When we encounter new vocabulary in class, I get the students to make sentences about themselves that contain the new words.

However, Ss sometimes get stuck for inspiration when making a personalised sentence.

I had continued success with a TOEFL group by adopting a "Theme of the session for the personalised sentence". This did not have to be related to the lesson content.

For example, one day Ss had to write the sentence relating to 'summer holidays'. Another day it was 'winter'.

'Things I do at the office', 'Stuff I do at the weekend', 'Favourite films and actors' were other themes of the day.

This focus seemed to be a faster way of forcing a personalised sentence out of Ss.

...and they all got the TOEFL scores they needed in the end :-)