Provide a metaview, lifting students into a wider view of the concept. Use another medium (not reading or writing) to connect students' personal knowing to the concept (i.e. visual arts, music, movement, metaphor, etc.) Involve learners in reflective production that blends the emotional and the cognitive.
Guided imagery (building a sentence sandwich).
Objective: Students will imagine sandwich parts as the parts of a sentence.
Activity: Guided imagery. (Sentence Builders) Students close their eyes and imagine themselves in the kitchen creating a sentence sandwich. The bottom half of the bun is the period. This is always found at the bottom (or end) of the sentence. The top of the bun is the capital letter, always found at the beginning of our sentence. Lift the top of the bun off of the bottom to make our sentence. Begin your sandwich with mustard, catsup or mayonnaise. You choose. Take whichever one you chose and write the word "the" on the inside of the top bun. Next we will choose two slices of meat. The first slice is "class." "Class is the meat or subject of the sentence. The second slice is "ate" or the predicate. Your sentence is now complete if you want to stop here: "The class ate." This conveys a complete thought, but let's add more to this sentence to improve it. Choose your favorite item to add to the sandwich (tomato, onion, lettuce). What did the class eat? . . . Sandwiches. Add this to the bottom of the sentence. It now says: The class ate sandwiches. Can we add more items to make it even more descriptive? What kind of sandwiches did the class eat? . . . Submarine. Add this to the sentence. "The class ate submarine sandwiches." Choose another item to tell what kind of sandwiches the class ate . . . Delicious. How did the class eat? . . . Slowly. "The class ate delicious submarine sandwiches slowly." You could continue to add items if you wanted more on the sandwich. You can make it as plain or as full as you'd like.
