Download daily lesson plan - Sarah Rehim`s Teaching Notebook

DAILY LESSON PLAN
Miss Rehim
Annis Brown Middle School
Age/ Grade Level: 6th graders/ 11-12 years old, 85% white, 15% minority,
intermediate English class with a focus on creative writing
Date: 9/10/08
Unit: Grammar – Appositive Phrases
Objective/ Learning Goal: The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to
appositive phrases for the purpose of describing the subjects of their
sentences. I have noticed students using short, choppy, unnecessary
sentences to describe their subjects, and it’s taking away from the flow of
their writing. My lesson will show them that, for example, the sentence “Jim
is 20. He is a senior at MSU. He likes to cook,” can become “Jim, a 20-yearold MSU senior who likes to cook,… .” I will know my students have mastered
the objective when I begin to see improvements in their writing in this area,
and when they can correctly identify appositive phrases as they read.
Skill Taught: I want students to walk away with an understanding of the
purposes for appositive phrases, and what positive effects they will see in
their writing when they begin to use them effectively. These benefits include
better sentence flow, as well as the inclusion of pertinent details without
adding to “bulk” to their writing.
Hook: My activity centers around students interviewing each other in order to
write short “mini-bios” on their peers that include appositive phrases, and I
view the interview itself as the hook. Students are working toward
completing the assignment in an approachable, non-intimidating way…by
simply talking to each other! So I will begin by stating that today, we are
going to learn a little bit more about our classmates!
Activity: After a brief introduction to appositives (I don’t expect the concept
to be too difficult to grasp), students will pair off with classmates who they
typically don’t speak to or associate with very often. They will then interview
each other, asking the sort of questions that will help them complete minibios on each other. Questions may involve hobbies, favorites, family life,
extra-curricular activities, etc. The interview should take no longer than 4
minutes. When they’ve finished, I will ask a student to volunteer to describe
his or her interviewee in one sentence that uses an appositive (to show
comprehension) and write it on the blackboard. After making sure no one has
questions, students will be asked to complete the mini-bios for homework
that evening. The bios will be half a page, typed, and must include 3
appositive phrases. One phrase must describe their interviewee specifically,
one must describe a particular hobby of the interviewee, and the last must
describe something other than these two examples.
Assessments: I will know what and if students have learned about
appositives and their uses immediately from their mini-bios and, in the
future, from an examination of their further written work. If, for instance,
students go on to use too many appositives in their writing following this
lesson, I will do a more in-depth follow-up lesson centering on when,
specifically, they’re necessary (since this 10-minute lesson may not
encompass that idea fully).