause.

You did those much earlier on in your grammar work.

"Although he loved the theatre," It's not a complete sentence, it doesn't make sense by itself.

We have to go into our main clause, "Sam was not confident enough to go to the audition" and we look for the subject there.

So our subject is Sam.

Now, if you've got that, well done.

Give yourself a massive Pat on the back.

If you didn't just check your answer now and change it so that it's correct.

You might want to go back and listen to my explanation again, just to work out why? That's absolutely fine.

But Sam is the subject of our sentence.

That was quite a hard one though.

Okay so, I've told you then that a sentence needs a subject and a verb, and we've got really good at what subject is so let's think about what a verb is now.

The verb in a sentence tells the main action that the subject is or was doing.

The verb in a sentence tells the main action that the subject is or was doing.

Let's go back to our first examples that we've worked through together.

With "Charlotte watched television." The verb in the sentence is the main action that the subject Charlotte is doing.

It's "watched" Charlotte is watching television.

Sure you're really competent on verbs already, but we're just checking.

Again if we go back to that earlier example, "The plate needed washing up." needed is our verb.

That's what the subject, the plate needs.

That's the action the subject needs.

And lastly "Nehal, Shona and Aidan went to a restaurant." went is our verb.

That's what Nehal, Shona and Aidan are doing.

Let's see how competent you are with verbs.

I would like you to go back now to the earlier sentences that you wrote down, where you found the subject.

Look at those earlier sentences and now circle the verb for each sentence.

Pause the video, and then press play.

When you're ready to start, How'd you do? Do your answers look like mine? So for a the verb is threw because that's the action that Tim is doing.

For b the verb is caused because that's what the rain does.

The rain caused the flooding.

So c we had our leaves, twigs and sticks.

So c we had our leaves, twigs and sticks.

So we have three subjects in that sentence but they all littered the ground.

That's the action that they're doing so littered is our verb.

And lastly, we know now that Sam is the subject and we're looking in that main clause and our verb is was.

That's the action that Sam is doing.

How'd you do? Make sure you corrected your work, make sure you've given yourself lots of ticks for getting it all right.

And now let's move on.

We're now the main focus of our lesson, and this is this term fragment.

So we want to think what is a fragment? What is this strange term that I've just introduced to you today? So a fragment is where the sentence has been left incomplete.

So a sentence might be missing a subject or a sentence might be missing a verb, or it might have a subject and a verb but it might not have enough information in it to be understood to be complete.

So it might be missing some expanded information that completes idea.

So let's just go through that again then, a fragment is where the sentence has been left incomplete.

The sentence might be missing a subject, might be missing a verb or it might be missing some expanded information that completes the idea.

Let's just check how closely you were paying attention to that.

I'd like you to pause the video and write down your answer please.

We might say a sentence as a fragment if it is missing? Can you remember those three things? Pause the video now to write down your answer.

Did you get it? Did you remember all three things? We might say a sentence as a fragment if it's missing subject, a verb, an any expanded information that completes the idea.

You might have phrased that a little bit differently on number three.

You might have said extra information or expanded information or a complete idea.

Those are all fine too, but it's really important that we know that fragment is missing a subject, a verb and then any extra information that completes the idea and makes the sentence makes sense.

Let's work through some examples together and check that we really understand this new term then.

Okay, so this is my first example, "Had a new job." So for this phrase "had a new job." Is it the subject is missing in this sentence? Is the verb missing in this sentence? The sentence does not contain information to complete the idea? Or do you think the sentence is correct? That it's not a fragment as it contains all the elements it needs.

Pause the video to have a think, look back through those options and select the option that matches this phrase.

Press play when you're ready to begin.

Did you get it? Option 1.

So the subject is missing in this sentence.

We, somebody got a new job, but we don't know who.

So I could fix this by saying, "Katarina had a new job." Okay, Let's look at another example then.

So my phrase is, "People down the street" Pause the video again, have a look at the options and work out why is this a fragment? What's wrong with it? Or do you think it's correct? Do you think it makes perfect sense? Press play when you're ready.

Did you get Option 2? Did you recognise that the verb is missing? The action, "People down the street" people might be the subject but we don't know what they're doing.

So to fix this sentence, I could add in a verb like walked, "People walked down the street." You might have people ran down the street as well.

We just need to describe what the people are doing.

Okay let's look at another example.

"She was extremely tired." Pause the video, have a look at the options.

Which one best matches? "She was extremely tired." Did you spot that this was number 4? This sentence is correct.

It's not a fragment.

It contains all the elements we need.

She is the subject, was is the verb and then we've got that extra information about, she was something.

So in this case, she was extremely tired.

That extra information helps it makes sense.

Now, did I catch you out? Did you think it's going to be Option 3 cause I was going in order? Was I sneaky or did you get it? Did you spot it anyway? Okay, and our last example then, "Although the sun shone." Pause the video now and see which one of these options explains this phrase? Did you get that as Option 3? The sentence does not contain information to complete the idea.

We've got, although the sun shone, but it doesn't give us anything else.

This is actually a subordinate clause.

So to make this fit, what I might need to say is, "Although the sun shone, the day felt very cold." I need to give some extra information to help this be understood clearly.

Let's see how much you've understood that.

What I'm going to ask you to do is to pause the next slide, read the instructions, and then complete the sentence task.

When you're done with the task, you can then press play.

Okay, your task.

Each of these as a fragment.

Rewrite them so they are complete sentences, which describe the picture.

You can see the picture on the right hand side.

Dan and Tina, it's a male and female washing up at a sink.

There are five examples of fragments here that described that picture.

1, Washed glasses.

2, Tina was wearing.

3, Tina passed Dan.

4, Dan was careful not to.

5, Although she was wearing gloves.

Each of those is a fragment.

Rewrite them so they are complete sentences, which describe the picture.

If you want to really challenge yourself, you could take those sentences and turn them into a short story about Dan and Tina.

That's to really challenge your thinking and to think how to connect.

So your task please is to take those five fragments and rewrite them so they are complete sentences, which describe the picture.

Pause the video now and press play when you're done.

How did you get on? I've got some possible answers for you.

Now yours might be different and that's okay but do you make sure that your answers are accurate about the picture and that you haven't added in false information.

So we could say Tina washed glasses, because we can see that's true from the picture.

We can say that Tina was wearing gloves.

Now you might have said that Tina was wearing a necklace or Tina was wearing a dress and those things are true too form the picture so that's fine.

Number three, Tina passed Dan a glass.

Four, Dan was careful not to drop the glass.

And then number five made you think a little bit harder, it was quite a tricky one.

Although she was wearing gloves, Tina's hands got wet.

You might have some different answers to me and that's absolutely fine.

But do you make sure that all of our answers contain a subject, a verb and enough extra information to make it make sense.

Did you do the Challenge? Did you really stretch yourself? It's okay if you didn't.

It's okay If you just wanted to practise the five fragments and really work hard on making sure you can turn those into sentences.

But if you did challenge yourself to write a story, I wonder what you wrote? Does yours sound anything like mine? So I wrote, Tina and Dan wash their glasses up after dinner.

Tina was wearing gloves to protect her hands.

She passed Dan a glass.

He was very careful not to drop the delicate glass as it was slippery.

Although she was wearing gloves, Tina realised her hands were getting wet.

The gloves had a hole in them.

Thank you so much for joining me.

I hope that's made fragments really, really clear and that you found them super easy.

Don't forget to complete the quiz.

Once you've exited this lesson.

Lovely to see you.

I look forward seeing you next lesson.

Bye.