Sentence construction  

Starter

Students have to use the words shown on the presentation to build sentences. A mark is awarded for each word used in their final sentence, and the longest sentence wins.

The words provided can easily be replaced by any customised selection. It is expected that students will work in small groups, with every care taken to ensure that all students participate. The size and composition of the groups is determined by the teacher, but groups of more than four students are unlikely to be fully engaged. The activity can be differentiated for the less able by providing some groups with complete phrases, rather than individual words or short extracts, which can then be constructed into meaningful complex sentences.

The teacher may wish to give one or two ‘wild card’ options which will allow students to use a word or phrase that is not provided, in order to construct a sentence of their choice. If this option is allowed, a sensible limit should be placed upon the number of constituent words.

Plenary

Discussion topics include:

• Construction of complex sentences
• Use of connectives
• Extended sentences expressing a continuation of an idea
• GCSE strategies in relation to extended sentences
• Building a bank of expressions that can be used to construct extended complex sentences.

Sentence construction presentation