This Complex Sentences & Conjunctions Assessment provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of clauses, subordinating conjunctions and complex sentences through a variety of tasks. It includes a comprehensive rubric that enables teachers to evaluate students' skills at multiple achievement levels.

How to Complete

1. Students begin by identifying features of complex sentences.
2. Students use the provided subordinating conjunctions to write complex sentences.
3. Students identify and explain the purpose of the dependent clause within a complex sentence.
4. Students rewrite sentences to create a complex sentence that include a suitable conjunction.
5. Students explain the role of subordinating conjunctions in complex sentences.
6. Students choose an appropriate subordinating conjunction to complete a sentence and explain how it changes the relationship between the clauses.
7. Finally, students write a descriptive paragraph comprising of at least 3 complex sentences based on a prompt.

Additional Tips

1. Pre-Assessment Review: Review types of clauses, subordinating conjunctions and complex sentence structure before the assessment to set students up for success.
2. Provide Examples: Go through a sample sentence in each section to clarify expectations for students.
3. Allow Discussions: Pair students briefly before the assessment to discuss how they approach sentence and clause identification.

Extension Ideas

1. Self-Assessment: Have students use the rubric to assess their own work before submission, encouraging reflection on their understanding.
2. Peer Review: Allow students to swap papers and review each other’s explanations, discussing how corrections and classifications were made.
3. Real-Life Application: Ask students to identify examples of clauses, subordinating conjunctions, and complex sentences from their favourite books.

The resource is part of our Year 4 English Unit: Complex Sentences & Conjunctions.