www.teachit.co.uk/choptalk
Sorting out sentences
4
Choptalk
The activity
This activity was designed to test a year 8 group’s understanding of
different sentence types. Students were shown a short paragraph
which had been chopped into word jigsaw pieces. They had to piece
it together again, focusing on the different kinds of sentences used.
The students had previously done work on simple, compound and
complex sentences and were starting to experiment with the structure
of sentences. As they walked into the class, the board was already
displaying the chopped text. Identical paper versions were available
on each desk, ready for the students to chop up and work with in
pairs. This made the activity more kinaesthetic for the students and
helped to focus them on the task as soon as they sat down.
The Choptalk bit
Before the lesson, paste a short paragraph which contains a mix of sentence types into Choptalk. The following example
is available in KS>Skills>Sentence level work in grammar and punctuation>Sorting out sentences - Jamie Oliver
As they were late for their new ‘Jamie Oliver’ lunch, the girls ran quickly down the corridor. They were
hungry. Sandy was looking forward to the pasta and Julie was hoping that there was some vegetable stew left.
Select a suitable number of characters for each word jigsaw piece (more able students will need a lower number, as this
gives them more jigsaw pieces) and ‘chop’ the text. If you want to get the students experimenting with the paper copy,
you’ll also need to print and copy it for them. You won’t be able to manipulate the shape, size or print quality of the
pieces if you print straight from the Choptalk screen, so you may prefer to type the ‘chopped’ paragraph into a Word
document before printing the paper version.
You can use an IWB for this activity, although a computer and a projector displaying the image is all you need to focus
attention. Explain to the students that they are looking at three separate sentences and draw out the differences between
the sentence types. Give the class a set time to try to order the words, stressing that there may be more than one
possible solution but that they need to be able to justify their sentence choices.
After the allowed time has elapsed, draw the class together and ask pairs to start to link possible words together on
the big screen. Ask other students whether they agree or disagree and what their reasons are. You should slowly be able
to get to the finished sentences (although it is quite possible that the sentences may be in a different order).
Tweaking it
Compile a series of these activities, making them progressively harder by reducing the number of characters in each split.
Get the class to explore how the three sentences can be compiled into one sentence by adding and subtracting words.
For instance, the simple ‘They were hungry’ sentence can be dropped, instead describing the girls as ‘hungry girls’.
© Teachit (UK) Ltd 2006
The following lesson, get the whole class working in pairs on computers. This time, students use Syntex to help them
experiment with different versions of the paragraph. Give different pairs different challenges, e.g. add a clause in
brackets, add another ten words, remove eight words.
Focus on punctuation by giving students a version of the text with no punctuation and no capital letters. The activity
falls into two parts: reassemble the text and then identify what punctuation is needed. Students should be aware that
there can be more than one ‘right answer’; however, you can introduce tighter rules by telling them what sentence
types you’re looking for, and how many, and even the number of punctuation marks you want.
Thanks to Eddie Halliday,
Ninestiles Technology College, Birmingham
Download a PDF version of this activity
at www.teachit.co.uk/theworks