Margin Notes

The New York Times feature What’s Going On in This Picture? is a simple way to help students notice and apply syntax. This quick routine moves students from observation to sentence building, sentence expanding, and sentence combining. Each step is followed by class discussion and sharing opportunities.

Here’s a version using this NYTimes image.

Step 1: Observe and Build a Who + Do Chart

Ask students to study the image silently first.

Give students a two-column organizer labeled:

• Who (subject)
• Do (verb/action)

WHO	DO
child in animal ears	lies across chairs
child in bird costume	sits upright
boy next to him	looks to the side
girl in front row	looks down
children	wear costumes

Step 2: Write Kernel Sentences

Students turn each row into a short, direct sentence.

• The child lies across the chairs.
• The child sits upright.
• The boy looks to the side.
• The girl looks down.
• The children wear costumes.

Step 3: Expand with Adjectives and Adverbs

Now students add detail.

Ask: Which one? What kind? How many? How? When? Where?

• The tired child lies across the metal chairs.
• The serious child sits upright in a dark costume.
• The curious boy looks to the side quietly.
• The young girl looks down at her hands.
• Several children wear colorful costumes.

Step 4: Combine Sentences

Students now combine related ideas using conjunctions or clauses. Offer combining stems: while, as, because, when, who is/who are

• The tired child lies across the chairs while the serious child sits upright beside him.
• Several children wear costumes as they sit in rows of chairs.
• The boy looks to the side while the girl looks down at her hands.

 Step 5: Create

Have students return to a paragraph they are currently drafting and revise two short sentences by expanding or combining them using today’s syntax moves.

Reading Transfer

When students build sentences themselves, they understand how meaning is constructed. Later, when they hit a long or complex sentence in a text, they have a way in. They can ask:

• Who is this about?
• What are they doing?
• When, where, why, how?

Instead of getting stuck, they break the sentence apart and rebuild the meaning, just like they practiced with the image.

Writing Transfer

• Writing complete subject–verb sentences
• Adding precise detail
• Combining ideas into more fluent sentences
• Varying sentence structure intentionally

This lesson was inspired by William Van Cleave’s Syntax Matters: The Link Between Sentence Writing & Sentence Comprehending