Distance Learning Series: Syntax
Happy Better Hearing and Speech Month!! Welcome to the third topic in the Distance Learning Lessons Series, which is a collaboration between myself (The Speech Express) and Holly Rosensweig of Spiffy Speech! Each post in the series includes tons of example lesson plans that can be used for distance learning or teletherapy sessions with all school-age students. For those of you who are not doing live sessions but are still assigning work via Google Classroom or other similar platforms, several resources and activities are included at the end of this post! You can also check out the previous Distance Learning Lessons for Reading Comprehension and Articulation. We hope these plans continue to be helpful for you all!
Preschool & Elementary School
Use a Wordless Book from Epic
If you haven’t yet, sign up for a free trial of Epic at www.getepic.com. One wordless book that is fantastic for syntax development is The Opposites by Monique Felix. This wordless picture book can be used to expand MLU or practice a variety of grammatical structures, including...
Sentence structure (e.g., “______ is verb(ing),” is/are, has/have, etc.)
Regular or irregular past tense (e.g., “the white mouse opened the door. She saw,”)
Pronouns (e.g., tell students that the white mouse is a girl and the brown mouse is a boy) and third person singular (e.g., “The white mouse opens the door. She sees ____.”)
Conjunctions “but/and” (e.g. The brown mouse likes ____, but the white mouse likes _____.)
Photo Cards: For elementary schoolers, the easiest option is to hold up your own photo verb cards (if you have them at home) or sequencing cards such as the ones from Spark Innovations and have the student describe picture scenes or sequence. Alternatively, you can search for certain action words (e.g., “running,” “girl running”) in Google Images or on a photo website like Pixabay while screen-sharing with the student. If you are in need of a set or would prefer to share cards on screen, you can purchase this ready-made set of photo verb cards such as the ones that can be found here by Spiffy Speech. You can also work on describing using noun+is+object+location using a set of WH question cards like these, which combine a person, object, and place in one picture scene. After describing a picture of your choice using a complete sentence, the student can take a turn at any motivating digital game. Examples of games to try with elementary schoolers are the free make/create games on ABCya (type “make” into the search bar and click “games,” then scroll through the list), any digital PowerPoint games, or a variety of Boom card games that can be found on Boom Learning (free account until June!)
Additional Activities:
Apps: To work on producing sentences with (pro)noun+is+object+location structure, with young children or students with limited expressive language, pair your iPad/iPhone with your computer using screen mirroring software (visit our teletherapy tutorial if you need instructions!) Use the apps First Phrases or the apps in the My PlayHome series to work on formulating noun+is+verb(ing) sentences, using pronouns and prepositions, and expanding utterance length.
Videos: As another motivating option, play a YouTube video of the student’s choice such as an episode of a favorite show or an animated short video such as Simon’s Cat. Pause the video intermittently and use the picture scene to have the student formulate noun+is+verb(ing)+location sentences about what they see (e.g., “Simon is feeding his cat” or sentences containing prepositions (e.g., “The fish is in the tank.”)
Upper Elementary & Middle School
Diamante Poem
A diamante is a 7-lined, unrhymed poem that forms a diamond when completed. It is also, coincidentally, an excellent way for students to practice parts of speech during teletherapy! Diamante poems follow a very specific structure, and they can either be a synonym diamante or an antonym diamante. Synonym ones use synonyms of the same noun to start and finish the poem, and antonym diamantes use opposite nouns.
Diamante poems follow the following format:
Noun
Adjective, Adjective
-ing Verb, -ing Verb, -ing Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
-ing Verb, -ing Verb, -ing Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun
Begin by using words that relate to the first noun on line one. Then, after the first two nouns in line four, you switch to describing the noun located at the end of the poem.
During your session, give instructions for the activity and use this free template to type the poem. Have students choose to do either a synonym diamante or an antonym diamante.
Here is an example poem that you can share with your students:
Gamer
Focused, Skilled
Dodging, Ducking, Weaving
Consoles, Buttons, Birds, Flowers
Blooming, Budding, Growing
Beautiful, Refreshing
Backyard
Have students decide on a topic for their diamante poem or suggest a topic for them. They could choose to write about their adventures in quarantine, family members, pets, - the possibilities are endless! (However, how cool would it be to commemorate this crazy time with a diamante poem? If you’re like me and work with 5th -12th graders, you could save this diamante and share it with them once they graduate from high school or from speech!) Generate a list of words about the topic using this chart. If students are doing a synonym diamante, use one chart, and if students are doing an antonym diamante, use two charts - one for each topic (i.e. gamer and backyard). Once you have come up with several describing words, have students choose the best words to plug into the poem.
