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Sentence patterns: The Little Prince

Page history last edited by Bonny Hart 5 years, 1 month ago

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How to use this game

On a more advanced level or with native speakers, the concepts of X-Word Grammar can be applied on the sentence level.

In The Little Prince Game, the student learns about the structures that make a typical English sentence. They also learn about the punctuation that accompanies these structures.

Step 1: Download the files (MSWord tables) and Print them out on card stock.

The game consists of 7 piles of cards. Subjects and predicates are on white cards, but can be told apart by different ink colors. The other structures should be printed out on different colors of card stock.

Subjects (white cards with black type) Sentence Patterns Game. Subjects.docx
Predicates (white cards with brown type) Sentence Patterns Game. Predicates.docx
Linkers Sentence Patterns Games. Linkers.docx
Shifters Sentence Patterns Game.Shifters.docx
Joiners Sentence Patterns Game. Joiners.docx
Inserts Sentence Patterns Game. Inserts.docx
Punctuation Sentence Patterns Game.Punctuation.docx

Step 2: Learn about the Essential Sentence Patterns.

Watch Essential Sentence Patterns Prezi for a general idea.
Background reading:

Alice Deakins, The Writers Sentence (contact Alice for an advance copy)
Linda Ann Kunz, Laurie Gluck, X-Word Grammar Intermediate, Chapter 6
Carolyn Nims McLellan, IC/DC/P, Sentence-Level Editing Techniques (available from the author)

Handouts

View here: Little Prince Essential Sentence Patterns Download here Little Prince essential sentence patterns.doc
Major Sectors in an English Sentence.docx

Step 3: Introduce the game: Show Making Sentences with the Little Prince to give students an idea of what can be done.

Step 4: Playing the Game (Full instructions)

The Basic TRUNK /Subject Predicate.: Hand out the Subject, Predicate, and Punctuation cards. Punctuation cards include CAP cards that can add a capital to the first word of a sentence. Focus: An English sentence consists of a subject and a predicate (verb + object). The first word needs a capital letter. End the sentence with a period.
T, +T and T+= Hand out Linkers (aka FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) Focus: you can join two trunks with a comma and a linker, but one subject and two predicates (2 verbs) does not take a comma.

Example:T, t She loves mysteries, but he loves sci fi. T= She loves mysteries but hates sci fi.

Add Shifters, Joiners, and Inserts one at a time or all together depending on the level of your class. Refer to Essential Sentence Patterns and your reading for more examples and punctuation.

Examples:
Shifter In the middle of the night, Gretchen was awakened by a muffled scream coming from the next room..
Joiner: However, she rolled over and went back to sleep.
Insert: Gretchen, being a teacher, is always lacking in sleep.

Step 4: Check understanding

This is a two-page handout. The answers are on the second page. Little Prince Practice identifying Sentence Patterns.docx

Step 5: Reinforce, Expand

This game was developed by Tamara Kirson using sentences from The Little Prince.

It is based on a game developed by Alice Deakins and Kate Parry, designed for native speakers. That game uses sentences from Lang's Fairy Tales.

Comments (2)

Hello Nicole! I'm so glad that you like The Little Prince Sentence Pattern Game. I had lots of fun creating it, and it is lots of fun to play. In fact, some pretty funny sentences arise, as you anticipate! I piloted it this past April at a workskhop on writing sentences. For your students in the beginning levels, you can work with some of the essential basic patterns, like T. and T=. I hope that the ancillary materials above in Steps 4 and 5 are also helpful. It's so great to have this WIKI to communicate. Thanks to Bonny for the WIKI and taking such good care of The Little Prince : )