Sentence scramblers has been a winner game EVERY TIME for my classes! Here we’re scrambling QUOTATIONS!
Practicing Punctuation
Dialogue is difficult for students to write correctly in their stories. It’s also hard to edit and correct because of all the punctuation involved.
This is fun, visual way for students to practice it!
(AND you can use words instead of said in the quotations that you scramble to open their minds to all those words that aren’t said!)
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Stories with Dialogue
It’s important to note that we usually play this game after writing a creative story, science fiction or any piece that uses dialogue.
Setting up the Game:
First, you’ll need a place to write the scrambled quotation such as a white board, chalkboard, smart board or lots of individual pieces of paper.
Smaller Groups
For small groups, (8 students or less), divide a large white board into 4 sections.
Assign a pair of students to each section. If the students vary in age or ability, pair an older student with a younger. The younger partners take a turn together. Then, the older students take a turn. That way you can write quotations according to the ability of the students writing.
Larger Groups
For larger groups, or if you don’t have a classroom whiteboard, give each pair of students an individual white board, a black dry erase marker and a sock to serve as an eraser. You can purchase a class pack on Amazon*.
Now, draw a box in the top center of the whiteboard. Next, write the words that are in the quotation in a scrambled fashion.
The first word of the sentence is capitalized to help them know where to begin. Additionally, include any punctuation in the box.
Finally, the children write the words in order to make a complete, correct quotation.
Earning Points
In order to earn a point, the quotation has to have a capital letter, spacing, correct spelling and punctuation.
Once students complete their sentence, they don’t say anything. Instead, they just hold up their white board.
Look at the sentence.
If there is one mistake, hold up 1 finger. If there are 2 mistakes, 2 fingers, 3 mistakes, 3 fingers, 4 mistakes, 4 fingers. When there are no mistakes, give a thumbs up and they tally a point.
Students who have a mistake continue to correct the sentence until they get a thumbs up.
Once each pair has correctly written the sentence, move onto the next turn.
Print the Instructions
Here are the instructions for you to print out and use.
Other Games to Play
We played this game after the following writing prompts:
Star Wars Quotes
Here’s a list of Star Wars Quotations to Scramble.
OR
Print this Star Wars Scramblers Activity Page
As I post new writing prompt ideas that include the Quotations Scramblers game, I’ll add the lists of quotations and their accompanying prompts to this post.
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