English Language Arts, Expository Writing Unit



Parts of Speech Unit 7, Conjunctions, Lesson 1: Introduction to ConjunctionsStandards Met: This lesson is part of the Parts of Speech Overarching Unit Plan, and meets the standards outlined therein. Big Ideas: continuity, connections, correlation, interactions, interdependence, order, patterns, symbol, system. This lesson aims to assist students in developing their own understanding of using conjunctions to write clear, readable, comprehensible expository prose. This lesson activates prior knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, the elements of a declarative sentence, syntax. Students will be able to complete, using a learning support, a teacher-made worksheet in which they proofread a passage of text in order to identify all the conjunctions in it, then apply that knowledge, first to complete a series of modified cloze exercises that call upon them to use a sentence’s context to place the appropriate conjunction in the blank, and second to write six declarative sentences using conjunctions from their learning support properly.Classroom Aim: What is a conjunction? What role do conjunctions play in sentences? How many types of conjunctions are there, and how do we use them?Do Now: 1. Everyday Edit, Basketball’s Beginnings; 2. Homophone Worksheet, Bare, BearClass Work: Guided inquiry, using teacher-made materials, into conjunctions and their use in English prose. Students will begin by proofreading a passage of text; using a learning support, they will identify the conjunctions in the passage. They will proceed to 13 modified cloze exercises which call upon them, using the sense of the sentence, to place the appropriate conjunction in the cloze blank. Students will then apply this fundamental knowledge of conjunctions in their independent practice, as below.Independent Practice: Compose six sentences using any six of the conjunctions from the left hand column of your learning support (i.e. for, and, nor, but, or, so, yet).Methods and Materials: This lesson is presented as a highly structured guided inquiry. Therefore, it is designed to meet the needs of struggling and/or alienated students who deal with impediments to learning, including low levels of reading and writing ability, attention deficits, executive function weakness, or a variety of other behavioral and cognitive impairments and disabilities. Therefore, this lesson may have as many as four different versions of its do-now exercises, and scaffolded worksheets, edited for students’ reading ability. While this lesson addresses a skill necessary to achievement in the English language arts curriculum, its general focus is on enhancing students’ overall literacy and facility with language This lesson’s focus is to address difficulties in writing, particularly at the level of the grammatically complete expository sentence, by teaching syntax, grammar, and style synthetically. Please see Parts of Speech Unit 7: Conjunctions Unit Plan for a fuller exposition of the students this lesson is meant to serve and its methods in meeting their needs.Need for Lesson: ELA POS UP7C LP1*lp; ELA POS UP7C LP1*dn1; ELA POS UP7C LP1*dn2; ELA POS UP7C LP1*sup; ELA POS UP7C LP1*ws; ELA POS UP7C LP1*wstc;Key Points and Connections:Hand out learning supports for the unit.Make sure students understand that for the cloze exercises on this worksheet, they will use only coordinating conjunctions ((i.e. for, and, nor, but, or, so, yet).Bring to students notice that when two subject nouns are joined by the conjunction and this forms a plural subject, and therefore requires a plural verb.Tell students that they will see all three types of conjunctions in their cloze exercises as they move through this unit.Nota bene the use of the conjunction for as a means of saying because; point this out to students.Some Essential Questions:What is a conjunction? How do conjunctions function in sentences?Can subjects of sentences be joined with conjunctions?How so subject nouns in sentences joined conjunctions affect verb number?How precise must we be?What makes writing worth reading?What error is unavoidable in punctuation, and what margins of error are tolerable?Is punctuation necessary? Why?How do you know that you comprehend what you are reading?What should good readers—and writers—regularly monitor their understanding?When should we use “fix-up” strategies?Next Lesson: English Language Arts, Parts of Speech Unit 7, Conjunctions, Lesson 2: The Coordinating Conjunction, Part 1 ................
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