Day+Six

Review and Assess: Comprehension - "Eeking Out a Life," p. 25 in Holt Assessment

Explain to students that creating fragments and correcting them will help them in the research/summary process that they will start tomorrow.
 * Lesson: "Forget Fragments and Rule Out Run-ons"**

1) To create sentences for the fragment demonstration, choose an amusing topic. 2) Show several fragments. You can include humorous drawings, graphics, and sounds effects --and event puppets to dramatize some of the sentences. 3) Ask students whether these words are sentences, discuss why they are not, and define the term fragment (incomplete sentence). Examples: Esmerelda and Zelda, two happy hamsters. Enjoy playing pranks. The innocent science teacher. 4) Show a single fragment. Model how to correct a fragment by adding words. F: Buried themselves under wood chips. S: The two hamsters buried themselves under wood chips. 5) Distribute dry-erase boards and markers to students. Revealing one at a time, show three more examples of fragments.
 * Fragments**:

6) Ask students to fix each one by adding words.

7) Next, model how to correct fragments by combining thoughts.

Ex. F: After trembling in her socks. S: The science teacher shrieked. C: After trembling in her socks, the science teacher shrieked.

8) Following the same procedure outlined in step 4, have students repair the following fragments by combing thoughts: F: When they spied the teacher crawling. S: The two imps began to giggle. F: After the teacher heard the noise. S. She sprinted toward it. S: The two hamsters snorted. F: As they laughed mischievously.

Run-Ons 1) Fire one run-on sentence. 2) Have students identify the problem. 3) Reveal, one at a time, three examples of run-on sentences. Model two ways to correct the first run-on (1) semicolon, or (2) using proper capitalization and punctuation to create two or more sentences. Distribute a hand-out or run-ons. Examples: R: I'm a happening dude who spins tales why just yesterday a pompous poodle grabbed my tail. C1: I'm a happening dude who spins tales; why, just yesterday a pompous poodle grabbed my tail. C2: I'm a happening dude who spins tales. Why, just yesterday a pompous poodle grabbed my tail. 4) Continue the mini-lesson by showing two more examples of run-ons.

(Credits: Awesome Hands-on Activities for Teaching Grammar, by Susan Van Zile)

Homework: Fragments/Run-ons Activity