Sentence Structure: A Communicative Course Using Story Squares

A story square is a one-page illustration of major points in a story. To teach sentence structure, this book presents two story squares based on universally popular topics: a science-fiction thriller and the legend of King Arthur. The chapters are divided into lessons that present the sentence structure, followed by exercises and activities that help students analyze and manipulate the structure. Sentence structures are always presented through a context: the story itself or a reading on a topic suggested by the story. Practice activities include fill-in-the-blank, transformation, matching, and other exercises that help students manipulate the target structure. Open-ended, communicative activities (interviewing each other, writing a dialogue, playing a game) encourage real communication and provide a context for students to use the sentence structures creatively and apply story ideas to real-world situations. (A Teacher's Guide is also available separately. The Teacher's Guide offers presentation ideas, guidelines for activities and discussion, and answer keys.)