Der Besuch der Alten Dame - how to write an essay - sentence-builders

A really useful resource for showing students how to use formal essay language to get their point across in A Level German essays. This is the hardest element of the new A Level - both to teach and for students to do themselves. This resource provides a crucial stepping stone between knowing the work of literature really well, and constructing a sound answer in essay form.

To use each sentence-builder, simply choose an option from each box moving from left to right.

Ideas for use by students:

• orally, give students English sentences to translate into German (stick to options given in full in the tables to familiarise them with what they contain)
• write short paragraphs in English mixing simple sentences stating events with sentences built from the sentence-builders - students then translate into English.
• give students a target when writing an essay to include a certain number of sentences (e.g. 5) made from the sentence-builders. On their subsequent essay encourage them to use the sentence-builders but to choose different verbs (i.e. if they used betont, behauptet, gezeigt, illustriert, tell them these ones are now banned, which should encourage more advanced verbs like darauf hingewiesen, vermittelt.