Complete Song Title?
A Conventional Mini-Lesson on Complete Sentences and Fragments
By: Amy Carol Wilkins
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Purpose: |
This lesson plan is intended to teach students the difference between a complete sentence and a fragment through the use of popular song titles. |
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Time: |
20 minutes |
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Materials: |
Chalk Board/Dry Erase Board, Chalk/Dry Erase Markers, Song Titles, the most recent draft of student writing |
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Objectives: |
6th, 7th,
8th Grade 6.01: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language use by demonstrating an understanding of using a variety of sentence types correctly, punctuating them properly, and avoiding fragments and run-ons. National Standards
For English Language Arts
“Complete Song Title?” is a conventional mini lesson that should be used by a teacher anytime during the academic year when he or she, after evaluation of student writing, realizes that their students are writing sentence fragments instead of complete sentences. This is an engaging way for teachers to re-visit the concepts and rules that apply to complete sentences and sentence fragments. To follow up on this mini-lesson, teachers should focus on proofreading for sentence fragments on the evaluation of the next draft in writing workshop. |
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Script: |
“Everyone take out the list of your favorite song titles that you came up with for homework and select your favorite three to put up on the board. Anyone who is seated in the back row should come up and put their three song titles on the board. Once the person who sits behind you is back in their seat, then you may go to the board and put up your song titles until everyone in the room has three song titles on the board. While you wait for everyone to finish you need to be writing down the song titles that others wrote on the board into your notes. (Wait and give time for everyone to put their song titles on the board). Now can anyone tell me what a complete sentence is (Wait for someone to answer your question)? So do we all agree with John’s definition that a complete sentence is a sentence that has a subject, a verb, and is a complete thought? Well that’s a good definition John but what exactly is a subject (wait for response)? That’s right a subject is a noun that the sentence is about. Can someone refresh the class on the definition of a noun? That’s right a noun is defined as a person place or thing. Now that we know what a subject is all about, can someone tell me what a predicate is (wait for correct response)? Yes, Mary can you repeat your definition of a predicate (Mary says a predicate is a word or group of words that contains some form of a verb that tells what the subject is, does, or is doing). What about a verb? What exactly is a verb (wait until someone in the class tells you that a verb is an action word that tells someone’s state or what they are doing)? Well ok, now we know about the subject and the predicate, but what is all this business about a complete thought (wait until a student tells you that a sentence must express a complete thought before it can be considered a complete sentence). Alright so I think we understand what a complete sentence is, am I right or are there questions? Well if no one has any questions someone tell me what a fragment is (wait until someone says that a fragment is a phrase that is missing one of the three components of a complete sentence). So your meaning to tell me that if I have two of the three requirements to be a complete sentence that majority doesn’t rule and it has to be considered a fragment anyway (wait for them to tell you yes)? Well with all that in mind, lets take a look at these song titles to see which ones would be considered fragments and which sentences would be considered complete (go around the room and ask different students to decide if the song titles are complete or fragments). “Okay, now that we have refreshed our memories on what makes a sentence complete, take out your most recent draft from writing workshop and exchange papers with a neighbor and search for any sentence fragments that might be in the paper. Make sure that you are more aware of your sentence structure on your next draft.” |
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Examples: |
Below are some examples of popular song titles that your students are likely to bring into your class. Be prepared for the students to have a lot to say about the song titles that are on the board and take into account that there will be laughter and chattering around the room. This is okay when kept to a minimum because middle school students get excited about popular music. Just remember that this will bring more attention to the “sentences” being evaluated.
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