Student Generated Sentences
(based on The Silent Way Approach)

Tilla Elahi-Region 7
Office of Adult and Continuing Education
ESOL Teacher at Williamsburg Works

Lesson Title: Student-Generated Sentences

Focus of Lesson: To encourage the students to use and internalize grammatical structures in English.

Objectives:

• To hear and practice the melody of the English Language
• To practice pronunciation
• To understand and recognize grammatical functions
• To encourage students to think
• To encourage focusing and induction

Level of Students: Beginning Level

Applicable Learning Standards: ELA 1: read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

Preparation Time: The teacher should be familiar with the philosophy and some of the techniques of The Silent Way.

Implementation Time: one class period of 45 minutes (variable)

Materials and Supplies:

• Classroom board
• Easel and pad
• Metal pointer

Room Arrangement: Students will sit in the front of the room close to the board and easel.

Introduction to Teachers: Very often students repeat what they hear and copy it down without really understanding what they’re doing. When this happens they are very likely to forget and repeat the same errors. Here the students can internalize the melody of the English language and the grammatical structures and functions. The students will also get accustomed to correcting their own work rather than waiting for the teacher’s response and approval.

Procedure:

Introduction to Activity:

Ask the students to come close to the board with their chairs. Tell them that they are going to create this lesson by choosing words and making sentences in English. They will be creating both questions and statements in English. They will also be helping each other.

Development of Activity:

Ask the students to give you some men’s and women’s names. Induce them to say the pronouns for these names. (If you don’t want to say ……… you can say……..)

Write these words on the board. Point to two of the names and induce the students to provide the word "and." Write the word "or" and place it next to "and." In a box on the bottom write the following symbols: C ? , . C stands for capital, ? is for a question, , is a comma. . is a period. These symbols are going to be pointed to, but not verbalized. Ask the students to provide you with three verbs or action words. In addition, write down forms of the verb-BE (am, is, are). Also write down the words "do" and "does" and "yes" and "no."

she her they them we us he him

Anna Aslee Nancy Jonathan

and or is are see talk yes no

dance

ing s ‘s n’t at with to

C ? , .

Begin to form sentences using the words on the board.

Point to the words as you verbalize them.

Have the students repeat the sentences, paying close attention to the intonation and stress.

Form some easy questions as well. Have the students practice repeating the sentences.

Now you can add, "s", ‘s, and "n’t." Also you can add other structures: "at, to, with, adjectives etc." Form some short sentences using these forms.

For example: Nancy sees Jonathan. Jonathan doesn’t dance.

After some practice with the technique and forms have the students write down a few sentences. They move their chairs back to the tables. They are then directed to come back to the group and individually write their sentences on the easel pad. Have the individual student point and say the sentence as naturally as possible as you point. The other students should be silent and watch. If the student makes an error, just point to the incorrect word again. Try to get the student to correct him or herself. After all of the students in the group have a chance to read their sentences, have different students read the sentences.

Have the students write a few more sentences on the easel. Now that they are more familiar with the structures and the technique, they will find it easier to do. This time the individual students do the pointing (and not the teacher) while other students speak. Encourage the students to help each other.

Follow-Up or Extension: Have the students type their sentences using a word processing program. Print it and give it out to them.

Assessment: The students will be assessed by their ability to generate grammatically correct sentences, their participation verbalizing and pointing out sentences. The teacher is responsible for this assessment visually and for the final written product.

Reflection of Lesson: I was rather surprised as to the students’ focus during this lesson. They were particularly cooperative. Also, some students remarked, "Oh, now I see. Now I understand. When I asked them, they said they found this type of lesson difficult, but very stimulating.