ESL
Strategy of the Week
Do you have trouble getting your English Language Learners (or any student) to contribute to the conversation in class? Try explicitly teaching these sentence starters to give them confidence using more academic words.
“Say Something” …Stem Starters
Make a Prediction? I predict that / guess that/ imagine that…
? I bet that …
? I think that …
? Since this happened (fill in detail), then I predict the next thing that is going to happen is …
? Reading this part makes me think that this (fill in detail) is about to happen …
? I wonder if …
? Based on____, I infer that …
? I hypothesize that … / Ask a Question
? Why did …
? What’s this part about …
? How is this (fill in detail) like this (fill in detail)
? What would happen if …
? Why …
? Who is …
? What does this section (fill in detail) mean?
? Do you think that …
? I don’t get this part here …
? I don’t understand this part when…
Clarify Something
? Oh, I get it …
? What do you mean….
? Will you explain that again?
? I have a question about that….
? Now I understand …
? This makes sense now …
? No, I think it means …
? I agree with you. This means …
? At first I thought (fill in detail), but now I think …
? This part is really saying … / Make a Comment
? This is good because …
? This is hard because …
? This is confusing because …
? I like the part where …
? I don’t like this part because …
? My favorite part so far is …
? I think that …
Make a Connection
? This reminds me of …
? This part is like …
? This character (fill in name) is like (fill in name) because …
? This is similar to …
? The differences are …
? I also (name something in the text that has also happened to you) …
? I never (name something in the text that has never happened to you) …
? This character makes me think of …
? This setting reminds me of … / Expressing an opinion
?I think/I believe…
? It seems to me that…
? In my opinion…
? My observation is…
? My perspective is…
? Based on my experience, I think….
? My experience is similar to __’s in that….
? I agree with _____. I also think that…
? My idea builds upon ____’s in that…
Acknowledging ideas
? My idea is similar to/related to ____’s idea.
? I agree with _____ that…
? My idea builds on ____’s idea.
Paraphrasing
? So you are saying that…
? In other words, you think…
? What I hear you saying is… / Soliciting a response
? What do you think?
? We haven’t heard from you yet.
? Do you agree?
? What answer did you get?
Individual reporting
? I discovered from ____ that…
? I found out from ____ that …
? I had a different approach.
? I see it differently. / Partner and group reporting
? We decided/agreed that…
? We concluded that…
? Our group sees it differently.
? We had a different approach.
? ____ pointed out to me that…
? ____ shared with me that…
? ____ emphasized that…
? ____ concluded that…
Disagreeing
? I don’t agree with you because…
? I disagree with you because…
? I have a different answer than you.
? I see it another way. / Offering a suggestion
? Maybe we could…
? What if we…
? Here’s something we might try.
Affirming
? That’s an interesting idea.
? I hadn’t thought of that.
? I see what you mean. / Holding the floor
? As I was saying…
? If I could finish my thought…
? What I was trying to say was…
Adapted from: Kylene Beers, When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do
and from Kate Kinsella, San Francisco State University, April 2008