Doodling for Complex Sentences

Are your students struggling with making sentences more complex?

Many students can write simple sentences, and run-on sentences, but they struggle with writing solid complex sentences.

This written activity is a fun way to get students to sculpt more complex sentences using relative clauses and transition words.

Before ANY of this, my students have learned different transition words, how to use them where to use them relative pronouns, etc.

Pre-Activity:  
I usually start by drawing a few random doodles on the board. describe what a doodle is. If students guess scribble, I also accept this word as appropriate.Then, I ask what they see in the doodles. Once they see how doodles can be changed into different forms, we are ready to start!

Activity: This can be arranged in many ways, but I like to have students sit in circles.

Step One Doodle on different pieces of paper and 

STEP ONE Each student gets a paper with a doodle drawn (Note: To make this a no prep activity, students may make the first doodle, but I find giving them a doodle tends to work out better.)

STEP TWO Each student expands on the picture. I know the picture below vague, but notice how the student turned the doodle into a rabbit!

STEP THREE (optional) Have the students write one or two words describing their picture. Again looking at the picture to the below, the student could write something like, "An animal," or, "A rabbit,"

Have a box of transition words and relative prnounouns

STEP FOUR The students pass the paper to another student. The student will form a sentence describing the picture: "The rabbit is tall"

STEP FIVE Pass the paper again. This time students also take (or are given) a piece of paper with a random connecting word.  They are told to find a way to make the sentence longer using that word, "The rabbit is tall; however, he is fat."

STEP FIVE  There are multiple ways to do this. I like having students pass the doodling paper to the right, and their connecting word to the left. The students then needed to add another word to the sentence, "The rabbit, who is furry, is tall; however, he is fat."

STEP SIX At this point you can continue having the students pass connecting words to the left and doodles to the right, or you can give out new connecting words.

STEP SEVEN Continue step six until students become bored you you have had them make at least four rotations.

STEP EIGHT Finally, the last time students don't add to the sentence. Their job is to read through the sentence, which at this point can be quite complex, and make it coherent.

STEP NINE Students present the final pictures to the class as well as the final description of the picture.

 Why it Works 
Students could get bored by this, but because the pictures are so random almost every time it goes like this:
Teacher: OK pass the paper to the next student please.
Student 1: What is that?
Student 2: What did you draw?
Student 3: Oh my god this sentence is ridiculous.

They are ALWAYS entertained!

This is also a great activity to use with adjectives or any other clauses. Basically, anything where students add onto a basic sentence. If you want students to practice speaking you can have them do this in partners.

This activity isn't directly humorous, but I PROMISE you that your students will laugh at some of the doodles created and sentences written.  On August 2nd the deadline for submitting your blog to be part of the ELT Blog Carnival on Humor will CLOSE! Don't miss out!

Cootie Catcher - Speaking Activity

Step 16

Do you struggle getting your students to talk? This is a great activity that can be used for most vocabulary and grammar you want to practice. The example here was done with colors, and fruits. At the end you'll see one done with weather and emotions (so probably A1 or A2 on the CEFR scale). You can make this more complex for higher level students as well!

You can also use this to have students review listening (you verbally give directions and they have to listen and follow them). Depending on the age level and whether they have made these before, this takes between 5 to 20 minutes.


Follow steps 1-15 from the last post (or check out the video on this post).

Step 17 Draw the points

From there follow these directions (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger). NOTE: These are the simplified directions; with higher level students, feel free to omit what you feel can go unsaid:

16. Unfold the paper; it should look like the photo on the upper left (the colors have been added to make the creases stand out).

17. Have your students locate the 8 small triangles in the middle.
Each triangle will get one drawing.  Either a sad face, a happy face, a bomb, or star. There should be 3 sad faces, 3 happy faces, one bomb and one star in total. 

