Sentence Structure Writing Practice: Scrambled Sentences in the Simple Present

Details

Activity Description

In this activity, students are provided with the scrambled words of a sentence. They must put the words in the correct order, conjugate the verbs correctly, begin the sentence with a capital letter, and end it with proper punctuation.

Preparation

1. Teach the meaning and simple present tense of the following verbs: fix, cry, rise, eat, worry, brush, speak, carry, defend, enjoy, change, and retire.
2. Go through the activity yourself so you understand how it works.

How-To

1. Review the conjugation of a few verbs in the simple present tense.
2. Put the following words on the board (or use the word document found under Example Document 1 projected on a screen) and have the students put them into a sentence in the simple present: "eat, every, she, night, at, 6:00, dinner". Remind them to start their sentences with capital letters and to end them with correct punctuation. Provide additional practice sentences if necessary.
3. Direct students to the Example Web Site (above).
4. Have students put the words into a sentences in the simple present tense and select the Check button. Remind them to conjugate the verbs correctly. They can use the Hint button if they need help.
5. Circulate the room to monitor the activity and provide assistance as needed.

Teacher Tips

• Students should be familiar with basic computer usage and Web site navigation before engaging in this activity.
• The first time you use this Web site, you may want to demonstrate how to use and navigate this site as the advertisements can be very distracting. Teaching your students about ads and how to avoid them is a critical skill today.
• Students will still get the answer correct if they forget to capitalize the first letter of the sentence. Be sure to make students aware of this and emphasize the importance of beginning each sentence with a capital letter. Also, the last few questions are quite challenging, so you may consider having your students do only numbers 1-8 (up through the verb "carry"). Question #10 requires knowledge of gerunds so you should teach that a gerund follows the verb "enjoy", i.e. "I enjoy eating/playing the piano/walking."

More Ways

• This site provides sentence structure writing practice on a number of grammar points including Yes/No questions, Wh- questions, present continuous, present progressive, simple past tense, present perfect tense, future tense, passive voice, adjective clauses, noun clauses, and reported speech.

Program Areas

• ESL: English as a Second Language

Levels

• Beginning High
• Intermediate Low

Documents

• SimplePresentTense.doc - Simple Present Tense

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