Concept Unit Lesson Plan

Unit Title: Your Voice in Writing

Subject: English Language Arts
Grade: 6th
Time Frame: Three Weeks
Concept: Asserting Ones Voice
Unit Primary Skill Focus:
Week: 3
Plan: Full Detail
Content Requirement Satisfied: This lesson focuses on revising students writing. The lesson
plan will be taught in an intermediate class. Students of all performance levels are in this class.
Few do not have an issue with run-on sentences, but this lesson is being taught because the
teacher has noticed and overall trend of students using run-on sentences in in their writing.

Unit Learning Objectives:

1. Students will understand that every voice has a right to be heard.
3. Students will know that writing is a unique way of expressing ones voice.
4. Students will be able to listen actively to their peers and the teacher.
6. Explain how their voice asserts their place in a community or the world.
9. Write original texts to assert their unique voice in their communities.

Lesson Learning Objectives:

Cognitive:
1. Students will understand that in order to assert ones unique voice, it must be heard and
comprehended by the audience; some writing conventions necessarily serve this purpose.
2. Students will know what a run-on sentence is and how it affects the flow and reading
comprehension of a piece of writing.
Affective:
3. Students will demonstrate will appreciate the differences in all writing, remembering that
even unique writing can be ameliorated.
Performance:
4. Students will be able to define a run-on sentence.
5. Students will be able to distinguish between complete sentences and run-on sentences.
6. Students will be able to correct a run on sentences in their own writing.
SOLs:
6.7 The student will write narration, description, exposition, and persuasion.
i) Revise sentences for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information.
COMMON CORE:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Method of Assessment:
Diagnostic
Students submitted writing
proposals for their
summative writing
assignment. Students will be
writing either a short story or
memoir they would like to be
heard. The topic of their
writing should be something
they feel passionate about, or
something that reveals
something about their
character. Students submitted
a sample first paragraph to
show the teacher the
direction they were planning
on heading. In this same
submission, students had to
write 3-5 sentences to explain
why they chose to write
about what they did. From
this submission, the teacher
then went on to have little
writing conferences with
each individual student.
Formative
Students have now completed
rough drafts of a piece of their
writing pieces. They will use a
ratiocination to revise their
writing, getting rid of any run
on sentences they may see.
This revision will be
submitted to assess whether
students are able to identify
the run-on sentences in their
own writing.
Summative
Students will submit a
summative writing piece based
on our unit called Building A
Community of Unique Voices
where students will express
their unique voice in writing.
They will be instructed to write
a short narrative story or a
memoir about a topic they are
passionate about, or a topic that
reveals something about their
character. They will have
sample readings throughout the
unit to base their decision off
of.

Procedures/Instructional Strategies

Beginning Room Arrangement: As students come to class, they will sit in their assigned seat.
The class is set up in a double U shape with one inner U and an outer U. In this arrangement,
students have do a lot of work with elbow partners and the person or people sitting behind them
for group work.

[8 Min.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to Lesson:

Good Morning class! I hope you all had a great weekend! I know I did! I am going to give you
all a chance to share something about your weekend but first I want to give you about thirty
seconds to complete the DO NOW assignment if you havent already. You were instructed to
write at least two sentences about your weekend using two different punctuation marks.

[Wait 30-45 seconds in case some students did not have a chance to finish their DO NOW]

By a show of hands only, how many of you guys have ever tried using the speak application on
an iphone or any other phone to send a message? Its kind of the lazy way of texting. Instead of
typing, you can just speak the words and it will write it out for you. The cool thing about it is that
it will also punctuate for you.

Demonstration: [Using phone and Doc Cam to show how it works]

If I wanted to send the class a message, I would say.

Good morning class EXCLAMTION MARK EXCALAMTION MARK I am looking forward to

seeing you all this morning PERIOD What has everyone been up to this weekend QUESTION
MARK

This is what would come up:

Good morning class!! I am looking forward to seeing you all this morning. What has everyone
been up to this weekend?

