Sentence scrambles — taking a sentence and mixing up the word order — are great activities for English Language Learners and native-English speakers alike. They’re good for regular practice, and also nice for competitive games. In the classroom, students can create their own, too. I’ve often had students pick several sentences from the book they’re reading, make up cards with all the words and punctuation marks, paper-clip each sentence together (not in order), and collect them. Then, I divide students in small groups, and each group gets ten or so of them to compete to see who can complete them all first correctly.
I’ve also used them one at a time for just a break from routine, and I’ve also created some for tests. It’s easy, though, to miss including a word when you’re creating them — especially if you’re doing it late or night.
I’ve found some online scrambled sentence creators that work well. All I have to do is copy and paste some sentences and, wallah, I have them automatically scrambled into a worksheet I can print-out or copy and paste.
Here are my picks for The Best Sites For Creating Sentence Scrambles:
“Generators” from John’ ESL. Put your cursor over “Generators Menu.”
Word Jumble: Practicing sentence structures is from tekhnologic.
Great Tool For Creating Sequencing Activities
Half A Crossword lets teachers create lots of different kinds of worksheets, including bingo, sentence scrambles, and sentence corrections. Learn more about it at Blog de Cristina.
A couple of years ago, I posted about a new site called BrainRush. It was just beginning then, and lets you created flashcard learning activities. Those, of course, are a dime-a-dozen. But what made BrainRush different was that you could create virtual classrooms and monitor student progress in mastering them. Plus, they said they would be adding more activities in the future. And, most importantly, it was free. I recently checked the site again. I saw that they have indeed added the kinds of activities you can create. Now, in addition to flashcards, you can develop sequencing activities, Buckets (a categorization interactive) and “hotspots” (a naming/placing tool). They all look good, as does the price 🙂
Feedback is always welcome.
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Larry,
Quite the coincidence! I just wrote about Magnetic Poetry. Pretty cool site where students/teachers can drag words and then reform to make sentences. http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2010/03/29/magnetic-poetry/
David
http://eflclassroom.com
Your sentence scrambler v1.4 link is not working. Do you have another link for this site?
Thanks!
Hi Larry. My site (which you kindly included in your article on Information Gap Activity resources) now also features a sentence scramble generator.
Tim – Proprietor
http://quickworksheets.net
Larry,
Thanks for suggesting workshop genius. It seems to be a great tool to use in the class room. I will try using it next semester during my practicum in secondary education.
Thank you for the links! I really need them. I’m an ESL teacher. I have 25 kids from 7 to 11, and another class of 10 (very argh!) teenagers!!!!!! Thanks!
Hey Larry,
The Language Menu link is dead.
🙂
Thanks. I’ll delete it.
i am wondering if you can recommend a site or tool that takes scrambled words that i already have and then unscrambles them and puts them in possible sentences….thank you for your time!
Sorry, nothing comes to mind
Great post! I’ve actually heard only of Word Jumble but will definitely give a try to all of them! I will give you feedback in a few weeks!
April from Rephrasing Sentences Generator
You should include shuffle_onion.
http://dwoot.pcriot.com/shuffle_onion/
It shuffles the words.
Now showing err 404.
Hi Larry,
Your dedication to the art is only to be marvelled at.
I’ve been searching for an online Sentence Scrambler where I can provide the input and it allows students to drag and drop to find the solution.
That way they can merrily play on their own without me and the types of students I’m referring to have an abject aversion to pen and paper 🙂
Hello! I like to use a took called SCRAMBLINATOR, but I can´t find it anymore in this address:
http://www.altastic.com/scramblinator/
Does anybody could help me?
Thanks a lot, prof.taisnicolao@gmail.com , teacher in Brasil.