Sentence Navigators

How to Use Sentence Navigators

1. Teachers should first determine the vocabulary and sentence structure they want to reinforce.

2. Write the words that make up the correct sentence in different columns on a grid followed by filling the rest of the squares with words of their choice to "hide" the correct words.

3. During the first several times implementing this strategy, the teacher should model completing a sentence navigator with the class while thinking aloud (e.g., "The noun has more than one person or thing, so that means the verb doesn't have an s at the end of it").

4. After the students have some time to work independently (while the teacher circulates to provide feedback), the students can share their work in pairs.

5. The teacher should review the answers with the entire class.

Extension Activity Idea: As students become more comfortable with completing the Sentence Navigators, challenge them to create their own for the class to complete! If it is difficult to get started at first, students can copy sentences from familiar classroom texts before creating their own sentences.

Additional Information

While these examples are mostly based in beginning English skills, these sentence navigators can be developed to address all content areas, grade levels, and proficiency levels! See the example below describing the water cycle!

Sentence Navigators is a strategy that can be found in The ELL Teacher's Toolbox by Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski! Sentence Navigators were originally created by Jason Renshaw, a former English teacher.