Did you all see that? Now, I actually do want to hear about everyones weekend, but there is a
twist. You have to say every punctuation in the sentences you wrote just like I did when I was
speaking into my phone. We are going to take turns sharing. I will be drawing names from the
Popsicle Jar, so please be ready to share. Remember that we want to be mindful and respectful
of everyones stories because everyones experiences are unique, therefore everyones voice
deserves to be heard. I doubt that there are two people in this room who did the exact same thing
at the exact same time, at the exact same place, and thought the exact same thing. Therefore, lets
listen, and if we have questions for each other, we can raise our hand after someone has shared.

Spends about 5-8 minutes sharing.

[20 Min.] What is a Run-On Sentence?

Thanks for sharing everyone! I wanted you all to pay special attention to your use of punctuation
in our weekend share-aloud this week because of what we are going to be focusing on today. In
your seats, I want you to look to your elbow partner and talk about what a run-on sentence is. I
want you to come up with a definition, write it down your tweet sheet I passed out while we were
sharing, and one of you can come post it on the board. Dont forget to put both of your names
under the two @ spaces so we know who is sharing. (Appendix A)

The teacher will spend a few minutes reading everyones tweet before beginning the lesson.
Everyones tweets will be heard to reinforce the idea that everyones voice should be heard in
our community.

After this, the Run-on sentence worksheet will be passed out (Appendix B).
As some of you guys have been saying a run on sentence is when a sentence is too long and it
goes on forever. Can I have a volunteer to read what a run-on sentence is?

Thank you for volunteering Charnee. Please stand up and project your voice so the whole class
can hear you.

[After Charnee shares] Would anyone else like to read the definition of a run-on sentence? You
will have to stand up and make the whole class hear your voice. [I will allow 2 more students to
share].

Great thanks for reading that you three. You did a great job projecting your voices.

Run-on sentences are when you have two or more individual sentences that are not divided by a
punctuation. They just keep going on and on and on and on and on and on. Eventually, the
reader runs out of breath and cant read anymore. We want to avoid them in our writing. Lets
look at the example given to us.

Read: David went to the park he played on the swings.

Who can tell me where the punctuation goes and why? Hint hint, its not a trick question.

Great! Yeah the punctuation goes between Park and He. We are adding a period because weve
identified them as two separate sentences. What do we do to the word he since we added a
period? Thats right, we capitalize it because it is the beginning of a new sentence.

Can anyone think of an alternate example of how we could have fixed this run-on?

David went to the park where he played on the swings.

David went to the park to play on the swings.

There isnt always one way to fix a run on sentence. Most of the time, a sentence becomes a run
on because it is missing a punctuation. You can easily make it into two sentences, or add a
comma to continue a thought, but you could also change it up to make one shorter sentence.

Does everyone understand how we did this?

What questions do we have? Please dont be shy because someone else might have the same
question as you do.

Okay great! Now I want you all to flip to the back, in a few moments you are going to get up, but
first, I am going to give you some instructions. I am going to ask you to find you 5 oclock
partner. Together, you will complete the back of the sheet (Appendix C), where you have to fix
the run on sentences. You will have exactly 3 minutes, and there are 4 questions. This means you
have to stay focused and on task. We will share a few answers when everyone is done.

At the end of the four minutes, I will take one answer from one group. Students who did not
finish will be asked to copy down what they are seeing on the Doc Cam.

[40 Min.] Ratiocination

When I say go, you will have 10 seconds to get back to your seats. It is a silent transition so if I
hear noise, you will have to do it again. Ready, set, go!

Great job everyone! Now I am going to introduce you to a new resource which you will be
referring back to all year as you are revising your writing drafts. Its called Ratiocination. I have
passed out a sheet that you should all be looking at (Appendix D). I like to think of ratiocination
as rainbow revising. You are going to be using color pencils to revising your rough drafts. Today
we are only going to focus on step one since our focus is run on sentences. Who would like to
stand up and loudly read to the class what step one says?

Thanks for volunteering Samuel. Any other readers? [Allow two more]

Teacher Model:

Great! So we talked about how run-on sentences go on and on, so this activity allows you to see
just how long your sentences are. Sometimes we dont think we are going on for a long time
when we are. So the first thing you will do is take the red and blue colored pencil passed out to
you by our class helpers and underline the first sentence in red, and the next one in blue. Keep
going until you have finished underlining the whole paragraph.

