Vinny Cloutman

Professor Suk
Education Field Experience EDUC 230-01
Fall 2015
Lesson Plan

5th Grade Language Arts, The Art of Writing

At the end of this lesson:
Students will have an understanding of the finer points of grammar and sentence structure and be
able to incorporate that knowledge into essay writing. Students will be able to write paragraphs
with variation in sentence structure and advanced grammar techniques in order to boost the
overall quality of their writing.
Materials:
Students will need writing utensils and paper to take notes, preferably a notebook.
The teacher (me) will need to use the whiteboard and writing utensils for the whiteboard. I will
also need PowerPoint, a projector, and a surface to project onto if the board doesnt suffice. I will
have a review sheet for the conclusion of the lesson.
Teaching process:
Students will have to have a basic understanding of how to write in English; this is to be
expected of 5th graders. They will need to know what nouns and verbs are as well as how to use
basic punctuation (commas and periods). All the practice theyve ever had in writing will come
into play here; no complicated prior knowledge is needed for this lesson.
This lesson will begin to turn students into better writers. Writing well is all about articulation,
the ability to coherently express yourself. This is a skill that all future employers, teachers and
most people you meet will expect from you. To articulate well in writing is to be able to convey
ideas and knowledge in a simple but captivating way.
Skills that will be taught:
1. Differentiating between the types of sentences and using them proportionately in writing.
2. Writing with emphasis on avoiding common mistakes such as run on sentences, misuse
of punctuation and more.
3. Knowing how to use punctuation to the fullest extent to write in the most proper tone.
Student practice/understanding:
For the sake of teaching this lesson to our Education class, we wont be giving homework. As far
as a review sheet, we have discussed a regular worksheet with fill in information that we will go
over together as well as a fill in the blanks comic book. This will be a lot of fun for us in EDUC
230-01, and my future students will probably enjoy it a lot as well. It will be a different way for
them to look back on the material covered in class and a fun way to study. While teaching, we
will use power point as well as the board to write out oral examples. We will also engage the
class with questions that will be reiterated on the board. Note taking will be encouraged.

Cloutman,

Closing activity:
The lesson will be closed with the comic book activity or a review sheet.
The lesson:
Open with subjects and predicates.
Subject: person, place, thing or idea that is doing or being something. Also called a noun.
Predicate: the word that modifies the subject and tells what the sentence is about. Also
called a verb.
Move on to sentence clauses.
Dependent clause: a group of words with a subject and verb but an incomplete thought.
Ex, When the bank closed. These always start with a subordinating conjunction.
o Subordinating conjunction: Ex, After, as, if, though, until, when.
Independent clause: A complete sentence containing subject, predicate and optionally a
direct object or prepositional phrase.
o Direct object: A noun phrase referring to a person or thing that is the recipient of
the action of a verb. Ex, I threw the ball.
o Prepositional phrase: Part of a sentence that gives direction. Ex, I went to the
moon.
Move on to types of sentences.
Simple sentence: Contains one independent clause.
Compound sentence: Contains two independent clauses connected with a coordinating
conjunction.
o Coordinating conjunction: Ex, For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
Complex sentence: One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
Compound-complex sentence: A sentence with two or more independent clauses and one
or more dependent clauses.
Examples of bad writing compared to good writing to demonstrate how using the above
knowledge in writing makes a difference.
Students will make comparisons of good and bad paragraphs with breakdowns on
sentence variation and punctuation.
Students will take the bad example and review a new, better, paragraph out of it. We will
do this together.
Proper use of punctuation.
Commas: Used to break up sentences into smaller thoughts by clause.
o How commas can be used incorrectly.
o Appositives: Parts of a sentence fenced off by commas. The sentence can make
sense without the appositive.
Semi-colon: Connects two independent clauses. Ex, I was running through the six with
my woes; you know how it goes.

Cloutman,