Decon-Recon

Students deconstruct a short cohesive text into simple fact sentences, then — after a time delay — reconstruct it into continuous prose, comparing their version with the original to notice gaps in cohesion and grammar.

Procedure

1. Lead in: Show an image or headline related to the text. Students predict what happened.
2. Skim: Display the text briefly (10 seconds). Students check if any predictions were correct.
3. Deconstruct: In pairs, students break the text into simple one-fact sentences (aim for 10–15). Collect the papers.
4. Time delay: Do something else for at least one hour — or use the next lesson. The delay is essential.
5. Reconstruct: Return the fact sentences. Pairs work together to rebuild the text into cohesive prose, aiming for the same number of sentences as the original.
6. Compare: Display the original. Students underline significant differences — especially in cohesive devices, linking words, and complex sentence structures.

Variations

• Key words only: After comparing, remove both versions. Put key words on the board and have students reconstruct again — a second pass at noticing.
• Cross-lesson split: Deconstruct as a cooler at the end of one lesson, reconstruct as a warmer in the next.
• Difficulty scaling: Fewer sentences in the original = harder (one long complex sentence is the most challenging).

Tips

• Choose texts with rich cohesive features: relative clauses, participle clauses, linkers, pronoun reference. These are what students will notice during comparison.
• Different from dictogloss: students have the text in front of them during deconstruction, so comprehension isn't the challenge — rebuilding cohesion is.
• Monitor during reconstruction to check students are using all the information and not just listing facts.