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Scrambled Sentences.


Here's a group exercise for teaching listening skills and correct sentence construction. Make a list of sentences that follow the same pattern and that can be mixed and matched. For example:-

    John - rode his bike - to the store - to buy some candy - on a hot day - in summer.

    Bill and Sue - walked - to the museum - to see a dinosaur - on a cloudy day - in winter.

    My mother - drove her car - to the supermarket - to buy dinner - on a rainy day - in autumn.

    I - took a bus - to the park - to fly a kite - on a windy day - in spring.

Make a copy of your sentences for each group of students and cut them up into sense groups, as defined by the hyphens in the above examples (which, of course, you wouldn't put into your sentences). You'll also need to make a master list of sentences of twenty or so combinations for yourself. Not that you'll need that many but its nice to be able to pick and choose which sentences you want to use. Keep each copy of the now cutout sentences in its own envelope and the master list in a folder until you want to use them. I would also suggest that you limit your groups to two or three students per group. This is a relatively simple exercise and too many people in the group would only spoil it. I also usually limit myself to four and sometimes five sense groups per sentence but the first time you do this exercise you may only want to use three.

When you first come to do this exercise you may want to introduce it as a whole class activity using flashcards. Bring along four or five different groups of flashcards representing the different parts of the sentence and line them up along the shelf of the whiteboard facing inwards. Then when you've told the students what they are going to do show only the cards that are to be used for the sentence and have the students make the sentence. When they start to become familiar with that change it around a bit. Walk around the class and point to a student and say the first part of the sentence, then point to another student and say the second part of the sentence, and so on until the sentence is finished. Then say 'go' and the students have to each find their own particular card and then arrange them in the correct order. After you've done this a few times its time to move on to the cut up sentences. A word of warning though, the first time you do this exercise you'll probably have to repeat the sentence a hundred times. That's OK though, you can't expect the students to be great listeners their first time out of the gate. The goal is a gradual increase in their listening abilities.