Drake Galarneau

11/27/2012

Comma Workshop Lesson Plans

Standards: Standard 1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Use parallel structure.* b. Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations. ISTE NETS: 6.Technology Operations and Concepts Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students: a. understand and use technology systems. b. select and use applications effectively and productively. c. troubleshoot systems and applications. d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies. Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to: Identify when a particular sentence needs a comma to be grammatically correct. Rewrite the sentence with the comma in the correct place. Demonstrate their knowledge on practice sentences provided in the online practice quiz.

Introduction of the Learning Activity: This lesson will be taught to a tenth grade English class. The students will be told that I have just graded their recent essays and that there are some grammatical issues, centrally focused around comma usage. Students will be told that this is a very common mistake, but that it can be easily corrected through an explanation of some of the rules of comma usage and some practice in class. The students motivation will be that they will have the opportunity to correct their grammatical mistakes on the essays that have been just graded, and for every mistake that is corrected they will receive bonus points on their next quiz or test.

Provide Information: After introducing the lesson to the students, I will pass out an initial practice sheet to gauge where the students are as far as their knowledge of commas and where they are having the most issues. I will then go through the sheet with them and on the board I will write how to identify where the commas should be placed in the sentence and, more importantly, why. Through this the students will be prepared to move onto the next step of the process. Provide practice: After the students have completed the pre-activity sheet and we have gone over the answers, students will be directed to visit the website with an activity to check for understanding of the class material. (The activity can be found at http://www.towson.edu/ows/exercisecomma2.html) The students will be directed to do the activity and check their answers against the answer key. Provide Knowledge of Results: While the students are doing the pre-activity as well as the actual online quiz, I will go around the room to see how they are doing and making sure that they are on task. I will let them know verbally whether or not they are on the right track, and I will let them know if they are doing well on my trips around the room. The students will also provide knowledge of results in the preactivity, by handing in the worksheet with their answers attached. Review of Activity: At the end of the activity, I will bring the class back together and go over the results of their online activity. I will field any questions that the students may have about the material that we have covered for the day and then I will give them their assignment. Method of Assessment: At the end of the class I will hand the students back their papers and give them the opportunity to revise the comma errors that I have circled. The revisions will be due the next day, and for every correct revision the student will receive a bonus point on their next quiz or test. This will give the students an opportunity to practice which benefits them, but has no direct penalty if they still need help grasping the material.