LESSON PLAN

PLANNING

Date:March 31, 2010 Class and Grade Level: English 8

Title/Subject of Lesson: More Intriguing Writing Through Conjunctions: The value of subordinating and coordinating conjunctions

Objective(s):

  • Students will be able to identify and recognize subordinating and coordinating conjunctions
  • Students will be able to use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions to build the sentence fluency and show the value of the phrases based on use of either subordinating or coordinating conjunctions.

State (or District) Core Curriculum Standard(s):

  • Standard 2, Objective 3: Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.

Concept(s) to Be Taught:

  • Coordinating conjunctions
  • Subordinating conjunctions
  • Varied Sentence fluency

Materials Needed:

  • Picture book; If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  • Overhead
  • “Concept Attainment” overhead

Strategies to Be Used:

  • Concept attainment GIFT
  • Read aloud to build sentence fluency
  • Acronyms for remembering
  • analyzing model texts
  • sentence expansion

PERFORMING

Announcements:

Continuation from Previous Lesson: Students have been working on a persuasive piece, comparing and contrasting two viewpoints. This mini-lesson is designed to help students see how to write a narrative while illustrating the value of certain phrases within the structure of the sentence itself. This lesson will allow them the opportunity to revise their viewpoints paper, with attention to FANBOYS and AAAWUBBIS words.

“Hello students! So last time you handed in your rough drafts of your persuasive writing pieces. I really liked what I saw, however, today we are going got do some activities to hopefully help you make your writing even BETTER!”

Lesson Presentation:

A)Getting Started:

concept attainment GIFT: on the over head, tell the students there are two lists, and I want you to tell me why I have separated the way I have.

(During the GIFT (OVERHEAD), students will uncover the differences between the two kinds of conjunctions. )

“Ok class, there are two lists here. They are different from each other and I want you to tell me what the difference is.

What is do you notice about the first column? What do all the first column have in common? How is it different from the second column? What does the second column have in common?

List the differences on the board.“Great job! You have just discovered the inner workings of…subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.”

B)Directing the Learning:

Define the terms (OVERHEAD) “Pull out your vocab sheets to write down these definitions.”

“Subordinating Conjunctions: depends on another part of the sentence to understand the clause. A word we can use to remember the most common subordinating conjunctions=AAAWWUBBIS.”Write On The Board (AAAWWUBBIS: After, Although, As, When, While, Until, Because, Before, If, Since)

Coordinating:Coordinating Conjunctions: two independent clauses with equal importance. Another good word to remember coordinating conjunctions is…FANBOYS. Write On Board: (FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)

“Ok so now that you’ve discovered the rules of subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, let’s practice finding them in real life. I’m going to real aloud If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. I want you to keep track of every subordinating/coordinating conjunction you hear. The most correct answer gets a prize! (Not including the title) (Read the Book)

Total:_____

“How many sub. Conj.?______

“How many coor. Conj?______

[modeling] Ok! So you’ve discovered the differences between the two kinds of conjunctions andyou’ve just practiced finding conjunctions in real life. Let’s put what we’ve just learned into practice!

OVERHEAD

“It was a stormy night. It was also a dark night. The clouds gathered low near the horizon. They looked like they were full of rain. Mary came home from the grocery store. Her arms were full of bags. The bags were heavy. They were full of food. Johnnie was waiting by the window. He was eager for Mary to come back. Johnnie was scared of the thunder. He was also scared of the rain. It was loud on the tin roof. Johnnie ran over to the door to help Mary. He grabbed a couple of bags. He made sure to set them down carefully. Last time he helped, he smashed the eggs on accident. He didn’t want to break the eggs again. They were going to make cookies tonight! Johnnie loved making cookies. He loved eating them too. Cookies were the best way to fight a stormy night. Cookies were warm. They were sweet. Mary liked having Johnnie help her. Mary loved to cook. She didn’t always love cleaning up afterward. Johnnie and Mary had a nice kitchen. They liked to keep it clean.”

Write down the sentences with new conjunctions varying the sentence fluency. (It was a dark AND stormy night. The clouds gathered low near the horizon AS they were full of rain. Mary just came home from the grocery story SO her arms were full of bags. The bags were heavy AND full of food. BECAUSE Johnnie was scared of the thunder AND rain, he waited by the window, eager for Mary to come back. …etc, etc.)

Now it’s your turn! From “JOHNNIE RAN OVER TO….”

[guided practice] Get with a partner for the rest of the paragraph, pick two or three sentences and use FANBOYS or AAAWWUBBIS words to combine them into one sentence. Remember, what are FANBOYS? (coordinating conjunctions) Good! And what are AAAWWUBBIS words? (subordinating conjunctions) Very good. And what is the difference between the two? (subordinating depends on the independent sentence and coordinating combines two independent clauses.) Very Good.

And last but not least, what is the class going to do now Tayler? (pick two or three sentences and make it into one) BE CREATIVE

(circle the room) Great job class, I really like what I am seeing here. Does anyone want to volunteer to write what their group came up with on the overhead? Great job!

[independent practice] Once students have a good grasp of the concept, have them pull out their persuasive compare and contrast pieces and find places where they could combine two or three independent clauses of the same value with a coordinating conjunction, or find places with an independent clause and subordinate clause to use a subordinating conjunction to make the writing more effective and to make the sentences flow more smoothly. Not all the sentences have to be combined together. Good place to mention that sentence fragments and single independent clauses are fine. In fact, they are a powerful option for writers looking to emphasize something.

C)Bringing the Lesson to a Conclusion:

Ok, now that you’ve had some time to experiment with your own writing, what did you notice? (class discussion?) What is the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions? GOOD!

Assignment: For your homework assignment, I want you to go through the rest of your paper and see where else you can combine sentences together. Bring your draft next time to class with your revisions highlighted. I want you to use sticky notes to tell me why you chose to combine those two sentences and what type of conjunction you used.