A New Way to Do Daily Oral Language:
Sentence Surgery
Materials:
Laminated unedited sentence strips, band-aid strips
for ending
punctuation, small round bandages for commas and quotations, tongue
depressors
to mark capitalization, large bandages for word transplants (to write
words on ), and "Emergency Kit" paper bags with red cross on them (to
store surgery supplies)
● Place students in pairs or trios.
● Give each group an unedited sentence strip.
● Provide band aids with punctuation, capitalization
markers, and word changers. (small, medium, and
large bandages)
markers, and word changers. (small, medium, and
large bandages)
●
Give 3 to 5 minutes for teams to discuss how to
do
surgery and why it needs to be done. Place band-
aids where they think they are needed.
aids where they think they are needed.
●
Practice reading the sentence using prosody that is
appropriate for the
punctuation.
● Have the sentences on the board for teams to share,
discuss, and check their sentences.
discuss, and check their sentences.
Sentences should use the independent
reading level of the students working on the sentence. A sentence could be addressed by more
than one team. Team members could be chosen so that weak
students are with stronger (but not
too strong) partners. (Use half-list pairing.) The sentences may include sentence fragments that need
to be made into a complete sentence (organ transplant!) Later
have them do sentence surgery on their own writing.
The activity uses these powerful
strategies:
●
Discussion/interaction
●
Manipulatives
●
Corrective feedback
●
Student presentation