TEKS Lesson Plan/Unit Plan



Focus Plan

Texarkana Independent School District

|GRADING PERIOD: | 1st 6 Weeks |PLAN CODE: |W7.1.2 |

|Teacher: |Ables |Course/subject: |English Language Arts |

|Grade(s): |7 |Time allotted for instruction: |3 class periods |

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|Title: |Finding Voice through Sentence Variety |

|Lesson TOPIC: |Varying the length and structure of sentences in a composition |

|TAKS Objective: |Objective 2 |

| |The student will produce a piece of writing that demonstrates a command of the conventions of |

| |spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, usage, and sentence structure. |

|FoCUS TEKS and Student Expectation: |(7.17) Writing/grammar/usage. The student applies standard grammar and usage to communicate |

| |clearly and effectively in writing. The student is expected to: |

| |(A) write in complete sentences, varying the types such as compound and complex sentences, |

| |and use appropriately punctuated independent and dependent clauses (7-8). |

|Supporting TEKS and Student Expectation: |(7.17) Writing/grammar/usage. The student applies standard grammar and usage to communicate |

| |clearly and effectively in writing. The student is expected to: |

| |(B) use conjunctions to connect ideas meaningfully (4-8) |

| |(E) use prepositional phrases to elaborate written ideas (4- 8) |

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|Concepts |Enduring Understandings/Generalizations/Principles |

| |The student will understand that |

|Processes |Writing is a process that includes prewriting, drafting, editing, and revising. |

|Sentence structure |The effective use of a variety of sentence types makes writing more interesting to the reader. |

|Voice |Good writers develop their “voice,” an individual’s writing style that enables the reader to “see” the |

| |writer or to get a sense of the person behind the words. |

|Style |Sentence variety, length, and other syntactic devices are components of a writer’s style. |

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[pic]I. Sequence of Activities (Instructional Strategies)

A. Focus/connections

Lead students through Focus Activity: The Painted Puppet. See directions sheet and transparency for complete instructions.

B. Instructional activities

(demonstrations, lectures, examples, hands-on experiences, role play, active learning experience, modeling, discussion, reading, listening, viewing, etc.)

1. Objectives: Explain that many times writers become stuck in a pattern of sentence structure. Effective writers, however, vary sentence structure and length and devise different ways of putting words together to make meaningful sentences. This lesson is designed to teach students a variety of sentence structures that can be modeled and then applied to their own writing.

2. Lecture/Discussion: The teacher will use Transparencies: Achieving Sentence Variety to demonstrate how modifiers may be added at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence to create variety in sentence structure. The transparencies contain a kernel sentence, a list of modifiers, sample sentences which use the modifiers, and the rules for punctuation.

During the lecture, students will record notes by completing the required chart. (See Student Lecture Notes.)

C. Guided activity or strategy

Using Guided Activity: Practicing Sentence Variety, the teacher will lead a practice session on composing sentences. The following suggestions illustrate a variety of ways the teacher could conduct this activity.

1) Create transparencies of the guided activity pages. Have students volunteer to use the overhead projector and demonstrate how to construct a sentence by inserting the designated modifier. The demonstration should be accompanied by a discussion of the word choices and the punctuation of the new sentences.

OR

2) Divide students into groups and provide handouts of the guided activity pages. The teacher could either have each student group create 13 new sentences from the designated modifiers or the teacher could divide the 13 modifiers between the groups. Once the new sentences are created, students should share these with the class by illustrating the sentences on a transparency.

OR

3) The teacher could divide the class into teams and create sentence relay races. The team members would compete individually by “racing” to the board and illustrating the new sentence. The first writer in each paired contest who correctly composes and punctuates the sentence would earn a point for his/her team.

D. Accommodations/modifications

E. Enrichment

II. STUDENT PERFORMANCE

A. Description

Students will compose original sentences using each of the modifiers and the placements discussed in the lesson. See Student Activity: Achieving Sentence Variety.

