Concept Unit Day Six

Syntax Lesson
Context:
English 9
Ninth Grade
90 minutes
Lesson Plan Type: Full
Objective
UNDERSTAND
A. Writers actively choose
between different words
to produce a desired
effect.
COGNITIVE
B. Definitions, examples
and non-examples of
adjectives, adverbs, and
verbs.
C. The difference between
bland and vivid language
for the purposes of
imagery and description.
D. How to substitute
bland language with vivid
language while drafting.
AFFECTIVE
E. Appreciate the effect of
vivid language.
PERFORMATIVE
F. Identify adjectives,
adverbs and verbs.
G. Compare and contrast
between bland and vivid
language.
H. Compose a new draft
with the aid of vivid
adjectives, adverbs and
verbs.

SOLs
9.6 The student
will develop
narrative,
expository, and
persuasive
writings for a
variety of
audiences and
purposes.
e) Elaborate
ideas clearly
through word
choice and
vivid
description.

Assessment
DIAGNOSTIC
Students will demonstrate what
they know about the functions of
different words when they work
towards category descriptions
during our Concept
Development Abridged activity.
(B)
Students will demonstrate what
they know about vivid and bland
language during our activity,
Whats Wrong With This
Passage? (A, C, D, E, F, G, H)
FORMATIVE
Students will demonstrate their
progress towards understanding
adjectives, adverbs and verbs
during our Concept
Development Abridged activity,
when they use their definitions
and examples/non-examples to
locate verbs, adjectives and
adverbs within a passage. (A)
Students will demonstrate their
progress towards differentiating
between vivid and bland
language both during
Independent Practice 1 and
Independent Practice 2, where
they will substitute bland
language with vivid alternatives.
(A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H)
SUMMATIVE
Students will demonstrate
mastery of the role of adjectives,
adverbs and verbs in successful
passages in their final pieces,

where they will use language to

develop a chosen memory, story
or emotion, and in their final
reflection, where they will
address the role of the drafting
process in producing this
product. (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H)
Agenda:
1. Do-Now
a. Gallery Walk
b. Concept Development Abridged
2. Mini-Lesson 1: Whats wrong with this passage?
a. Modeling with teacher sample
b. Independent Practice: take what you have from your first draft and use
word blanks to improve
c. Independent Practice 2: Help your neighbor
3. Chunk of movie
Homework: KEEP WRITING! Second Draft due!
Beginning Room Arrangement:
Desks will be clustered together to form teams of four. On top of each table
will be cards with words for students to group.
Instructional Steps:
1. Do-Now [5 min]
I will meet students at the door. As students come into the room, Ill ask them
to look for their names on tables selected for them (groups will be designed to
be heterogeneous) and asked to sort the terms on the desks into groups as best
as they can. They have the usual five minutes to do this, and will receive a oneminute warning to put labels on their groups as best as they can. The board
will read: Behold: word soup! Please take a few minutes and sort these terms
in whichever way makes sense to your group. Make sure to label your groups
by what they have in common!
a. Gallery Walk [5 min]
I will ask students to rise from their seats and walk around the room to see
how other groups sorted their words and what labels they chose for the
categories they made.
Good morning everyone! Thank you guys so much for indulging me with this
unorthodox take on the daily do-now. Now that youve all had an opportunity to
sort your words into categories, I want everyone to get up and walk around the
room to see how the other groups did. Keep in mind that there is no right
answerthe goal is just to find things that might draw words together! So go
ahead and walk around; youll have five minutes to walk around and look at the

work of your peers, and Ill give you a one-minute warning so you can start
heading back to your seats. Go!
b. Concept Development Abridged [10 min]
After thanking students for their groupings I will direct their attention to my
own grouping, which will be projected on a PowerPoint slide. I will ask
students to decipher why I organized the words into this order instead of the
other ways they have created. If students get stuck, I will prompt them by
asking what the words have in common, what purpose they serve in language,
or how we use them.
All righty everybody! Im going to ask one person in each group to collect all of
the words from your desks and just put them back in the envelope that should
be on top of one of your desks while everyone else directs their attention up
here to the board. Now, we mentioned that there is no one right order, and we
noticed that different groups ordered their words differently. In this exercise,
Im going to ask you guys to figure out why I took the very same words and put
them in this order. What do they all have in common in each individual
category that justifies their being put together? Lets work together and guess
to see if we can figure out why theyre grouped like this. Whos got some
ideas?
Student: Well, all of those are stuff that happens.
Teacher: What do you mean, stuff that happens? (I will write stuff that
happens as a heading).
Student: Theyre all stuff that wedo.
Teacher: Hang on, I think Im confusedyou mean stuff that happens by
itself, like rain?
Student: No, like stuff that we do. Actions.
Teacher: Oh! That makes sense. Okay, so, not stuff that happens, then.
All right, actions(I will cross out stuff that happens and write
actions). Anything else they could be? Lets keep putting ideas up
here.
We will continue this process of trial and error, crossing out answers we deem
no longer suitable and replacing them with more adequate options until we
have come up with labels for our categories based on what the words do or
create (e.g. theyre actions! Or they describe stuff!). From these labels,
which we will call descriptors, I will supply terms (our terms in this case will
be verbs, adjectives and adverbs) and ask students to compose in their notes
definitions in their own words that provide examples and non-examples of the
term. I will model this last step with the following example:
Good work everybody! Okay, so as weve established, these words all tell us
more about an action, something we do. We call these adverbs. So lets take
our label, our description, and make it into our definition of our termbut lets
each do it in our own words, so that we can understand it. So Ill do this one,
Ill write adverbs and then Ill say, give more information about an action.

