Because my trust uses comparative judgement, I’ve got a tonne of writing by pupils from the start of Key Stage 2 to the end of Key Stage 3. I’ve had a good rummage about in science writing from year 3 to year 9 and made a map of how sentence types typically develop in pupils’ science writing. I have found two powerful sentence types that correlate to pupil’s performance.
Two Physics Power Sentence Types
There are two types of sentence (or part of sentence) that form the backbone of physics writing. The first type lets you say what is happening where. E.g.
- The current flows through the wire.
- Gravity pulls the satellite towards the planet.
- A force acts on an object.
The part of the sentence which includes the preposition is called a prepositional phrase (‘towards the planet’, ‘through the wire’ and ‘on an object’. Physicists would find it very difficult to describe anything without them, but typically we don’t teach pupils how to use them.
The second type of sentence is called a complex sentence, though thy don’t have to be particularly complex – just not simple.
- Simple sentence: The block slows down.
- Complex sentence: The block slows down when friction acts on it.
In a complex sentence, two short sentences are joined by a conjunction (e.g. ‘The block slows down,’ and ‘Friction acts on it.’) In physics we often use the conjunctions: because, when, until, as, if… words that link the two short sentences to make a rich new idea. Pupils who can’t do this effectively have trouble explaining their ideas. They may also struggle to develop the idea in the first place.
Reading for Learning 