How to Construct an Unscrambling Activity

Model Sentence with Appositive
A moment later, Pepe heard the sound, the faint far crash of horse's hoofs on gravel.

--John Steinbeck, "Flight"

Sentence Parts - Original Order

1. a moment later
2. Pepe
3. heard the sound
4. the faint far crash
5. of horse's hoofs on gravel

Sentence Parts - Scrambled Order

1. heard the sound
2. a moment later
3. of horse's hoofs on gravel
4. Pepe
5. the faint far crash

Uncued means students don't know the first sentence part. This type of direction encourages multiple unscramblings and gives students practice in various ways to effectively arrange the sentence parts, a good lesson in sentence variety.

Directions

Cued - Unscramble the sentence parts to produce an effective, meaningful arrangement. The first sentence part is capitalized.

Uncued - Unscramble the sentence parts two or more times, each time producing an effective, meaningful arrangement. Select the one arrangement you prefer, and explain your preference.

Important: Always have students write out the unscrambled version(s), not merely list the parts numerically. Explain that writing out the sentence helps to acquire similiar sentence structures. Listing only the numbers doesn't achieve that goal.

Variations:

• Decide whether to include punctuation in the scrambled list. If your goal is to have students learn and practice where to place commas, leave them out. Direct students to add the commas when they unscramble the sentence.
• Since unscrambling familiarizes students with the structure of the model, have students, after unscrambling the model, write an imitation of that same model, using its structure but the student's own content. If students have unscrambled the model in multiple ways, have them imitate the one version they prefer.
• Have students find sentences from their current literary studies to scramble. In partners, students can unscramble each other's lists, and then imitate the unscrambled sentences.