B. Accommodations/modifications

C. Enrichment

A bonus composition activity is included on the student activity handout for enrichment. Students will compose an original sentence using a combination of modifiers at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the sentence, using the correct punctuation.

iii. Assessment of Activities

A. Description

During this lesson, the teacher will conduct a variety of assessments. The focus activity could be used to evaluate the students’ mastery in using the basic parts of speech to build a sentence. This informal assessment would take place during the oral presentation of the group sentences.

During the lecture/discussion, the teacher should use oral questioning to determine initial understanding of building sentences through the use of modifiers. The teacher also could use the student lecture notes form to teach and to evaluate note-taking skills.

Assessment during the guided activity should be determined based on which one of the suggested strategies the teacher uses for the activity. The teacher could evaluate through oral questions/discussion, through graded group presentations to the class, or through bonus points awarded during the game.

To determine the students’ mastery level of the lesson concepts, the teacher should evaluate the original sentences composed in the independent student activity.

B. Rubrics/grading criteria

Student Lecture Notes: Completion/accuracy grade (With 26 blank spaces on the chart, each blank would be worth approximately 4 points.)

Guided Activity: Practicing Sentence Variety: Depending on which method is used to conduct the guided activity, the teacher could assign a point value for a daily grade or could award bonus points for correctly written examples.

Student Activity: Achieving Sentence Variety: Each of the 13 sentences is worth approximately 8 points. Points should be determined based on the correct use of the modifier and on the correct punctuation of the sentence. Bonus points should be awarded for the final bonus sentence (suggested 10 points).

C. Accommodations/modifications

D. Enrichment

E. Sample discussion questions

1. How do you punctuate a sentence that begins with a modifier?

2. Why should writers vary their sentences?

3. What does an appositive do?

4. Which word is being modified?

IV. TAKS Preparation

A. Transition to TAKS context

Students should apply the concepts of this lesson by writing an original composition. In the composition, the student should vary sentence structure and should punctuate the sentences correctly. The teacher should provide a reflective prompt for the assignment. (See suggested prompts listed below.)

B. Sample TAKS questions

TAKS writing prompts for grade 7 are as follows:

▪ Spring 2003 - “Write a composition about a time when something unexpected happened.”

▪ Spring 2004 - “Write a composition about trying to do something you thought was difficult.”

Note: The prompts listed above from the TEA TAKS release tests are for the teacher’s information only. Because they will be used on TISD TAKS Benchmarks, they should not be used for instruction.

Suggestions for writing prompts for this assignment are as follows:

▪ “Many people have to wait a long time for something to happen. Write about something you had to wait a long time to get.”

▪ “Write about a time when you were really surprised.”

▪ “Write about a time when you were proud of yourself.”

▪ “Tell about a time that you did something that took a lot of nerve, a time when you didn't follow the crowd.”

V. Key Vocabulary

Voice, style, kernel sentence, conjunctions, adverb, dependent clause, infinitive phrase, modifier, appositive

VI. Resources

A. Textbook

BK English, Grade 7 (Chapter 3: Writing with Sentence Variety, pp. 62-76)

B. Supplementary materials

▪ Focus Activity: The Painted Puppet (instruction sheet and transparency)

▪ Transparencies: Achieving Sentence Variety

▪ Student Lecture Notes

▪ Guided Activity: Practicing Sentence Variety

▪ Student Activity: Achieving Sentence Variety

C. Technology

VII. FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES

(reteaching, cross-curricular support, technology activities, next lesson in sequence, etc.)

Next lessons in sequence:

• Developing Better Sentences

• Writing Workshop: Drafting a Reflective Composition

• Writing Well-Structured Paragraphs

VIII. Teacher Notes

The student expectation on which this lesson is focused (7.17A) appears under two different TAKS objectives. Under TAKS objective 2, this lesson concentrates on the student’s ability to compose sentences in a variety of forms.

Under TAKS objective 4, the same student expectation is used to assess the student’s ability to recognize complete sentences. The FoCUS Lesson Plan titled What’s in a Sentence? is recommended as a prerequisite lesson to Finding Voice through Sentence Variety.

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