Grammar Mini Lesson: Vocabulary Chart Exploration

NOTE: This Mini Lesson is not the same lesson that I gave during Methods.
I have modified the format of Pam Cokes Mini Lesson Template to cooperate
with my Vocab Chart Assignment.

Mini Lesson Template

With the dualistic property of language in mind, I will take vocabulary

words, such as solemn, that have one definitive part of speech and use
the root word to explore how we can manipulate the root into different
parts of speech.

Vocabulary Pool
Vocabulary Charts
Smart Boards
Lord of the Flies Golding (Putnam Press)
Teaching Grammar through Writing Polette

Students must complete/interact with their Vocab Charts.

This lesson activates prior knowledge about parts of speech, and
syntax. This form details the first instance of this type of lesson;
however, this lesson will be completed periodically throughout the unit
and will activate the information from the previous installment.

Explicit Instruction

Tell them what you will teach

today. Today Im going to teach
you

I will pull the vocabulary from the Vocabulary pool. The words that I
have chosen are significant in order to get the full impact of the novel.
The example that I will be exploring has two terms in one sentence:
Surmounted & Creeper
I will explore the definition of the root Surmount to see how it
personifies the island.
I will look at the different senses for Creeper and make the connection
with the slang: Creep.

Mini Lesson Topic

Name the teaching point.

Materials
Gather materials, mentor texts

Connection
Tell them what you taught the
previous lesson. The last
writers workshop, we learned
how to

Show them exactly how to do it.

Watch me do it., or Lets take a
look at how (author) does this
when s/he writes

Guided Practice
Ask them to try it out with a
partner, or with you for a few
minutes. Now try it out with a
partner

Using the SmartBoard, and the electronic version of Flies, I pull the
sentence from the text. And then circle the words that we are working
with. I ask students to provide the definitions from the Vocab Charts;
if no student responds, I wait for a responseI will not answer this. I
ask students what other words we know with the same root. And then
I create a sentence using the roots with their new parts of speech.

Independent Practice
Remind students how the
teaching point can be used in
independent writing. (There
should be a link between the
mini lesson and the
students independent writing
lives.)

Group Wrap Up

Restate the teaching point. Ask:

Did you try what was taught?
Did it work for you? How will it
affect your future writing?

Afterwards I will take another example and have students create

sentences of their own.
I will stress that almost every word has a root word, and that these can
always be manipulated.
I scaffolding for prefixes and suffixes.

How can you use these words/definitions/parts of speech in your

Multigenre Research Project
How does manipulating a root word affect its meaning? How does it
change the impact of a sentence.