Make sure youre writing this down in your own words, and in your notes!
Okay, so if these are my notes, I have my term, I have my definition, but Im
also going to provide some examples and non-examples. So I can take these
two right here, these are both about speaking, right, so Ill write these down
under examples and then write myself a note about why theyre examples.
And then Ill do the same with the non-examples, Ill pick two and then Ill say,
well, these arent adverbs because theyre about things, right, rather than
actions, so they dont fit my definition! See how I did that? So you guys do
Verbs and Adjectives by yourselves. Make sure to have the term, just like I do
here, the definition right next to it, and then the examples and non-examples
with their reasoning so that you can understand your notes when you go back
to study. Lets take about a minute to do that.
Adverbs: give more information about an action
Examples:
Non-examples:
Quietly
Big
Loudly
Red
Why are they examples: Why are they nonThey have to do with examples:
the action or speaking
They define places,
people
or
things
rather than actions
c. Guided Practice [5 min]
I will hand out a passage, written by me, for students to work on. Using their
notes, I will ask students to underline the verbs, adjectives and adverbs in this
passage. If they get done early, they should to nearby friends and compare
their findings, in case they missed something!
Now were going to look at these words in action! Im going to be coming
around with this handouton it is a short passage that I wrote for us to work
on. So I want you guys to use your notes that you just wrote to find all the
verbs, adjectives and adverbs in this passage. Make sure you underline them
so you can find them. Were going to take just a couple of minutes to do that,
but if you get done early you can check with a neighbor to make sure you have
the same words. If youre not sure just raise your hand and well see if
together we can figure it out!
2. Mini-Lesson 1
a. Whats Wrong With This Passage? [10 min]
Using the SMARTBoard, I will project the passage (the same they have on their
handouts) and ask them to think about what makes it different from some of
those in the literature weve been reading. Does it speak to them? Is it vivid
and memorable or bland and forgettable? I will ask students to pinpoint the
feeling the passage creates in them and then give me reasons for their
impressions. Possible questions include What makes this passage so
unappealing? and How could we make it more appealing? As students

express their dissatisfaction, I will ask them to describe what could be done to
improve the passage, what specific things (adding of detail, inclusion of
background information, sensory imagery) would make the passage more
successful.
Sothis is something that I wrote for class, when I didnt have a whole lot of
time, and I kind ofdont really like it. Do you guys like it?
Student: Its boring, Ms.
Teacher: Oh gosh, it totally is, isnt it. Its so weird, it was really vivid in
my head. Is it vivid for you guys?
Student: Well, its all kind of general.
Teacher: General. Huh. Okay. Let me write that down in the margin
general. So what could I do to make it more interesting?
Student: Add details?
Teacher: But what kinds of details?
Student: Well, it talks about a dog, right?
Teacher: Mhmm.
Student: So then maybe you could tell us what he was likelike was he
fluffy? Or small and skinny?
Teacher: Okay, so lets seeI said big, here, but I could say fluffy. Fluffy
is a word where I can justpicture it, you know? We call these vivid
words. Theyre full of information for the senses, like silky, or salty, or
smelly. So I can add words that make it more descriptive, and I can
change words that are already here for words that are more vivid.
Once students have isolated one or two things we could do with it, I will direct
students to look at their underlined words. I will ask them to describe what
these words have in common in terms of painting a picture or allowing us to
feel as if we were actually there. I will ask three students to provide
suggestions for substitutions for some of the words available and ask them to
evaluate if they notice a change. Is the passage improved?
b. Modeling [5 min]
After three students have given the process a try I will select one example
sentence within the passage and describe why it doesnt speak to me and
describe what it is for me that seems insufficient about the sentence. I will
replace verbs, adverbs and adjectives as the students practiced, thinking aloud
about my intended effect and how best to reach it. Having done this, I will
introduce the possibility of adding details, background information or sensory
imagery to aid in the process.
Thank you guys so much for your help! I think Im getting the hang of this. So
lets see, I could look at this sentence here. When he came home with us, he
was the only big yellow thing in the house. Thats kinda stale, isnt it? So lets
see, lets focus on this first verb. How about, when we arrived homethat kind
of gives the visual of crossing the threshold, right, opening the front door and
walking in. Okay, so if thats the image I want to convey, Ive got to make him

