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If a student
only memorizes these three sentences, his/her English ability would
only consist of three sentences. However,
if the student knows that the subjects (I, she, they), the verbs
(played, studied, worked), and the time phrases (yesterday, last
night, two days ago) can be interchanged, that student’s English
language ability immediately jumps to 27 sentences. |
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I played yesterday.
I studied yesterday.
I worked yesterday.
I played last night.
I studied last night.
I worked last night.
I played two days ago.
I studied two days ago.
I worked two days ago. |
She studied last night.
She
worked last night.
She
played last night.
She
studied two days ago.
She
worked two days ago.
She
played two days ago.
She studied yesterday.
She worked yesterday.
She played yesterday. |
They worked two days ago.
They played two days ago.
They studied two days ago.
They worked yesterday.
They played yesterday.
They studied yesterday.
They worked last night.
They played last night.
They studied last night. |
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As more words and
their placement are learned, the ability to create more sentences
increases exponentially. |
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The way that Building Blocks of English teaches
the structure of English is also important. Building
Blocks of English uses pictures and minimal text to teach
the structure of English. This way, the student visualizes,
thinks about, then internalizes what is being said and doesn’t
just memorize endless sentences.
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| Building
Blocks of English’s format is easy to
follow! |
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| Grammar Explanation |
| Each chapter starts with 2-3 pages explaining
the grammar in the chapter. The grammar is explained concisely
and presented visually in gray boxes. |
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| Dialog Practice with Pictures |
The next 8
pages or so in each chapter are the dialog practices
with pictures. Each dialog practice starts with the
full text of the dialog above accompanying pictures.
The students use these dialogs and pictures as a guide
to help them make similar dialogs with the remaining
pictures (which have minimal text) while the teacher
goes around the class and checks the students’ grammar
and pronunciation. |
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Games and Activities |
After each dialog practice, there
is a game or activity specifically designed to reinforce
the grammar that was just studied. The games and activities
can be adjusted to suit the teacher’s class. The
games and activities are designed for the students to
have some fun while they are learning the grammar and
the teacher doesn’t have to spend time searching
for appropriated activities for the lesson. |
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Reading and Writing |
At
the end of each chapter, there is a reading page.
The reading page contains a short story, which
utilizes the grammar of that chapter. Under each
story is a picture of the story, and below the
picture are questions about the story. After
the students read the story, have them answer
the questions on their own, with their partner,
in a group,as a class, or as homework. |
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A good
technique for practicing English is to have the
students retell the story by covering up the
text portion and only looking at the picture
to tell the story. They don’t
have to retell the story exactly as it is written,
but they should be able to relate what the story
is about. |
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| At the bottom of the reading
page, there is a writing assignment, which can
be done in class or as homework. |
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Real Life Situations |
At
the end of each chapter, except for Chapter 1, there
is the “Real Life” page. The
Real Life page introduces more vocabulary, has role plays
based on the vocabulary, and has discussion based on
the role play. |
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Building Blocks of English • Contact
Info: danmoshin@aol.com • (818)
378-3551 • Copyright © Building
Blocks of English
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