Step 21 draw a category

18. Fold the four bigger triangles to the center (making a square).

19. Flip the paper over.

20. Have your students find the four squares.

21. In each square have them draw one ________ (whatever you want them to practice: countries, toys, prepositions, school supplies, etc.). In this case fruits.

Step 24 Draw a different category

22. Flip the paper over again.

23. Have them find the 8 triangles.

24. Draw (or write) 8 different things. In this case colors.

Now your students are ready to play!

Rules of the game

Question 1

General Rules

1. ONLY ENGLISH may be spoken! Students found speaking a language other than English will lose all of their points.
2. Students should speak in grammatically correct COMPLETE sentences to play. If their partner catches a mistake they may say, "Can you repeat that?" or, "Come again?" or anything else they have learned so that their partner can restate the sentence.

How to Play

1. Find a partner
2. Ask the partner a question (For lower levels, "Do you like fruit?" For higher levels, "If you could ban one of these four fruits from the world which would it be?")

   

   Question 2

3. Listen to your partners answer, (For lower levels, "Yes, I like apples." For higher levels, "Oranges should be banned because they take forever to peel!")
4. Move the cootie catcher the number of syllables/ letters their answer has (app-les: two syllables, or a-p-p-l-e-s: 6 letters)
5. Ask them another question, (Again lower level, "What's best?" Higher level, "What color do you think is overused today?")
6. Listen to their answer (Lower level, "Yellow is best" Higher level, "Yellow is used far too much because companies think it makes us hungry. Think about it, Burger King, McDonald's, they all use yellow")
7. Open the

   

   Final Answer

   triangle flap to find a happy face, sad face, bomb or star.
8. Switch partners and repeat.
9. Find a new partner and repeat

SCORING

• A smiley face is worth 1 point
• A sad face is worth -1 point
• A bomb means you lose all your points
• A star means you get 5 points

The purpose of the game is to get 10 points!

SCORING VARIATIONS

Template

• I used to put the 6 faces, star and bomb on a piece of paper. Students cut them out and then put them on the cootie catcher. This made sure they got the number of each correct.
• Make a different scoring system (maybe the star is worth two and a sun is wroth 5)
• Make the goal to talk to everyone in the class, not get points (in this case it is usually better with higher level students as you can practice telling fortunes or giving proverbs instead of getting points).

OTHER VARIATIONS

• When I did something like this with my really little ones (3 years old) I pre-folded all of them.
• Give them a pre-printed cootie catcher to start. When they have the folds "pre-written" on a piece of paper they tend to fold faster. For example the template to the right could be used to review emotions and the weather.
• Often to start the class we brainstorm as much of the relevant vocabulary as we can think of drawing pictures on the board. This gives them a visual to look at later when they are designing their cootie catcher.
• Bring magazines in and have them put pictures of celebrities on it. This can work with questions like, "If you had to become a celebrity which one would you become?" or just, "Who do you like?"
• It can help to draw a sample on the board, but you risk students copying it directly so I like to draw it with some blanks (like above) to encourage creativity.
• If you make them generic enough this is a great filler game. Just plug in whatever new grammar topic you learned and have them use it at the end of class. For example: If you just learned relative phrases ask, "What do you think is Paris Hilton's favorite weather?" "Paris Hilton, who loves to tan, likes it sunny."

Would you ever use cootie catchers in class? How do you use cootie catchers in class?

Modifier Memes

In class we were reviewing the importance of where things are in a sentence. Participial phrases, appositives, relative clauses, and all other modifiers need to be near the noun they are referring to or the sentence changes. To prove this fact a student made this.

Not perfect grammar, but the point is there :)

Whose whom is whose? (or is it who?)

The easiest way, for me, to help students remember who, whom and whose is to outline the differences on a chart. I tell them that Who,Whom, and Whose each have a matching pronoun.

Who is used in cases where the answer is He, She, or They.

Ke$ha, who spells her name with a dollar sign, sings songs. Who sings songs? SHE sings songs!

