For example, a teacher might read Margorie Flack's Ask Mr. Bear to introduce a syntactic pattern. In step two, teachers give children extensive practice repeating the new Standard English pattern. At first children say the pattern in their own dialects. After they feel comfortable with the pattern, the teacher encourages them to use the Standard English form by emphasizing the specific contrast between their dialect and the Standard English form. The teacher may have children do one or two of the following practice activities.
Children act out the story and recite the syntactic patterns.
Children tape record their retelling of the story and play it back to their classmates. Children draw pictures to retell the story and dictate or write an accompanying pattern. Children make and use puppets to practice the Standard English pattern. In the final step, children manipulate the Standard English pattern by inventing new text. This helps children internalize the pattern.