"Deconstructed" SentenceBuilder resources

You may have noticed links like these appearing inside Trilogy folders on SentenceBuilders.com... 

If not, check them out!

If you follow the link, you'll see a set of unit folders, one for each unit of the relevant Sentence Builders Trilogy book.

Each unit folder contains a link to the main SentenceBuilder resource for that unit (i.e. the one that is in the main Trilogy resource list), BUT it also contains several other SentenceBuilder resources consisting of the component parts (grammar / structures / vocab) of the main SentenceBuilder.

Here's an example, from French Trilogy, part 2, unit 9: "Describing my home and furniture"

At the bottom of the list is a link to the main resource, based on the one featured in the book:

And the other 4 resources that you see listed in the unit folder (image above) allow you to present / practise / set assignments or competitions based on the component parts of the main SentenceBuilder.

Here they are in the order in which they appear.

Where I live (house / flat) - revision:

Rooms in my house:

I like my house because...:

Furniture in the rooms:

As you can see, these SentenceBuilder resources -- each with access to 100+ interactive activities based on the chunks contained in the SentenceBuilder and the sentences that it generates -- present the language for the various sections within the main SentenceBuilder for the unit.

So you can present and practise the sections separately, set assignments and competitions from the outset...

And once you've covered all of the content separately you can use the main / final SentenceBuilder resource to practise all of the language together.

Hope you like this update :o)

(At the time of writing this post -- 9th March 2026 -- "Deconstructed" SB resources have been made available for Trilogy parts 1 and 2, for French, German and Spanish)

A handy PDF guide to the sections, modes & activities in the SentenceBuilders activity menu

For many SB Premium resources the activity menu consists of 3 sections:

  1. Vocab chunks
  2. SB Sentences
  3. Paragraphs

N.B. For many other SB Premium resources, plus any resources that users create for themselves, the Paragraphs section is not available.

Within each of these sections there are multiple "modes".

Within each "mode" there are multiple activities.

Each activity has a different focus depending on the mode.

This post aims to provide a handy guide to the various modes and activities. If you scroll down to the bottom, you should also find all of this info on a 1-page PDF, which you can view or download as you wish.

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Accuracy settings for text entry (strict / relaxed)

Until now (6th November 2024) SentenceBuilders activities requiring text entry (typing with a keyboard) have always required students to type out the target sentence 100% accurately, matching the target sentence in all aspects, including:

  • Accents
  • Case-sensitivity
  • Punctuation

And that system has worked great for the last 3 years or so.

Except that I have heard on numerous occasions that students can find it frustrating when they are penalised for not typing a capital letter, or for neglecting to type a comma (often arbitrary) into a sentence.

I also considered the text entry requirements for my other web projects (TextActivities, TeachVid, Textivate), where students simply have to type in the missing letters -- punctuation, accents, upper or lower case are not a factor in determining student scores -- and wanted to offer something on SentenceBuilders that brought it more into line with those other sites.

Having consulted users of SentenceBuilders I decided to add the ability for teachers to relax the text entry requirements, should they wish to do so.

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Transformations

If you've already had a go at making your own SentenceBuilder resources on SentenceBuilders.com, you are likely to have experienced issues with sentences which don't appear quite as you would like them to.

Maybe you've wanted to know how to include annotations in the SentenceBuilder but not have these appear in the sentences that it generates? e.g. markers for masculine and feminine, such as "(m)" or "(f)"

Perhaps you've wanted to know how to make the English items appear in the correct order, for things like nouns and adjectives? e.g. "une voiture rouge" = "a car red" ???

Or how to solve the word order issues in German, especially around verbs being sent to the end of the clause? e.g. "Ich bin ins Kino gegangen" = "I am to the cinema gone" ???

These problems occur because sentences are generated (in both the L1 and the L2) by simply combining the items as they appear in the SentenceBuilder, moving from left to right.

You need to add something extra -- beyond just the SentenceBuilder contents -- if you want your SentenceBuilder to generate sentences that work.

And that something extra is... 

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2 recent updates to Assignments on SentenceBuilders.com: delayed start + audience

We thought we'd get ready for the new academic year 2022-23 (Northern hemisphere only, I know...!) by adding a couple of exciting new Assignment features that some of our users have been asking for for quite a while:

  1. Delayed start: i.e. assignments that become available from a specific date & time.

    This allows you to, for example, set assignments that only become available once a lesson starts, or once school is finished, or on a particular day. Great for setting cover work, for example. But also really good for planning in advance without being worried about students tackling assignments before they are ready to do them.
    See this blog post for full info about this new feature :)

  2. Audience: i.e. the ability to set an assignment for specific students as well as for the whole class.

    The new "Groups" feature that accompanies this upgrade makes it really easy to set assignments for a predefined group of students within your class, or you can simply select from the student list. Great for setting differentiated work. Also really good for setting catch-up assignments, or for reassigning to those who have missed or uncompleted assignments.
    See this blog post for lots more info about this new feature :)

The image above shows both of these features in the new Assignment pop-up, accessed via the Assignments tab of all of your classes on SentenceBuilders.com

We hope these 2 updates combined will offer you much more flexibility when it comes to setting assignments via our platform :o)


A look back at the 1st year of SentenceBuilders.com

16th April 2022 marks 1 year since SentenceBuilders was launched.

It's been a busy year!

Let's look back at how the site has developed in its first 12 months.

1. SB Premium Content

The original concept for the SentenceBuilders website was as a vehicle for providing interactive SentenceBuilders and interactive activities based on the SentenceBuilders from the best-selling Sentence Builders books from The Language Gym. (We only decided to add some rudimentary authoring functionality in the few weeks prior to launch!!)

So how has the SB Premium content developed in this 1st year?

THEN...

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Tracking student activity on SentenceBuilders.com

On SentenceBuilders.com there are several ways that students can get involved in interactive activities -- each involving a certain level of performance tracking -- so there's plenty of feedback available to teachers on student progress, effort, accuracy and time spent.


1. ASSIGNMENTS

On SentenceBuilders you can set assignments based on any resource, whether an "SB premium" resource (created by the SentenceBuilders team for the website), or a "community" resource (created by our users).

Assignments can be "pre-defined" or "DIY"...

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