Katy Perry, who kissed a girl, had Ke$ha in her music video. Who kissed a girl? SHE kissed a girl!

Whom is used where the answer is Him, Her, or Them.

This is easy to remember because the m in whom matched the m in Him and Them (females as usual complicate things).

Ke$ha, whom is loved by many, sings songs.

Whom do they love? Many love HER!

Whose is used for the answer His, Hers or Theirs.

This is easy to remember because of the S in whose and his, hers and theirs.

Ke$ha, whose song “Boots and Boys” is my favorite, sings songs.

Whose song is it? The song is HERS.

Katy Perry, whose music videos are popular, had Ke$ha in her music video.

Whose music videos are popular? HERS are popular.

So that's what I find the easiest way to remember when to use what. However, some students work better if they know the rules.

WHO is used when the person is the subject of the verb. The person is doing the action.

Ke$ha, who dances, loves boots and boys. (SHE dances)

Ke$ha, who is crazy, loves boots and boys. (SHE is crazy)

Ke$ha, who rocks, loves boots and boys. (SHE rocks)

Ke$ha, who parties hard, loves boots and boys. (SHE parties hard)

Ke$ha,who doesn't like James VanDerBeek loves boots and boys. (SHE doesn't like James)

etc.

In all of those cases Ke$ha is the subject.

WHOM is used with the person is the object. They are receiving the action.

Ke$ha, whom I love, loves boots and boys. (I love HER. She doesn't love me)

Ke$ha, whom James VanDerBeek fights, loves boots and boys. (James VanDerBeek fights HER. We don't know yet if she fights him back.)

Ke$ha, whom my neighbors found drunk in their bathtub, loves boots and boys. (My neighbors found HER. Ke$ha didn't find them.)

Ke$ha,whom my priest never listens to, loves boots and boys. (My priest never listens to HER. We don't know if she listens to the priest.)

etc.

WHOSE is used to show possession.

Ke$ha, whose teeth wish she would stop using booze to brush them, loves boots and boys. (The teeth are HERS)

Ke$ha, whose album sold more than mine, loves boots and boys. (The album that's HERS sold more)

Ke$ha, whose love of singing shows, loves boots and boys. (The love of singing is HERS)

Ke$ha, whose mother was a singer, loves boots and boys. (The mother is HERS)

Ke$ha,whose outfits in music videos are always fun, loves boots and boys. (The outfits are HERS)

etc.

One last thing.

Who and Whom are only used for people...with a few exceptions. Depending on your love for animals many people use who(m) for pets. I have seen some people take this so far as to use it for all animals, but usually that isn't the case.

Rarely, for poetic license, countries or cities will use who or whom.

So that's it. Now you know all there is about who, whose and whom. The only thing left is to review the difference between defining and non-defining clauses (check out which vs that for more on those).

What activities can be done to review these with a class? One that works well is to find a brief news article and have students combine the sentences. This also lends itself easily to flyswatter (just write the relative pronouns on the board). It would work better if you could use a smartboard or similar so you could have the words move every turn (since there are so few). 

What activities do you use to have students practice who, whom and whose? 

Which vs That

When teaching relative clauses there are two hard parts. Defining vs Non-Defining clauses and the differences between who, whom and whose.

Who vs Whom has gotten some popularity in Internet memes, but which vs that still has not been given as much attention. I predict within the next 10 years people will start insulting people for using it incorrectly in YouTube comments.

In order to understand the difference between which and that you need to understand the essentials of comma usage with relative clauses, in short the difference between defining(essential) and non-defining (non-essential) clauses.

When I teach I tell students to think of commas as balloons. When something is surrounded by commas that information can “fly away” since the balloons tell you it isn't necessary.

My boyfriend, who is a teacher, is sexy.

The information in the commas is non-defining. We already know who my boyfriend is we don't need to know that he is a teacher. Thus: “My boyfriend is sexy” has the same essential meaning.

My boyfriend who is a teacher is sexy.

