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Sentence basics
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Articles
(Literacy curriculum - Ws/E3.1)
Thanks to Susan F for this idea.
Make a set of cards for constructing sentences and see what happens to the meaning when you shuffle bits around - especially using different articles such as; a/an, the, this/these, that/those, any, all, each, every etc.
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Food for thought
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.1)
Select your favourite recipes from the Food website and print them out. Highlight imperatives, adverbs and adverbial phrases in a recipe and discuss their effect.
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Making more interesting sentences
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Plurals and collective nouns
(Literacy curriculum - Wt/L1.1, Wt/L1.2)
Plurals: you could combine this with the ever-popular collective nouns. Starting with the conventional ones (some lists are available in books or on the internet), make up appropriate collective nouns for things which don't have one or might have a better one. The spelling of the plural is an unavoidable part of writing a collective noun phrase. This is very good as a group activity because the ideas of one person tend to inspire another.
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Knowledge of grammatical terms – game challenge
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.5)
Despite being aimed at teenagers, many of your learners should find this game enjoyable. By answering questions on different English topics such as punctuation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Players can collect bones to power their caveman car from one level to the next.
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Fridge magnets
(Literacy curriculum - Ws/E3.1)
Thanks to Susan F for this idea.
I've seen a set of fridge magnets which allow you to make up your own car review in the style of Jeremy Clarkson. You could create some cards based on this idea but limit them to a few common nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles and conjunctions or base it on a theme. Then everyone can explore rearranging a sentence in different ways and see what effect it has. This could be to compare statements, commands and questions or merely be on the level of subject versus object. The, this and that are quite different from a/an or some, all etc.
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Personality quizzes
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.1)
Once learners have made other people's adverts more interesting using the Skillswise Adjectives game, maybe they'd like to try some personality quizzes to 'describe' themselves. 'Refresh' is the BBC's teen's site but it has a lot of quiz material suitable for a broader age range. Do you want to know what kind of animal you are?
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Acronyms
(Literacy curriculum - Ww/L1.1)
Thanks to Susan F for this idea.
A good game is to make a sentence using specific starting letters. There are lots of variants. The simplest variant is probably acronyms. Pick a word and then try to make a sentence or description using the letters of that word as the starting letter. Students can use this method to help them remember spelling of difficult words.
Here are some examples I made for the BBC Great Britons series:
- ACRONYMS also capture relevance of names you mention standardly.
- DIANA died in a nonsensical accident.
- LENNON left emotive novelty narratives on notes.
- BRUNEL built radically upon normal engineering laws.
- SHAKESPEARE scripted humorous and knowledgeable essays still performed everywhere and reputedly educational.
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EastEnders
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.1)
Get your students to write a personal ad for their favourite EastEnders character. Do they think Pauline needs help with her love life? Visit the character page to print out summaries of each character.
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Punctuation
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60 Seconds
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.2)
Take a look at the 60 Seconds site, which has shorter news stories in an easier to read format. Print out a news story and ask learners to highlight the commas and discuss why they are there.
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Commas, recipes and shopping lists
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.2)
At the BBC Food site tickle your tastebuds by browsing through the recipes. You could write out recipes with a small number of ingredients and ask learners to write a shopping list using commas.
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Punctuation in film reviews
(Literacy curriculum - Ws/L1.3)
Take a look at film reviews on the Films website. You could print out your favourite film reviews and create a version which is missing parts of the punctuation, such as commas and/or apostrophes. Then ask the learners to read the reviews and put the punctuation back in.
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Words with live chats
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.1,Rs/L1.1,Rs/L1.2,Ws/L1.2,Ws/l1.3)
At bbc.co.uk/talk you can find a whole host of transcripts from live chats with celebrities. By printing out the transcripts and reading the interviews, students can look for punctuation errors, contractions and unusual words that might be used by different celebrities. The transcripts show how certain people talk, but the English isn't always perfect. Get learners to rewrite sections into better English, correcting any grammar mistakes the celebrities may have made!
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Getting the right tense
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Send us your inspirations!
We currently don't have any ideas for getting the right tense.
If you have a teaching inspiration for this section please email it to us at skillswise.resources@bbc.co.uk or post it to the Teaching ideas section of the Messageboard.
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Types of text
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Food for thought
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.1)
Select your favourite recipes from the Food website and print them out. Highlight imperatives, adverbs and adverbial phrases in a recipe and discuss their effect.
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