My favorite games are . . .
At the weekend, I like/don't like . . .
In the morning, I . . .
My favorite time of the day is . . .
After school, I . . .
My favorite time of the year is . . .
In school, I like . . .
My favorite place is . . .
In school, I don't like . . .
My favorite music is . . .
My favorite foods are . . .
My favorite movies are . . .
My favorite TV shows are . . .
I am good at . . .
My family is made up of . . .
My earliest memory is . . .
What I like least about living in (name the country) is . . .
What I'd like to do better in (name a subject) is . . .
What I like best about living in (name the country) is . . .
Figure 5.9: Successful Sentence Starters
very helpful to have picture dictionaries available, including bilingual picture dictionaries, to help students in locating words. (See Appendix E for a list of picture/visual dictionaries.) Procedure 1. Demonstrate to students what they need to do. For example, Katharine might say, “My favorite sports are soccer, tennis, and hiking” or “My earliest memory is of riding a donkey on a beach in Wales” and then talk about any unfamiliar words. 2. If students aren’t familiar with the picture dictionary, show them how it is organized. 3. Give students about five to ten minutes to write their sentences. 4. Students share what they have generated, in pairs, small groups, or the entire class, depending on the size of the group, the sentence starter, and what you hope to accomplish. For example, if you are doing a unit on family and you want students to know a little more about each other, you might ask the whole class to sit in a circle and take turns sharing who is in their family. On the other hand, you may decide to have students do a pair-share about favorite movies and then have the class generate a graph of favorite movies.
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Teaching English Language Learners: Grades 6 & Up © Katherine Davies Samway & Dorothy Taylor, Scholastic Teaching Resources
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