interactive grammar games and reading exercises

Interactive Language GamesMa. Carmie Flor I. Ortego

Noughts and crosses

©Julian Quail

Grammar: Determiners: some, any, much, many, etc.

Level: Post-beginner to lower-intermediate

Time: 15 minutesMaterials: None

Noughts and crosses

Grammar: Determiners: some, any, much, many, etc.

Level: Post-beginner to lower-intermediate

Time: 15 minutesMaterials: None

SOME A FEW ANY

MUCH A LOT OFTOO

MUCH

MANY SEVERAL A PAIR OF

This game frame can also be used successfully with the following language areas:

Phrasal verbs(stand for = represent)

Irregular past participle (become = has become)

Irregular past simple (go = gone)

The dice and grid game

©Cambridge University Press 1984

Grammar: irregular verb partsLevel: Post-beginner to upper-intermediate

Time: 30 minutesMaterials: One copy per two pupils of the verb grid, one die per pupil


©Cambridge University Press 1984

After 8-10 minutes play, stop the pupils and ask them to write a five-sentence story about anything they like as long as they incorporate the following past tense forms:

BIT FORBADE SWEPT

Word-building grid

Dominoes

©Paul Davis

Grammar: word-building: prefixes and suffixes

Level: intermediateTime: 15-20 minutesMaterials: One set of 56 dominoes per three to six pupils

Dominoes

Reading ExercisesMa. Carmie Flor I. Ortego

Why do we read?

To obtain a specific fact or piece of information ---

To obtain a general idea of the author’s purpose ---

To obtain a comprehensive understanding of a reading ---

To evaluate information to determine where it fits into one’s own system of beliefs ---

skimming

scanning

thorough comprehension

critical reading

Any text can be given to learners.

Provided the activity is on their

level.

Learning literature should be intellectual

enjoyment of the text.

Skimming

Sherlock Holmes would be proud of Dorothy Perry of Detroit, even though she tracked down a remarkably dim robber. Losing her handbag in a mugging, Ms. Perry remembered that her purse held concert tickets as well as $40. She turned up at the show a few days later with a cop on her arm – sure enough, the mugger was sitting in her seat.

A. A lucky meeting B. Violence in Detroit C. A clever policeman D. A good detective

Floyd Mayweather Jr. delivered a fight night taunt to Manny Pacquiao by claiming he would tune in to a Lady Gaga concert instead of watching the Filipino star’s easy victory over Shane Mosley.

While Pacquiao was cruising to a comfortable points victory at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in a Showtime pay-per-view telecast broadcast, Mayweather was at his Las Vegas home watching Lady Gaga on rival network HBO – and urging his fans to do the same.

a. Mayweather doesn’t want to fight Pacquiao

b. Lady Gaga interests Mayweather more

c. Mayweather wants to fight Lady Gaga

d. Mayweather ambivalent on Pacquiao’s win

Understanding relations within sentences through logical connectors (and, before, but, finally, hence, unless, until, etc.)

The Rice on Our Plate

We Filipinos are so used to eating rice that whenever we speak of food we always think of a plate of rice steaming hot from the pot. A luncheon or a supper is not complete __________ there is rice to go with the other dishes. __________, any rumor of rice shortage has always caused much alarm not only to the housewives, __________ also to every one who eats rice.

__________ have we ever stopped to think of the long trip the rice has to make __________ it reaches our plate? Have we ever thought of the rice planters ‘beat from morn till the set of the sun’, the harvesters reaping the grain-laden stalks in the sweltering heat of the sun, __________ a number of other workers doing their share in providing us with this staple food?

But

unless

before

and

but

Hence

logical connectors

(and, before, but, finally, hence, unless, until, etc.)

The Rice on Our Plate continued…

The backbreaking task of rice planting, the hard, but more rewarding job of harvesting, not to mention the many little chores that have to be done between planting and harvesting time, … all this is done by the farmer. __________ the work doesn’t end with the harvest of the palay. There is the rice miller powdered with rice dust, as he husks the golden grains called palay __________ transforms them to white grains called bigas. There is the strong cargador, bent with the heavy sack, as he loads and unloads hundreds of sacks of rice from the truck to the bodega or from the bodega to the truck. There is the rice dealer, always thinking of how he could buy a large amount of rice at a low price to hoard it if he can, and later sell it at a much higher price.

but

and

logical connectors

(and, before, but, finally, hence, unless, until, etc.)

The Rice on Our Plate continued…

There is the rice retailer, too, measuring gantas and gantas of these precious grains or weighing kilos and kilos of them all day, __________ he has become an expert in the job. And __________, there is the ingenious housewife, who has learned a hundred and one ways of cooking rice – from plain boiled rice to the different kinds of rice cakes like puto, cuchinta, maja, bibingka, and other delicacies.

What a long trip a grain of rice has to make before it reaches the plate we eat on! How many hands have taken care of it along the way!

until

finally

Understanding relations within sentences through anaphoric links

A Tale of Oats

So what’s the scoop on oats? Why do I encourage you to eat oatmeal? Why did I put oatmeal in George’s shake?

Oats are a slow carbohydrate, the best of the browns. They contain a special kind of fiber called soluble fiber. Apple skins, lentils and oats all contain this fiber. But the best of oats comes in its health benefits. They have been shown to significantly reduce cholesterol (including the overall levels, LDL levels, and the ratio of low to high density by 24%), significantly decrease the glycemic response to breakfast cereal (by 50%) and increase immunity function. We have heard of the cholesterol effects, but immune function?

Understanding relations within sentences through anaphoric links

A Tale of Oats

A recent study took a group of immunosuppressed mice and compared their response on the introduction of an infective agent when they were given an oat extract. The mice which did not get the oats showed more severe clinical signs of disease and one half of them died. The oat eaters had ‘minimal’ clinical signs and NO deaths. No death! No, we aren’t mice, but that is a very interesting outcome. Eat oats, drink oatmilk. They are good for you!

