About this activity
Eight sentences from an actual adolescent week: Practice starts at six on Saturday. My schedule says science is second period. She sent the screenshots to the group chat. I saved up for new sneakers. Seniors sit on the south side of the stands. My cousin starts college this September. The bus stops across from the stadium. Several /s/ targets each, including clusters.
How to use it in a session
Use them as scripts. These are sentences the student will produce anyway, and rehearsing the true ones produces practice that transfers without being transferred. Separate the singleton targets from the clusters — starts, screenshots, sneakers, stands and stadium all put /s/ in a cluster, which is a different motor task. Twelve minutes covers three or four sentences with repeats.
What to listen for
Listen for clusters against singletons. My schedule says science is second period is almost all singletons; Practice starts at six on Saturday puts /s/ in a cluster twice. A student whose accuracy differs between the two has a cluster problem rather than an /s/ one. Watch the final /s/ sounds, which are quiet and often dropped in connected speech.
Carrying it home
These sentences get said this week regardless. Asking the student to notice one of their own productions, once a day, is realistic self-monitoring for this age.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Sixth through twelfth grade, for /s/ at sentence level.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight sentences play free.
- Why teen-specific sentences?
- Because they will be produced anyway. A sentence from the student's real week transfers on its own, where a sentence from a children's deck has to be transferred deliberately and usually is not.