Name

Semester
Lesson Information

Class

This lesson is the

Lesson title
Lesson
description,
including goal(s),
concepts and
skills
Lesson length
Grade level and
course
Source of lesson
plan and how I
modified it

lesson in a series of

Misplaced Modifier Cartoons

Students will each be given a sentence that contains a misplaced modifier. Their job will be to 1)
identify the misplaced modifier, 2) correct and rewrite the sentence, and 3) draw a cartoon that
demonstrates the humor/confusion found in a misplaced modifier. After they have completed
their cartoons, the students will get into groups and share their sentence and creation with their
peers. After this, students will then be asked to write a sentence with a purposely misplaced
modifier that they can trade with a partner. For homework, each student must create a second
cartoon based off of the sentence their partner wrote.
40 minutes
9th grade English
Inspired by this classroom website:

Burnham, J. (2011, April 21). Cartoons for Misplaced Modifiers. Pelican Rapids High School. Retrieved
September 9, 2015, from http://www.pelicanrapids.k12.mn.us/education/components/album/default.php?
gaid=4267>ag=**&grid=2458
Sentences with misplaced modifiers found:
Snipes, E. (2011, July 8). Funny dangling and misplaced modifiers. EddieSnipes.com. Retrieved September 8,
2015, from http://www.eddiesnipes.com/2011/07/funny-dangling-and-misplaced-modifiers/
My lesson is similar to the lesson that Joyce Burnham posted on her schools website, but I took the lesson a
step further by asking my students to write a misplaced modifier sentence of their own.

Lesson plan summary

Prior knowledge needed
for success
How I will address
students who do not have
this prior knowledge
Materials for instruction
(including rationale for
why the materials are
appropriate)

An understanding of what a modifier is and how it can be misplaced.

We will review sentence structure with slips of paper/magnets that have different
clauses on them. I will easily be able to move modifiers around in a hypothetical
sentence, and we will review where a modifier needs to be placed in a sentence.
1. Slips of paper (made my myself) that contain various clauses and modifiers (for
the above step)
2. Slips of paper that each convey a sentence that contains a misplaced modifier
3. Computer paper, crayons and/or markers (for the cartoon drawing)

Pre-test and post -test

formats (using the same
format for both tests.) Pre
& post tests may be for
unit.

Collection method for pretest & post-test

Materials for informal
assessment
Materials for formal
assessment
Targeted learning styles
and/or intelligences
Accommodations/Modifica
tions

4. Sheet of misplaced modifier sentences (for my own personal use as I create their
slips of paper)
Before we begin the activity, students will be shown two sentences on the board. One
will be correctly written, and one will contain a misplaced modifier. (The sentences will
contain different content so it is not too obvious). I will ask the class which sentence
they think is better written, and we will vote (heads down, hands up, anonymously). We
will discuss the better answer, which will lead us into our discussion about modifiers
(addressing the prior knowledge). After we complete the activity, I will write two
different sentences on the board, and see how easily the class is able to determine the
better-written sentence.
I will record the votes during the above ^ pre-test and post-test procedures.
The four test sentences and a show of hands
The paper containing the cartoons, the original + rewritten sentences
Linguistic, Visual-Spatial, Logical, Interpersonal
Will accommodate for all IEPS.

Lesson plan details

Opening Activity

PASS
Objective
Number and
text
Standard 3.3b
Correct
dangling and
misplaced
modifiers.

Learning
Objective in
terms of what
students will do
(using Blooms
taxonomy verbs &
ABCD format)
Students will
correctly revise one
sentence to
demonstrate their
understanding of the
misplaced modifier.

Estima
ted
time
for each
activity

Lesson Activities (step by step

activities student will complete in the
classroom) Materials needed for
those activities.
Each student will receive a slip of
paper with a sentence written on it.

5
minutes

Each student will recognize that the

15

Formal and
Informal
Assessments

sentence is written in an
ambiguous/humorous way.
They will demonstrate this
understanding by rewriting the
sentence in a way that properly
places the modifier.
They will further demonstrate this
understanding by illustrating the
unintended meaning that the
misplaced modifier causes via a
cartoon drawing.
The students, in groups, will share
their sentences and the cartoons that
accompany them with the rest of the
group.
Students will informally demonstrate
their understanding of misplaced
modifiers by voting between two
sentences that I write on the board
(mirroring the pre-test assessment).
If over 75% of the class is correct, I
have reason to believe that they
grasped the lesson.
Students will further display their
understanding of the lesson by
writing their own sentence with a
misplaced modifier that will be given
to their partner.
Each partner will check that the
sentence they are given is
appropriate. If it is correctly
(incorrectly) written, in a way that it
is ambiguous and easily rearranged
(fixed), the student has
demonstrated that they have
successfully mastered the lesson.
Students will draw a second cartoon,
based off of their partners sentence,
for homework.

minutes

5
minutes
5
minutes

10
minutes

N/A

Closing Activity - Students must stand up and explain their cartoon to the rest of the class before they
may leave.

Data and reflection (Suggested for use after lesson plan is presented in a
classroom)
Data
Pre-test
Informal
assessments
Formal assessments
Post-test
Reflection
How I will change
the lesson

Results

What did it tell you?