Using minor sentences for major impact in creative writing

This standalone lesson on impactful minor sentences develops the skills of students who are already confident creating grammatically complete sentences.

The first part of the lesson involves reading an extract from a fiction text that uses minor sentences to create a sense of distortion and discomfort.

The second part of the lesson involves explicit teaching of the qualities of a minor sentence with an interactive activity to check understanding.

Once the teacher is satisfied that students understand what minor sentences are and why we use them, there is a writing task that gives students a choice of four different scenarios.

The lesson ends with structured peer assessment.

The presentation is on a pale yellow background with sans serif font. There is a handout that explains the features and uses of minor sentences, with examples from the text we look at in the lesson.

Resources are in original form (PowerPoint/Word) and in pdf form.

This lesson requires specific prior knowledge: students need to already understand how to form a grammatically complete sentence.