While writing the diamante with your students, you can annotate with the annotating tool on your teletherapy platform and then use ‘Printscreen’ to save the annotation and send the page to students. If you’d like more info on diamante poems, check out this website.
Using Conjunctions to Discuss Wordless Videos
Another option is to have your students watch my favorite wordless short called Feast and then write sentences or summarize using conjunctions. Feast tells the story of a man’s life as seen through the eyes of his best friend - his dog - and it’s super cute, so your students will love it. In order to watch with the student during your session, make sure that you are sharing audio during screen share. You might need to check off the box at the bottom of the screen sharing window that says “Share computer audio” if the student can’t hear your sound. If watching the video while screen mirroring from an iPad or iPhone, you can adjust the audio of the iPad/iPhone relative to the volume of the student’s voice! To do this on PC, type “sound settings” into the bottom left search bar, click on Sound Settings, then scroll all the way to the bottom (using the scrollbar at the far right of the window). Click “App volume and device preferences” at the bottom and you will see slider bars for each of the applications on your computer that are using audio (Zoom, iPad via screen mirroring software, etc.) You can lower or raise the bar on your screen mirroring software in order to make the volume louder or softer (e.g., to mute iPad apps during Zoom calls without lowering the volume of the student).
While watching, pause the video and give students a conjunction to use to tell about the events that have happened. For more structured conjunction use, give students a prompt with a sentence starter (i.e. The dog trusted the man because…; Although the woman loved vegetables,...; etc.). If targeting subordinating conjunctions, here are a few suggestions on places to pause and which conjunction to use, but the opportunities are really endless:
[00:57] - when Winston first gets home → conjunction: after (after the man found the dog in the alley…)
[01:55] - when Winston sits in front of the TV with his mouth open → conjunction: because (Winston waited near the TV because…)
[02:33] - during the man and woman’s first date → conjunction: although (prompt: although Winston wanted junk food…)
[02:52] - when the man and woman are doing healthy activities → conjunction: since (prompt: they have been buying healthy foods since…)
[03:27] - when the man and woman argue and break up → conjunction: until (prompt: the man ate healthy foods until…)
[04:00] - when the man is laying on the floor, feeling sad → conjunction: if (prompt: if he gets back together with the woman…)
[06:27] - during the baby’s birthday party → conjunction: when (prompt: when the baby eats food,…)
*Note: When doing this activity, I like to share visuals for the conjunction that the student is working on for some extra support. Visuals for all conjunctions can be found in each of the following conjunction units in The Speech Express store: Coordinating Conjunctions, Subordinating Conjunctions, and Conjunctive Adverbs.
Generating Complex Sentences
To practice generating complex sentences for a fictional topic, use these illustrated scenes and dice prompts and see just how creative your students can be! You can use this site for virtual dice. Have students choose a conjunction by rolling the dice and then have them calculate points if their sentence was grammatically correct. To practice generating nonfiction complex sentences, you can pull up a picture of something that the student is interested in and describe/list facts (i.e. skateboarding - sport, dangerous, wooden board, wheels, etc.). Then, combine these facts together using conjunctions.
Additional No-Prep Resources
Coordinating Conjunctions Unit: This 75-card unit is the ultimate resource for teaching AND practicing coordinating conjunctions. It includes: visuals for the FANBOYS strategy (for identifying coordinating conjunctions); rules for punctuation (when/when not to use a comma); visuals for identifying independent and dependent clauses; visuals for each coordinating conjunction that explains its use and provides examples; task cards with real photos for: sentence formulation, identifying the correct use of a conjunction, completing sentences about a picture, and sentence starters for each type of conjunction; conjunction swap task cards (game); and two additional worksheets that can be used in tandem with the task cards.
Subordinating Conjunctions Unit: Similar to the Coordinating Conjunctions Unit, the Subordinating Conjunctions unit includes visuals for the AAAWWUUBBIS strategy, comma rules, visuals and examples for 11+ subordinating conjunctions, and TONS of leveled practice using funny animal pictures! For each conjunction, students are asked to either: generate a sentence about a picture using a conjunction (least structured), read three sentences about a picture and choose which sentence used the conjunction correctly, use two sentence starters to complete a sentence about a picture, or use sentence starters to complete a sentence without a picture. Several ideas for games are also included with the resource in addition to several “how many sentences can you think of” photo prompts where students must look at the photo and make up as many sentences using a different conjunction as possible.
