When teaching middle and high school students, one of the most crucial skills for reading comprehension… but one that gets eliminated or skimmed over waaaaaaay toooooooo often, is sentence-level decoding. Usually, when we hear the word decoding, we automatically think of decoding words and assume that it is an elementary level skill that we don’t need to (or shouldn’t have to) worry about. 

However, decoding involves not just sounding out words but understanding how those words fit together to convey meaning. Sentence level decoding is one of the primary skills of language comprehension! Not only does it allow native speakers to understand what they are reading, it is also one of the biggest difficulties for speakers of other languages learning English for the first time. This is because the syntax of English is pretty unique. For example, in English, adjectives come before the noun that they are describing. But, on the other hand, in Spanish, the adjectives come after. 

Sentence-level decoding is essential for both fluency and comprehension, especially as students encounter more complex sentence structures in academic texts. So, let’s explore several activities designed to help students decode sentences more effectively in the context of reading specific texts.

1. Sentence Dissection: Breaking Down Complex Sentences

Students often struggle with long, complicated sentences that contain multiple clauses or phrases. This activity encourages students to break these sentences down into manageable parts to understand their structure and meaning.

How to Implement:

• Choose a Complex Sentence, preferably something from whatever text you are currently reading: Ideally, this sentence should have compound or complex structures that include subordinate clauses or phrases.
  • It would also, of course, be beneficial if your students have already learned about the various types of clauses and phrases. If you need a method for teaching these things, check out my individual resources or this bundle.
• Dissect the Sentence: Have students work in pairs or small groups. Each group will break the sentence into its components: subject, verb, object, clauses, and phrases. Use highlighters or color-coding to distinguish each part.
• Reconstruct the Sentence: After dissecting, students should work to reconstruct the sentence. You could mix up the pairs or groups so that students are not working with the same people for this step, bringing more opportunities for, and even deeper, discussion. They should talk about what the reader learns from each segment that is added, starting with the most basic parts, working all the way up to the most complicated version.
• Group Discussion: Have students share their reconstructed sentences and discuss how breaking the sentence apart helped them understand it better. This could be as a whole class discussion or in an individual reflection activity or exit ticket.

Example:
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.” (chapter 1, Night by Elie Wiesel)

Main clause (subject + verb):

• Subject: “I”
• Verb: “shall (never) forget” (action)

Direct object: “that night” (what Elie will never forget)

Appositive phrase: “the first night in camp” (clarifies what “that night” refers to, giving more context)

Relative clause: “which has turned my life into one long night” (explains the effect of the “first night in camp” on Elie’s life)

Figurative language: “seven times cursed and seven times sealed” (a symbolic phrase with a lot of power that emphasizes the impact of that night on Elie’s life)

Working through the sentence this way, not only makes it more sensible for students, it also helps to understand the beauty of it and the choices that the author makes.

2. Sentence Reconstruction Challenge

This activity encourages students to apply their decoding skills to reconstruct sentences from a jumbled order, fostering deeper understanding of the words working together, syntax rules, in general, and, as a byproduct, fluency.

How to Implement:

• Choose Sentences: Select a few sentences from the text and break them into individual words or phrases. Make sure to preserve the meaning of the original sentence.
• Jumble the Words: Write the jumbled words or phrases on the board or handouts.
  • You could also break the words or phrases up into card sorts. I have several standalone resources based around this premise if you want to shop some pre-made resources.
• Group Work: Have students work in groups to decode the sentence, rearranging the jumbled parts to form a coherent, grammatically correct sentence.
• Discussion: After reconstructing the sentence, ask students if the sentence makes sense and sounds right. I have found that so much of grammar can be taught through this strategy. Grammar shouldn’t be about right or wrong rules but, instead, about how things sound!
  • After they decide if it sounds right, students can discuss how understanding sentence structure helped them put the parts together and if they can identify any of the tricky components they’ve learned about like relative clauses or modifiers.

3. Sentence Stretch: Expanding Simple Sentences

This activity helps students practice recognizing and creating more complex sentence structures while decoding their meaning.

How to Implement:

• Start with a Simple Sentence: Begin with a simple, declarative sentence from the text or write your own about a character in whatever text you are reading.
  • Another really great way to implement this is to write about concepts from other subjects. For example, “The Mayflower Compact set up early government.” 
• Model Sentence Stretching: Demonstrate how you can stretch a simple sentence by adding descriptive details (adjectives, adverbs) or modifying clauses. Discuss how these changes affect meaning and provide more context to the sentence.
  • I have found this to be especially effective after teaching sentence diagramming. 
• Student Practice: Have students work in pairs to stretch their own sentences. They can start with a simple sentence and expand it by adding some prescribed elements.
  • You can ask them very specific questions to help them expand, like: who, what, where, when, why, how? 
  • Or, you can tell them what types of things to add, like: add an adjective, add a dependent clause, add a prepositional phrase.
• Sharing: Ask each pair to share their stretched sentences with the class and discuss how the added elements change or clarify the original meaning.

4. Interactive Sentence Diagramming

Sentence diagramming is a powerful tool for visual learners that allows students to see the grammatical relationships between words in a sentence. This activity can help students decode sentences by breaking them down into their grammatical components.

How to Implement: 

• Introduce Sentence Diagramming: Teach students the basics of sentence diagramming—how to identify the subject, verb, object, clauses, and modifiers. You can use simple sentences at first before progressing to more complex ones.
  • I have a resource for that!
• Practice with Sentences from the Text: Provide students with a sentence from the text and guide them through diagramming it. Start with identifying the subject, verb, and object, and then move on to more advanced components – it isn’t completely necessary to diagram every word, in my opinion. Sometimes just breaking down the main parts makes all the difference in comprehension.
• Group Work: Once students are comfortable, have them work in groups to diagram a sentence from the text. Afterward, they should explain the sentence structure to the class.

Example:
This could be especially helpful for a sentence that has a metaphorical meaning like in Romeo and Juliet: “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

A basic diagram of this sentence would include:

• Subject: “It” (a pronoun referring to the balcony)
• Verb: “is” 
• Subject complement: “the east”
• Conjunction: and

• Subject: “Juliet” (noun)
• Verb: “is” 
• Subject complement: “the sun” (metaphorically renames Juliet)

5. Sentence Relay

This interactive version of the Sentence Reconstruction activity simply adds a relay element into retrieving the sentence part cards. It reinforces sentence decoding through physical movement, making it a fun and different option for kinesthetic learners.

How to Implement:

• Prepare Sentences: Write the different parts of the sentence/s from the text on individual pieces of paper or index cards. These cards should be mixed up. Don’t give them to the students in order. 
• Divide the Class: Split the class into teams. Each team will work together to decode the sentences.
• The Relay: One student from each team runs to grab a part of the sentence, then brings it back to their team. The team will then work together to figure out where each part belongs.
  • You could have students answer a question in order to get their next card to add an extra element here as well.
• Reconstruction: Once all parts are collected, the team will work together to reconstruct the full sentence and explain its structure.

Sentence-level decoding is such a necessary skill for students as they read more complex texts. By engaging students in hands-on activities like the ones listed here, teachers can help students improve their ability to decode, understand, and analyze sentences. These activities not only make decoding more interactive and engaging but also build students’ comprehension skills, preparing them for success in reading and writing across all subjects.

What are other ways that you have for teaching grammar and syntax at the secondary level?