Sentences with 'because'

In this activity, students practise composing sentences with the word because.

Goals

  • Identify the causal relationship that underlies use of because.
  • Compose some reasonable sentences using because.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will practise using the word because.

In Activity 1 in the right hand column, a number of tiles are presented in each slide. The first slide contains two statements and the question 'Why?'. Students should arrange the tiles into a reasonable dialogue. For example, Slide 1 should be arranged to read:

  • I'm wearing wellies.
  • Why?
  • Because it's raining.

Slide 1 implicitly emphasises the causal relationship conveyed by because. Because answers the question why

On Slide 1, one tile contains the word because. The other two tiles present the same two propositions as before. Which one should be placed before because and which one goes after? The students can drag the tiles around the smart board to put them in a sensible order. Some students will notice that there are hints in the tiles - the capital letter for the beginning of the sentence and the full stop for the end are both given in the tiles. Less confident students can use those hints to help find the answers. Slide 2 should be arranged to read:

  • I'm wearing wellies because it's raining.

Students have just created a complete sentence with a subordinating conjunction and a subordinate clause! Work through each slide with the students, discussing the relationship between the two parts. Are there any examples that are unclear? Are there any that are debatable?

Further work

Students should now be prepared to compose their own sentences using the word because. They can start by writing dialogues as in the slides, or they can try writing 3 to 5 sentences of their own with because.

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