Lesson Plan: CHamoru Sentence Scramble

Print version of this lesson plan.

Subjects

CHamoru

Grade-level

Elementary, 1-5

Time required

15 minutes

Materials required

Note cards or paper
Marker
Notepaper
Pencil

Lesson Plan

Description

In this lesson, students will use note cards with CHamoru words to create creative sentence.

Objectives/Skills

Students will practice the CHamoru language by creating sentences out of a collection of words.
Students will feel comfortable experimenting with the language and strengthen their knowledge by attempting to create new sentences.

Questions or Assessment

Were students able to create sentences out of the cards? Did they find the task frustrating? Easy?
Did students appear comfortable experimenting with creating sentences?
Did students appear to become more comfortable with the task over time?

Procedure

Teacher prep

Create a series of note cards, each with an individual word. Words should be familiar to the students.
- In choosing the words, first write complete sentences (of 3 or 4 words) that are similar in structure. [e.g.: I am very tall. She is not happy.] This will help ensure that students will be able to create sentences out of the scrambled word cards.
- Feel free to include funny or difficult words.
Group 5-10 of these sentences into piles. Each group of 2-4 students will have a shuffled pile to work with. Feel free to test through the piles before class, in order to ensure that a minimum of 5-10 new sentences can be created.

Unscrambling Sentences (12 minutes)

Group students into 2-4 each.
Provide each group with a stack of cards (as prepared in accordance with steps outlined in the teacher prep section).
Have students work through the scrambled cards to create a single sentence.
Have each group briefly share their sentence with the class.
After explaining to students the process, have them spend the rest of the allotted time deriving as many different sentences as possible with their stack of words.
- Have each group record their new sentences on a piece of paper.
Be sure to walk around the class during the activity and monitor the abilities of each group. Encourage quiet students to contribute, and provide some guidance should a group become stuck.

Sharing (3 minutes)
Have each group share a couple of their favorite or most creative sentences.

Recap (5 minutes)

Recap what we’ve done and learned in the lesson:

“We’ve just practiced experimenting with the CHamoru language by creating sentences out of scrambled cards. This process became easier over time, and we became comfortable with making mistakes when learning a language. Exercises like this will help us as we continue to improve our CHamoru fluency.”

Ask students for their favorite parts of the lesson.

Extension

Utilize the language resources available on Guampedia, as well as Learning CHamoru, to decorate the room with letters and words. By having such exposure to CHamoru words and letters in a passive manner, students will feel more comfortable with the language.

Additionally, the activity can be extended into a longer, class-length lesson. Provide each individual student with a small stack of cards (enough to make 1-2 sentences). Allow students to walk around and trade cards; each student will need to individually record their results. The instructor may also write on the board a list of aims for the sentences (i.e. “Create a sentence that describes an animal”, “Create a sentence that describes yourself”).