Ibu Sharon

Overview of unit structure

The first item you will encounter is a sentence builder! What is a sentence builder? Gianfranco Conti, a co-author of this book, describes his approach to the creation of SBs in his post on The Language Gym blog: https://gianfrancoconti.com/2020/05/04/the-art-and-science-of-creating-sentence-builders-key-factors-to-consider-in-creating-your-sentence-builder/

Briefly…

A sentence builder is a table which is divided into sections to enable students to create a variety of sentences using chunks and patterns within the context of a communicative task. This table can be used in a variety of ways, including introducing vocabulary, modelling in context, awareness raising of patterns, incidental grammar examples, using receptive processing, scaffolding learning and so on.

Generally, you will find a question prompt at the top of the table which puts the SB into a general communicative context. Occasionally there are Author’s Notes at the bottom of the table to highlight grammar or cultural functions. Following the SB, there are several pages of differentiated exercises in Vocabulary Building, Reading, Translation, and Writing.

Interspersed throughout the units are six Revision Quickies which revisit previous topics, and four Question Skills sections, which present more detailed questions appropriate to the communicative tasks in the SBs. Also, beginning in Unit 6, there are Grammar Time sections, sixteen throughout the book, which include another Sentence Builder which highlights a particular grammar point.

Is that all? No! …

At the end of the book you will find 2 graded tests for each unit. These translation tests are differentiated, with the first focusing on short, simple sentences to translate from English into Indonesian, while the second set has a more complex structure. For further differentiation, selected students could attempt only the first test, or you could use an ‘open book’ idea and allow them access to the appropriate SB.