Without the commas, “who is a teacher” becomes defining or essential information. This means the information is needed or we don't know who I am talking about. It suggests I have more than one boyfriend and the one who is a teacher is sexy (perhaps the engineer whom I am also dating is not sexy).

So let's try it with another sentence.

My friend, who lives in Paris, is speaks French.

How many friends do I have based on that sentence? Just one, or more?

Since there are commas, it is extra information. Consequently the sentence suggests I only have one friend.

 
My friend who lives in Paris is speaks French.

On the other hand this sentence has no commas. This suggests that the relative clause is necessary thus I have more than one friend.

Got it? Let's check. Select the correct sentence:

My cat who is my only pet is annoying. OR
My cat, who is my only pet, is annoying. (yes I use who with pets).

Since I only have one cat the relative clause is not needed and thus should be in commas: My cat, who is my only pet, is annoying.

How does this apply to which and that?

Which is ONLY used with extra information clauses, whereas that is ONLY used with defining clauses.

For example.

News that is controlled by the rich is biased.

This sentence requires the relative clause, hence it suggests that some news is not controlled by rich people and only news controlled by rich people is biased.

News, which is controlled by the rich, is biased.

Conversely, in this sentence the relative clauses is unneeded and the sentence could be re-written as, “News is biased,” thus it suggests that all news is biased.

Starbucks that is near the park has the cutest employee.

There are many Starbucks in the city and this sentence is talking about the one specific Starbucks found near the park.

Starbucks, which is near the park, has the cutest employee.

There is only one Starbucks (weird, but that's true in some cases) and it has the cutest employee.

The last difference is easy. Which is ONLY used with objects. That is used with objects and people.

To recap

Which is ALWAYS used with commas and objects.

That is ALWAYS used without commas for objects and people.

So try it out:

A. My television, which is the only one I have, is broken

B. My television that is the only one I have is broken.

C. My television which is the only one I have is broken.

D. My television, that is the only one I have, is broken.

I only have one TV, so the relative clause should be in commas (so it is A or D) and since we never use that with commas the correct answer is A.

Again!

A. Justin Bieber's album, which was his debut album, sold tons of copies.

B. Justin Bieber's album that was his debut album sold tons of copies.

C. Justin Bieber's album which was his debut album sold tons of copies.

D. Justin Bieber's album, that was his debut album, sold tons of copies.

Justin Bieber has had more than one album. So the relative clause is needed, otherwise we aren't sure which album they are talking about. As a result, we can say the correct sentence has no commas and is either B or C. Since we ALWAYS use commas with which the answer is B.

Once more!
A.Tyra Banks' TV show, which isn't cancelled, is my reality TV addiction.

B. Tyra Banks' TV show, that isn't cancelled, is my reality TV addiction.

C. Tyra Banks' TV show which isn't cancelled is my reality TV addiction.

D. Tyra Banks' TV show that isn't cancelled is my reality TV addiction.

Tyra used to have a talk show. Now, she just has a modeling show. Since there is more than one Tyra television show, we need the relative clause. Consequently, our answer can't have commas and has to use that. That means the answer is D.

Hope that helps! Do you have any special activities you do when you are talking about defining vs non-defining clauses? I tend to just try to make my students practice with a lot of worksheets that I make as interesting as I can with celebrities, current movies, crazy examples etc.

Like You're vs Your Flyswatter is a great game for reviewing this. I also like finding weird news articles and making them combine the sentences using which or that.

How do you get students to practice definind vs non-defining phrases? 

Commonly Mixed Up Words

So in the TOEFL class we go over commonly mixed up words such as Lay vs Lie, Sensitive and Sensible etc. I just came accross Grammar Cat and I LOVE it! In addition to Lay vs Lie

there's also Your vs You're

and Who vs Whom

If you are in need of an appropriate grammar comic (that doesn't use the F word) you may want to check out Grammar Cat

If you areinterested in other grammar comics, check out the post here.