Understanding relations in the sentence through the different techniques of inference

A Shawl for Anita

My mother brought us up singlehandedly. It was a Herculean task for a woman so frail, dealing with three adolescent children. But she managed. She never finished high school, but her deft hands had skilfully eked out a living for the four of us. She was good at knitting. That tided us over until the eldest got a diploma in teaching. Then she put up a sari-sari store to send the other children to college. Mother wanted us all to get a college degree and she had to sacrifice much to see us through.


A Shawl for Anita continued…

Mother had a soft heart – especially for Anita. Anita was the youngest, and I, being the middle child, had always envied her. She was sickly and Mother willingly indulged her. My sister’s whimpers never irked her. She was ever so gentle with her when I was so impatient and jealous. I never understood my mother.

My mother who had always been a frail woman was much thinner now. Anita who was married by now had never stopped being pampered. Her lack of concern for our mother’s failing health was getting on my nerves.



I felt like shouting at her, calling her names when I heard her ask Mother to knit a shawl for her. Mother could hardly refuse, but I knew that the task was just too much for her. Her fingers had lost their flexibility; rheumatic pain told on her knuckles that felt a million pins pricking. My heart went out to her every time I saw her painfully pushing the knitting needles into the yarn.

The rest of us did not want to see Mother lift a finger. She was too old to work, and we wanted to save her the burden of doing even the lightest household chores.



Mother said she felt useless being cooped up in the house all day, doing nothing. That was before Anita sweet talked her into knitting her shawl. I was beginning to hate Anita for being so callous.

Knitting the shawl might have been an agony for Mother, but she never showed any pain. At the end of the day, she would look at her handiwork, a smile on her lips as she held it against her. Knitting proved to be a slow process, but Mother didn’t mind. I did and when Anita showed up one day to visit Mother I scolded her for being so thoughtless.



Anita touched my arm and in a gentle voice said, “I did it for Mother. That shawl is giving her reason to live. She was wasting away, didn’t you notice? She felt so useless because she had nothing to do, no matter how small. Mother is one person who prefers to live her life working. If she stops working, she will stop living.” I nodded my head. Perhaps Anita was right. I was beginning to understand my mother.

Word Contrast CauseConsequenc

e/Result

PurposeExample/

Description

Singlehandedly

She wanted us all to get a

college degree

Woman so frail, dealing with 3

adolescent children

Herculean

Woman so frail, dealing with 3

adolescent children, but she managed

Deft

Skilfully eked out a living for the four of us; tided us over

She was good at knitting

Pampered Lack of concernAnita was

youngest; she was sickly

Mother willingly indulged her; she was ever so gentle with

her

Getting on my nerves

Lack of concernScolded her for

being so thoughtless

I felt like shouting at her,

calling her names

Word Contrast Cause Consequence/Result Purpose Example/

Description

(my) heart went out to

her

Every time I saw her painfully pushing the

knitting needles into the yarn

The rest of us did not want to see Mother lift

a finger

callous

I wanted to shout at her,

felt like calling her names

I did it for mother. That shawl is

giving her reason to live

Lack of concern; Anita sweet

talked her into knitting her shawl

Cooped up Prefers to live her life working Too old to work

Doing nothing; she was

wasting away

We wanted to save her the

burden of household chores

She felt so useless because she had nothing to do, no matter

how small

An agony

She never showed any pain;

Mother didn’t mind

Knitting the shawl

Wasting away Giving her reason to live

Felt so useless because she had

nothing to do

Fingers lost their flexibility; mother was much thinner

now

Captioning

Caption Unless an illustration is purely decorative, it should usually

be accompanied by a caption.

Identifies what an illustration depicts

a good caption can let readers know how to “read” it by drawing attention to important features they might otherwise not notice

A caption can also indicate how the image relates to the surrounding text.

Placement Although captions are most often placed below illustrations,

they may also be positioned above or to one side of them

Whichever position you choose, place captions in the same location throughout a document so that readers will know where to find them.

Tone and Content Tailor your captions to suit your subject and audience. Maintain the same tone for all your captions.

Captions should also be consistent in length. All captions in a document should follow a similar form.

For the casual readers, be sure that the information presented in each caption is complete and makes sense on its own. For instance, give the full names and titles of people identified in a caption even if they also appear in the text.

Punctuation If a caption is a sentence fragment, it does not need to be

punctuated with a period. The planet Saturn

If it is followed by a complete sentence or illustration credit, however, a period should appear at the end.

The planet Saturn. Smaller than only Jupiter, it is the second largest planet in our solar system.

The planet Saturn. (Photograph by Henri Grange)

Font Size and Style To distinguish them from text, captions are usually set in a

different font size or style than the body of a document.

Most often, caption type is sized slightly smaller, set in italics, or both.

Caption Headings If your captions are lengthy, you may choose to begin each with a caption heading—a brief sentence fragment that summarizes the caption’s content. Often set in bold type, a heading is usually either run into the caption text or set on a line of its own.

Winning the Gold. Track star Jesse Owens set two world records in addition to winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Winning the Gold. Track star Jesse Owens set two world records in addition to winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Note that a period should follow a run-in heading.

©Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Periods in Headings and Captions

No period is needed if a heading appears on a line of its own.

Future Goals In the years to come, the Main Street Theater intends to…

In a caption, a period can be used to separate an illustration number from an explanation of the illustration.

Fig. 23. The Main Street Theater in 1934.

You may end a caption with a period even if it is not a complete sentence. If you choose this style, however, be sure to use it consistently.

Questions?