Subordinating Conjunctions Spring-Themed BOOM Cards: With these Spring-Themed BOOM Cards, students read a sentence and select the conjunction or conjunctions that make the most sense in the blank. Many sentences have multiple correct answers, so each correct answer must be selected before continuing to the next card. For added difficulty, see if students can modify the sentence to make sense with each conjunction listed!
Identifying Parts of Speech: Create-A-Sentence Game is great for identifying parts of speech and generating syntactically correct, complex sentences. This resource includes the following levels: Level I - 2 words (ex. repeat/repetition, believe/believable, impress/impressive); Level II - 3 words (ex. hope/hopeful/hopeless, enjoy/enjoyable/enjoyment), and Level III - 4 words (ex. decoration/decorating/decorate/decorative, happy/happiest/happily/happiness). Students can write or say a sentence using each form of the word correctly, or they can use the cards to play a game.
Wordless Books: Wordless books on Epic are great for older students too! You can target irregular past tense, conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, has/had/have, do/does/did, etc. See the list of recommended wordless books on Epic at the bottom of this post! Again, it is helpful to screen share visuals for whichever skill your student is working on, such as the conjunctions visuals in the resources mentioned by The Speech Express.
Mad Libs: Mad Libs are great for practice with parts of speech and they take no prep at all! Check out Wacky Web Tales, which is a free website with fun mad-lib-like stories! My favorites are An Odd Animal and Special News Report, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them!
High School
Use Existing Work!
Use school work from other classes to edit: The most functional way to address syntax at the high school level is to apply it to your students’ school work. Take advantage of this digital age and ask your students to share a paper/paragraph/response/ etc. that they are working on completing for one of their classes. Review their response and help them add to it by including adverbs or adjectives, combining sentences using conjunctions, and troubleshooting any errors that have been made. Odds are, they will be thankful to have you as a resource!
Additional Activities
Other written work: Ask if students are completing any essays for scholarships, college applications (juniors), etc. and offer to help proofread or edit.
Conjunctive Adverbs: Similar to the Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunction Units, this Conjunctive Adverbs Unit is great for targeting more complex sentence structures and includes visuals for words like: however, therefore, instead, otherwise, etc. as well as structured practice at the sentence level.
Activities for Independent Completion
Time Capsule Activity: As another way to work on expressive syntax while also documenting their time at home, older elementary or middle schoolers may wish to create a time capsule. There is a fantastic free packet that you can download in PDF format here. It provides many opportunities to answer questions such as about favorite activities (e.g., favorite thing to bake) and topics like the biggest changes that have taken place, thoughts about homeschooling, etc. Students can practice using complete sentences that contain correct grammar, specific vocabulary, and descriptive language. The packet can either be printed by parents and completed by the student using pencil/markers and paper during the teletherapy session or pulled up on screen and filled in using the annotate tool. The SLP can use ‘Printscreen’ to save the annotation and then send the page to parents. For younger elementary students, the SLP can ask students questions and type in responses while helping to expand utterances or model correct grammar/vocab use.
Illustrated Scenes: assign an Illustrated Scene and a conjunction - what sentences can the student write about that picture using a specific conjunction (i.e. although, but, however, etc.)? See if they can come up with at least three to five!
Verb Tenses Worksheet: Have students complete this free worksheet using past, present, and future tense verbs.
Carnivorous Plants Activity: This carnivorous plants activity for older students is a great way to practice syntax while investigating which type of plant matches the photo! Students will examine photos of seven carnivorous plants and complete pre-reading activities. Then, they will read passages describing each plant, including where it lives, what it looks like, and how it captures its prey in order to determine which photo matches its description. Worksheets accompany each passage to target literal and inferential comprehension questions, syntax, vocabulary, summarizing and more!
Wordless Books on Epic: Have students write a page of text for one page of a wordless book. See if they can use specific verbs/conjunctions/sentence structures - whatever goal is being targeted. These are some favorite wordless books that can be read for free on Epic!
The Mouse Books by Monique Felix: The Opposites, The Boat, The Wind: great for preschool/early elementary
Four Hungry Kittens by Emily Arnold McCully: great for younger elementary
Captain Barbosa and the Pirate Hat Chase by Jorge González: great for elementary
Boat of Dreams by Rogerio Coelho: great illustrations, perfect for upper elementary/middle school
Helen’s Birds by Sara Cassidy: great for upper elementary/middle school
We hope you enjoy these activities for syntax! Stay tuned for the next installment of the Distance Learning Series, coming soon!
All the best,
Lucy and Holly