Instructional Planning Guide -- Lesson 4

Instructional Planning Guide -- Lesson 4

Term 4, 2008-2009 School Year
Unit Title: Sentenced! Recognizing and Correcting Crimes Against Grammar!
Grade Level: Seventh Grade

Students: This unit has been prepared for mainstream classes of seventh grade English. The students have been working on writing skills all year, doing various writing assignments in class and on the MYAccess program. We have briefly studied some aspects of sentence structure and variety, including review of parts of speech, but we are still seeing many errors and weaknesses in sentence composition.

Goals

Cognitive:
Goal of Lesson 4) Students will know and use several ways to correct sentence fragments, run-ons, and comma-splices.

Social/Affective:
1) Students will work together as partners, small groups, and as a class to learn about sentences.
2) Students will come to understand the importance of creating complete, correct, understandable sentences.

Linguistic:
1) Terms will be clarified for students, including terms for parts of speech and other terms used when discussing sentences.

Assessment

Cognitive: Student pairs participate in a Core Test Preparation exercise that also provides practice for recognizing sentence problems.
Students work with parters to "rehabilitate" fragments, comma-splices, and run-ons into complete, correct sentences.

Social/Affective: The teacher observes how students work with their partners in a competitive activity for the whole class.

Linguistic: Students will discuss and ask and answer questions about problems with sentences.

Sequence of Tasks

Student Work
Students work with partners on a test-practice to recognize (in a multiple choice format) sentence problems.
Students work with partners to rehabilitate (correct) illegal (problem) sentences.

Teacher Work
1) The teacher prepares copies of a core test practice worksheet focusing on editing sentence-level errors. (I copied one from our writing textbook materials.)
2) The teacher prepares and presents (with discussion and questions to and from students) a PowerPoint about ways to fix illegal sentences, with notes with blanks.
3) The teacher also prepares problem sentences for the students to correct. Students are to work in pairs.
They will find the errors, show the sentences correctly written, and after fixing a certain number of sentences will bring their work up to the teacher to be checked. (Fortunately, I had a student teacher present to help correct. When there is not another adult present, I give corrected pages to one or two of the students who already understand this concept, and have them help correct.
They then move on to another set of "sentences" that are fragments, comma-spices, or run-ons. They also have a final challenge of combining a series of parts into a complete, correct sentence.
There are small candy prizes for the first few teams to finish, having done a quality job.



Materials
Core Test Practice: any test practice on fragments, comma-splices, and run-ons
PowerPoint, Part 4 - and notes with blanks
Rehabilitation Race (See http://caveassessment.pbwiki.com Game, Activity Materials: Rehabilitation Race )
small candies for prizes