Manipulating sentences to reinforce grammar skills
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=248
A lesson plan for grade 9 English Language Arts
After a brief review session on the parts of speech, students learn how to manipulate sentences in order to modify and enhance the meaning of a sentence with antonyms and synonyms. This lesson assumes that students have basic knowledge of verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and other sentence elements. Using The Island Keeper by Harry Mazer, students isolate words and categorize them according to parts of speech. Then the class brainstorms lists of adjectives, adverbs, and verbs that either retain or change the meaning of selected sentence. The teacher engages students in a class discussion about how word choice can make a difference in both the meaning and interest level of a sentence. In small groups, students select an interesting quote and work collaboratively to manipulate the quotation. Readwritethink provides several extension opportunities and links to helpful websites.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 9
- Goal 4: The learner will create and use standards to critique communication.
- Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
- examining the use of strategies in a presentation/product.
- applying a set of predetermined standards.
- creating an additional set of standards and applying them to the presentation/product.
- comparing effective strategies used in different presentations/products.
- Objective 4.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print critical texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of critical environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
- Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
- using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
- recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
- interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
- understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
- explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
- explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
- determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
- explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
- making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
- understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
- producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.
- Objective 5.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print literacy texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of literary environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
- Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:
- uses varying sentence types (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) purposefully, correctly, and for specific effect.
- selects verb tense to show an appropriate sense of time.
- applies parts of speech to clarify and edit language.
- addresses clarity and style through such strategies as parallelism; appropriate coordination and subordination; variety and details; appropriate and exact words; and conciseness.
- analyzes the place and role of dialects and standard/nonstandard English.
- uses vocabulary strategies such as roots and affixes, word maps, and context clues to discern the meanings of words.
- Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in spoken and written English by:
- avoiding fragments, run-ons, and comma splices.
- selecting correct subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and appropriate verbs.
- using and placing modifiers correctly.
- editing for spelling and mechanics (punctuation and capitalization).
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:



