How To Give An Example
Why is the concept of giving an example so difficult for students? For some, it is a lack of foundation skills such as identifying main idea and details, limited vocabulary or poor sentence structure (to name a few). This collection of activities targets these skills through a scaffolded, visual, hands-on approach. All activities are designed to fit into one binder to help group sessions run smoothly.
PART I: EXAMPLES IN PICTURES
•Instructor Script and Scaffolding Discussion Prompts
•3 Find & Say Activity Mats: Feature 3 different picture scenes “At the Beach” “At a Birthday Party” “Caring for the Classroom” An interactive sentence frame (a sentence starter and window) attaches to the bottom of each mat. Designed to hell students understand the concept of “example” and practice verbalizing coherent sentences.
•Main Idea vs. Detail Photo Cards & Interactive Tools 10 photo cards of various scenes including fruit basket, boy jumping into a pool, family celebrating a birthday etc.
•The bottom of each card features 5 sentences (4 details and one main idea) Encourage students to use the tools - Detail Detector” (small circle window) “Main Idea Finder” (larger square window) as they think about the sentences under the photo.
•Mini Poster “Topic Vs Examples” Features an illustrated graphic organizer with the topic “taking care of a dog” and examples “feeding”, “washing”, ‘playing” and “walking” this will help support discussion about main idea and detail.
PART II: EXAMPLES IN SENTENCES
•Sorting Topic vs Examples: Activity mat shaped like a graphic organizer (1 large circle and 2 smaller circles) and 20 “topic sticks”. The topic sticks feature 3 words, a topic and two details. Practice determining which is the main idea and which 2 are details. You can then build upon this activity and formulate a sentence about each topic.
•Linking Words Self Assessment Features a list of words typically used when we give an example. Students add a smiley face next to words they feel confident using and a “thinking bubble” next to words they feel they need to learn more about. This exercise facilitates discussion. It also helps when data driven instruction is needed.
•Sentence Challenge/ Sentence Building Activity: Uses the same cards from the “topic sticks” and adds linking vocabulary.
•Students use those 4 words to give formulate sentences that connect a main idea and examples.
•Sentence Frames: 4 sentence frames featuring the terms “for example” “for instance” “such as” “including”.
•Storage template: “placemat” to store sentence frames for easy access.
•Worksheet 1 What’s A Category? B&W Draw a line from each word to the category it belongs to.
•Worksheet 2 Cut and Paste Examples in Sentences B&W: Read the sentence and fill in the blank.
PART III: EXAMPLES IN PASSAGES
Find the Missing Example Interactive Puzzles:
2 puzzles each features a passage with 4 fill in the blanks. Passage one: At the Amusement Park. Passage 2: Dolphins.
Find the Missing Example Cut & Paste.
3 Reading Comprehension/extended response worksheets: Passages are followed by questions encouraging students to retrieve examples from text.
•Helpful Harry
•Dream School
•Sea Turtles
Also Includes:
•2 Envelope Labels for “Main Ideas & Details in Pictures” “Topic Sticks”
•Templates for organizing all activities in a binder. “Place Holders” for sentence frames “Topic Sticks” Picture Cards etc
•Graphic Organizers
- circles 2 details.
- circles 4 details
- Square 4 details
Transferring details into sentences.
•Binder cover
•Binder spine
•3 tabs
Note: File contains printable materials only. Velcro, laminating, a binder and plastic envelopes are suggested for organization and durability.