Sentence Reduction Practice

Reduce complex sentences to core propositions for students with omission patterns.

Use with a student — free
Card 1 of 8
The very tall, friendly dog that lives next door ran quickly across the big green yard. → The dog ran across the yard.
Say it out loud
This pass0 correct · 0 cued · 0 incorrect · 0/8
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Session summary (SOAP)

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Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.

How to run it

Ask what the sentence is fundamentally saying rather than which words to cut. Who did what to what is the question, and the answer produces the core sentence without any decisions about deleting. This is the reverse of expansion and it is genuinely useful for a student who loses the thread of long sentences in reading — finding the main clause is how a complex sentence becomes readable. Ten minutes covers the eight.

Cueing ladder

Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.

  1. Step 1IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
  2. Step 2HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
  3. Step 3Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
  4. Step 4ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued

Adjust it

Easier

Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.

Harder

Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.

Matching IEP goal

Given sentence cards, Student will produce the target grammatical form in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.

Send it home through the parent portal →

About this activity

Eight long sentences reduced to their core: the very tall, friendly dog that lives next door ran quickly across the big green yard becomes the dog ran across the yard; my grandmother, who loves to bake, made a chocolate cake for my birthday party becomes Grandma made a cake; the loud thunderstorm that started after dinner knocked out the power on our whole street becomes the storm knocked out the power.

What to listen for

Watch whether the main verb is retained. A student who reduces to the dog next door has kept a noun phrase and lost the sentence, which shows they are cutting words rather than finding the proposition. Notice the sentence with an opening phrase — on Saturday morning — since students often keep the first words out of habit rather than importance.

Carrying it home

Long sentences in reading are the material. Asking who did what, when a sentence gets tangled, is a five-second comprehension rescue that works on any text.

What's in this activity

  • The very tall, friendly dog that lives next door ran quickly across the big green yard. → The dog ran across the yard.
  • My grandmother, who loves to bake, made a chocolate cake for my birthday party. → Grandma made a cake.
  • The bright yellow school bus that picks us up every morning was five minutes late. → The bus was late.
  • After a long day at school, the tired students happily went home to rest. → The students went home.
  • The small gray kitten with white paws jumped onto the wooden kitchen table. → The kitten jumped on the table.
  • The loud thunderstorm that started after dinner knocked out the power on our whole street. → The storm knocked out the power.
  • On Saturday morning, my whole family drove two hours to visit my cousins in the city. → We visited our cousins.
  • The old wooden fence behind the garden finally fell over during the windy night. → The fence fell over.

Questions

What grades is this for?
Third through fifth, and it is particularly useful for students who lose the thread of long sentences.
Is it free?
Yes, all eight sentences play with no account.
Why practise reducing rather than expanding?
Because reading requires it. A student who can find the main clause in a long sentence can understand it; one who cannot gets lost in the modifiers, which is a common and fixable comprehension problem.

Use this board with your caseload

With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.

Track progress free

Free for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.