Get yourself connected - Connectives

This is such a great activity which aims to develop students skills of analysis and application.

The activity is very simple to prepare but is highly effective! My students have given this activity very positive feedback and cited it as one of their main reasons for success in the recent BUSS1 exam.

The activity involves students being given a sentence or small paragraph. The students then need to complete the sentence or paragraph with a number of connective words such as ‘because’, ‘however’, ‘such as’, ‘therefore’, ‘which’ etc.

This activity can be carried out in two main ways. Firstly, the students are simply given a sentence (usually I give them a few sentences on a sheet) and one connective word. For example:

‘One of the key benefits of increasing delegation within the organisation is that it can empower the workforce by increasing workers responsibility therefore.........’

Students then complete the analysis and as a group we review everyone’s responses.

Another activity is to give students a range of connective words to choose from. The activity can then be differentiated and made more or less demanding by adding fewer or more connective words. For example:

‘Complete the following sentence using the connective words, ‘therefore’ , ‘because ‘ and ‘however’:

‘One of the key benefits of increasing delegation within the organisation is that it can empower the workforce by increasing workers responsibility…...’

Getting students to complete the sentence using the three connective words is far more demanding and allows you to develop the skills of individual students, and that can’t be bad.

Enjoy….........