English I Through ESOL - The School District of Palm Beach County

Story Grammars
Objective: Identify a common organizational pattern or “grammar” of a reading text.
Procedure: Introduce story grammars by using the Language Experience Approach. The
second time, have each group prepare one. Once groups have mastered story grammars,
individuals can prepare their own, but include incentives for the group to help individual
members. For example, you might want to give a team a point for each member who receives a
grade of B or higher.
Example: Setting:___, Characters:___, ___,Problem:___, Goal:___, Events Leading to goal
(list in order):___, ___, ___,Resolution: ___(Three possibilities include: character solves
problem, character learns to live with problem, problem defeats character)
Note: Story grammars help students understand that most stories have a common organization,
and they help students to write reports, evaluate the quality of stories, and write their own
stories.
Judgment
Objective: Read a text for the purpose of identifying facts and opinions.
Procedure: On five separate strips of paper, each team writes (or copies) 5 sentences from the
text that show facts and opinions. Teams write their team name on the backs of the 5 strips, and
swap their sentences. Teams read the sentence strips they have, and place them in either a fact
basket or opinion basket in front of the room. The teacher reads each sentence strip from the
two baskets. For each, the teams decide if the sentence was correctly placed. If correct, the
team with its name on the strip gets a point. If not correct, that team loses a point. (This
encourages effective writing.)
Option: This activity may be adapted to focus on cause/effect, reality/fantasy or inferred/explicit.
True or False
Objective: Read a text passage for the purpose of making true and false statements about it.
Procedure: Teams make a “T” chart (2 columns with titles--one side is for true, the other side is
for false). Teams make three true or false statements about the text. A representative from the
first team reads one statement aloud. The other teams listen and place their token on the
appropriate side of their True/False chart. The questioning team decides which choices are
correct. Each correct answer earns a team a point. In a disagreement, follow the challenge rules
of Total Recall.
English I Through ESOL: Romeo and Juliet
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