[I will model this under the doc cam]

Now I want you guys to look at this paragraph and how I have underlined it. What is wrong with
what you see? What color do you mainly see? How long is each sentence? Is this normal?

The first run on sentence is:

Stephanie was one of the best volleyball players on the team she was able to spike the ball
consistently over the net.

I can identify a subject twice in this run on sentence. Stephanie, and She. I can also see that there
is a verb after each subject. That tells me that I can have two separate sentences. Therefore, I
can break it up into two sentences.

What questions are there for me?

Once you have finished with the next two sentences, take out your laptops and in google
classroom and take out your rough drafts that youve been working on. I will be doing short
conferences with you all to give you feedback on your writing and suggestions on how to move
forward with content and writing style.

Please be working on step one of your ratiocination as I meet with all the students. If you finish
step one, you can move on to step two.

[3 min] Closing:

Thank you for all of your hard work today team. I am very proud of all of you. I would like to
close class with an overall feedback from the class. I want everyone to put their heads down and
close your eyes. NO PEAKING! Put out your thumbs on your desk. You have three options,
thumbs up if you feel confident with identifying run on sentences. Give me a sideways thumb if
you think you could use more work, and a thumbs down if you still feel lost.

How do feel about correcting our run-on sentences. Thumbs up if your confident, thumbs
sideways if you might need more work, and thumbs down if you are not understanding.

Alright guys you can raise you heads. Thank you so much for the feedback on todays lesson.
Before we pack up, are there any questions about run-on sentences or raciocination?

If not, please pack up because the bell will ring soon. Have a great rest of your day! See you all
next time!

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

The ratiocination activity is designed to target students at their different writing levels.
While the majority of the class needed practice with identifying run on sentences, others did not.
With the ratiocination, students are able to either spend more time on step one, identifying and
correcting their run-on sentences. Some students may be able to identify their run on sentences
by reading their writing, while others may need to see a visual of exactly how long their
sentences are; this is the purpose of underlying each sentence line by line.

Materials Needed (list):

- Doc Cam
- Draft of their summative writing assignments
- Colored pencils
Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,
handouts, etc.)
- Run on Sentences Worksheet
- Ratiocination Worksheet
Appendix A: Tweet Sheet

@ _______________-_________________
Appendix B:

Name ________________________________________ Date ____________________

Run on Sentences

A Run-on Sentence occurs when two seperate

sentences are joined without any form of
punctuation.

Example 1: David went to the

park he played on the swings.

Answer: David went to the

park. He played on the swings.

Another Alternative:
Appendix C: Practice with Run-On Sentences
Lets Practice!

1. John hit the baseball it went over the fence.

2. I better bring the sweater it is cold outside.

3. He laughed at the clown the clown is funny.

4. How much money do you need I have five dollars.

 Appendix D: Ratiocination

Ratiocination
Step 1: Underline the 1st sentence in a RED color the second
in a BLUE color; continue to alternate throughout
your entire draft.

Step 2: Circle the first word of every sentence in ORANGE.

Then make a list of those words on your left hand
margin. NO REPEATED WORDS!

Step 3: With a GREEN color, place a triangle around the

end punctuation of each sentence and each
TRANSITION you have used.

Step 4: With a YELLOW color, draw a rectangle around the

states of being verbs; am, is, are, was were, be, been,
being. These are not action verbs, avoid using them if
possible.

Step 5: Using a PURPLE color, check to make sure that the

first letter in every new sentence is capitalized. Also
check to make sure that you have capitalized I.

Step 6: Go back and make sure all necessary corrections

have been made to your draft.
 Name ________________________________________ Date ____________________

Ratiocination Re-write!

A Run-on sentence occurs when two separate sentences are joined without any form of punctuation.

Directions: Re-Write the paragraph below and add punctuation to fix all run on sentences.

Stephanie was one of the best volleyball players on the team she
was able to spike the ball consistently over the net. Stephanie was
around six feet tall and she could jump at least four feet in the air she
was a team player who always looked out for her teammates. During the
championship game Stephanie injured her ankle she was still able to
help the team win she overcame adversity and showed that hard work
and determination can pay off.