Page 132 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.6
continued
3. On a separate piece of paper, sketch the setting of Sal’s singing tree. Include details from your graphic organizer that relate to the theme or central idea of the novel. Label the important details on your sketch.
WRITING to SOURCES Expository Writing Prompt
Write a paragraph about how Sal’s singing tree relates to the theme or central idea of the novel. Explain how the external setting affects Sal’s internal feelings. Be sure to
• Use a topic sentence and supporting details from the novel.
• Relate each detail to the theme or central idea.
• Include commentary about how the setting makes Sal feel.
• Use transition words and demonstrate correct verb tense and correct pronoun usage.
Language and Writer’s Craft: Sentence Variety
Writing that uses only one type of sentence, such as simple sentences, seems dull after a while. Using a variety of sentence types helps you keep a reader interested. One way to improve the sentence variety in your writing is to combine short, simple sentences to create compound sentences. In Chapter 16 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech uses two kinds of compound sentences in her description of Sal’s singing tree.
Independent clauses linked by a semicolon:
It was not a call; it was a true birdsong, with trills and warbles.
Independent clauses linked by a comma and a coordinating conjunction:
I had pleaded to go along, but my father said he didn’t think I should have to go through that.
4. Revise the sentences below by combining independent clauses to create at least two new compound sentences.
I am proud, awestruck, and exhausted. I am at the top of Anderson Reservoir Dam. I have been hiking with my friends. I am the first one to get to the top. I look down at the swaying trees. The Guadalupe Stream is rushing down the valley. I can feel the breeze on my neck.
Check Your Understanding
Revisit the response you wrote to the prompt above. Find places where you can combine independent clauses to create compound sentences.
my Notes
Grammar USaGe
Compound Sentences
A compound sentence is two or more independent clauses linked by a semicolon
or by a comma and a coordinating conjunction. The most common coordinating conjunctions are and, but, and or.
Unit 2 • The Power to Change 105
Literary Terms
The setting of a scene or story includes both where and when the action takes place. Details of setting help establish a context for the events of the story.
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