stick out more. So how about when he arrived home barking and bouncing,
okay, that gives me more details, right, sets him apart from the stillness of the
house, and then, um, well, big and yellow. Huh. How about golden? He was the
only large golden thing in the house. Thats better. But thing, gosh, thats just a
blah word. How about, he was the only large golden shape in the house. Uh, I
still dont like that. What aboutwhat about just ditching this whole thing
altogether. So when he arrived home with us, his large goldenshape stuck
out in the ugh, the room, um, the tidy room. Wait, I dont like large
anymore.his fluffy golden shape stuck our in the tidy room. Okay, hows that?
Is that more appealing? So lets see, what did I doI tried to focus on the
image, and then think about what I was trying to sayyou shouldve seen him,
he was just this big yellow ball of fur in this perfect little room. Does that
sentence help us see that better?
Okay, so, how about this: while I work on this passage here, you guys pull out
your draft. Start off like I did, just underlining verbs and adjectives and
adverbs, and then see what kinds of words they are. Can you replace them
with words that are more vivid? If you look at an underlined word and think,
huh, thats boring, think about how we can make it more interesting, whether
theres more detail we can give or more information thatd make it more
intriguing. Ill give this a look and start coming around to see how you guys are
doing. Lets just take a couple of minutes to do that.
c. Independent Practice [10 min]
Students will take out their drafts and begin to practice our word blanks skill.
After giving them a few minutes head start I will start coming around to check
on their progress and read over their heads to see how theyre doing. When
only a couple of minutes remain, I will ask students to transcribe their changes
onto a new sheetthis one without all the markings and crossings out that we
did when we were editingso that we can take another look at it in its new
form.
d. Independent Practice 2 [10 min]
Once these new drafts are ready, I will ask students to pass them over to
whoever is clockwise from them in their groups and try to offer their peers a
fresh eye. I will provide a five-minute and one-minute warning to wrap up all
thoughts to help students use their time effectively.
Wow. That was exhausting. So lets do this: everyone take your clean copy and
pass it clockwise in your group. Now youve got someone elses work, so you
dont have the benefit of the image in your mind or the idea of what you want
to say: youre getting eyes that werent there to tell you if what you were trying
to say came across. So I want you guys to take these drafts and read them
slowly, just try and see if you can picture this scene or emotion that your peer
describes and then see if you can help them out. Try and find adverbs or verbs
or adjectives that maybe you can change to make it more vivid. Or, you know, if
you think you could use more detail anywhere, write them a little note. Lets
take time to do that, to read carefully and think: how can I help this person?

What are they doing well, and what can they do better? And HOW could they
do betterwhat would it involve? Ill be coming around if you guys get stuck,
so lets get cracking!
e. Wrap-Up [1 min]
During this short interval I will thank students for their work and help them
switch gears from their own writing to thinking about writing as an experience
and as a form of expression outside the classroom through the use of the film.
Thank you my beautiful people! Okay, so heres what were going to do. Lets
make sure we give back the drafts we received to the people who wrote them
and make a note of our homework for tonight. You guys have done most of the
work already, but for next class I want you guys to sit down with the feedback
you received and think about what changes you can make to help your readers
with your work. Think about where detail is important, or where we can use
more vivid language, or anything you think might make it more successful.
Once youre done making all the changes you want to make, please type up
your draft so we can work on it tomorrow!
3. Movie Time [29 min]
While students are putting things away I will make sure to set up the
technology so that we can view our movie. Once students are ready to go, I will
ask them to take out the questions weve been using as a reading guide to
guide their attention as they view the movie, and let them know that at the
start of class next class we will be devoting some time to our impressions of
the film and some of the answers weve been finding for our questions.
Materials:
Student journals
Thesaurus
PowerPoint slide with groupings (see appendix)
Cards for student groupings
Teacher sample handouts and file for SMARTBoard (attached)
DVD
SMARTBoard
Accommodations
Because using image blanks can be difficult for students who are new to a
language and lack vocabulary, I will be available and on the lookout for
students struggling to find new words for their image blanks. I will also have a
thesaurus on hand for students to use if they so desire.

[Teacher sample for modeling]

Luca Echegorri Zabalza
First Draft
Fluff
I still remember the day we got my dog. When he came home with us, he was
the only big yellow thing in the house. We opened the door and he walked in
and started smelling everything. We were so happy to have him that we just
let him do it, and soon, the whole house was covered in bits of fur. We hadnt
realized that could happen, that he would shed so much. Wed had dogs
before, but never this big, and never with this much fur. After the first hour
mom brought out the vacuum cleaner and tried to get the fur off of couch, but
it just wouldnt come off. It was so thin it just stuck to everything!
Ill never forget that day because every time I open old things, theyre still
covered in bits of yellow fluff. Just the other day, I was unpacking my cold
weather gear, and there were a bunch of yellow strips in it. It just took me
back to that day when we stood at the doorway and watched him run around
all happy-looking. We were so happy to have a furry member of the family. Its
been years, but the yellow fluff never seems to come off, just like the memory
of him never seems to leave me. Sometimes I see other yellow goldens being
walked by their owners and I think, its him! And then it comes back to me.
Thats what it means to me, to have a realm friend: he may have died, but he
never really left.