Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

Day 1: What do I I want students to be able to differentiate between formal and informal writing. I want them to be able to
want students to apply that to creating their own sentences.
know/be able to do?
Writing Obj. Using at least 2 of the characteristics defined in class, SWBAT independently write informal or formal
Objective/Task sentences based on a given topic and audience.

Task: Students will pick out a topic and an audience from separate bowls and decide if they should write their
sentence formally or informally. This will be completed in the students’ journals, independently. Students
should do this five times, so they will have a total of 5 sentences in their journals. Students will have the
opportunity to draw pictures to accompany their sentences if they have time left.
Skills & Tools Tools: topics and audience slips created and in hats, student journals

Skills: Students will be recalling the direct instruction of the characteristics of the types of writing and applying
it to different topics and audiences.
Reading Obj. SWBAT analyze a mentor text for informal and formal text features.
Objective/Task
Task: In a whole group, students will be engaged in an interactive read aloud of excerpts from two mentor
texts: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (informal) and One Tiny Turtle (formal).
Skills & Tools Tools: Mentor texts – Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, One Tiny Turtle

Skills: Students will be developing their oral listening comprehension skills as well as their critical thinking skills
when they think about the mentor texts. Students will also be engaged in academic conversation as they
discuss elements of the books with their classmates.
Grammar Obj. SWBAT identify a piece of writing as informal or formal.
Objective/Task
Task: Students will be engaged in a sorting investigation of formal and informal writing characteristics. In small
groups, students will use sentence strips to come up with their own definition of informal and formal writing.
Students will share their ideas. (After the reading of mentor texts) Students will then watch a video that
explicitly delineates what formal and informal writings consist of.
Skills & Tools Tools: Sentence strips (see attachment for the material)
Video clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdDBY2-Wmis

Skills: students will be working together in a collaborative group, building their oral language and critical
thinking skills. They will be comparing and contrasting, as well as synthesizing information to create a definition
for the types of writing.
Assessment During this first day of the learning segment, students will be assessed via informal formative assessment.
Active participation will be noted in teacher observations and completion of the 5 sentences in the journal will
be given points. Students will receive feedback on their sentences, however, students will not lose points if
they are incorrect. The teacher will compile a list of student misconceptions and address them at the beginning
of the next lesson.

Day 2: What do I I want students to refine their understanding of formal and informal writing. I want students to be able to
want students to identify the correct use of who and whom pronouns.
know/be able to do?
Writing Obj. SWBAT apply knowledge of formal/informal writing characteristics to write sentences in those styles.
Objective/Task SWBAT apply knowledge of who/whom pronouns and correctly use them in their own writing.

Task: Students will be given sentences that are either informally or formally written and they will be asked to
translate them into the opposite style in their writer’s journal. Later in the lesson, students will be asked to
apply their knowledge of who and whom when they write a total of 4 sentences in their journals.
Skills & Tools Tools: sentences students will translate (see attached material), writer’s journals
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

Skills: Students will be developing their writing skills by including specific word choice and tone to fit the
context of the piece. This attention to craft will help them to become better readers and writers.
Reading Obj. SWBAT identify features of formal writing in a read aloud text. SWBAT explain why these features help the
Objective/Task piece to be categorized as formal.

Task: Students will be engaged in an interactive read aloud of Wilma Unlimited and listen for characteristics
that inform us it is a formal piece of writing (long, complex sentences, no abbreviations or contractions, for
example). Students will listen for instances of the pronoun who or whom…we will mark these and come back
to them when we discuss the rules for who and whom, we will look at them on the projector as they will be an
authentic example of their usage.
Skills & Tools Tools: Wilma Unlimited

Skills: Students will be developing their listening comprehension skills as they listen to the read aloud. Students
will also be refining their understanding of formal writing features, as they are getting extended exposure and
practice with it.
Grammar Obj. SWBAT identify correct usage of who/whom pronouns in complete sentences. SWBAT apply knowledge of
Objective/Task who/whom pronouns in their own writing.

Task: In a whole group discussion, we will analyze formal writing for the pronouns who and whom. We will
discuss the grammar rules for the pronouns and create an anchor chart of examples and non-examples of
sentences we use these pronouns. During a guided practice task, students will work together to identify when
we should use these pronouns. Students will independently write a complementary sentence (after a couple
are modeled)—if the sentence has who, we will write an additional sentence that has whom, and vice versa.
Students will be asked to write 4 sentences.
Skills & Tools Tools: anchor chart of usage rules, practice sentences, sentences they will write complementary sentences for
(materials are attached).

Skills: Students will be developing an understanding of when and how to use who and whom. Students will be
able to develop their collaboration skills, as they are working together to help each other understand the skill.
Assessment There will be an informal assessment of student work; students will complete an exit slip where they write on
separate post-it notes two things they learned today, and one thing they are still unsure about. They will also
receive points for active participation in the lesson and points for completing the writing task in the journal. I
will not be taking off points for incorrect responses; I will use the responses to compile a list of misconceptions
to address in the third lesson.

Day 3: What do I I want students to refine their understanding of formal and informal writing. I want students to be able to
want students to identify the correct use of who and whom pronouns.
know/be able to do?
Writing Obj. SWBAT recall characteristics of formal and informal writing. SWBAT apply their knowledge of both formal
Objective/Task and informal writing, and who/whom to create their own paragraph of formal writing.
Task: Students will be asked to write in a Venn diagram that compares two texts on recycling (more of a
description in the reading section). Students will be asked to write a paragraph inspired by one of the
sentences they wrote on day one. They will take one of their informally written sentences and talk about it to a
partner (informally). Students will take these ideas and create a paragraph incorporating formal writing
features as well as who/whom pronouns.
Skills & Tools Tools: Venn diagram sheet, journals, anchor charts with who/whom rules and charts on the formal/informal
characteristics.
Skills: Students will be engaged in developing their writing skills as they work to craft a paragraph using formal
writing features. This will in turn help them with future reading, as they now have practice with the style.
Reading Obj. SWBAT analyze a set of mentor texts on the same topic for formal and informal characteristics.
Objective/Task Task: Students will read two mentor texts about recycling. Students will create a Venn diagram comparing and
contrasting the two—paying particular attention to the fact that despite being written in different styles, there
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

are pieces of information that remain constant in both. Students will use these as an example for when they
create their own formal paragraph.
Skills & Tools Tools: Recycling infographic and paragraph (attached). Venn diagram sheet, anchor charts, journals
Skills: Students will be developing their critical thinking skills as they work to analyze both pieces on recycling.
Students will be developing their reading skills by paying particular attention to word choice and the
effectiveness of it. This in turn will help their writing skills because the exposure to this style will serve as an
example to refer to when they write in this style on their own.
Grammar Obj. SWBAT recall the usage rules for who/whom in review game. SWBAT apply knowledge of who/whom in
Objective/Task their own writing.
Task: Students will participate in a review game of correctly using who/whom in sentence stems. Students will
be engaged in writing a formally written paragraph including these two pronouns, used correctly.
Skills & Tools Tools: sentence stems for review game (attached), journals
Skills: developing their command of the English language by practicing the use of who/whom. Developing their
collaboration and oral language skills.
Assessment Students’ paragraphs will be collected and graded. We will be looking for the main idea to still be conveyed,
main vocabulary essential to topic unchanged or otherwise increased in formality, other characteristics of
formal writing (specifically will write these out), more evident, more points they get, inclusion of who/whom,
more points if done accurately and more than once, however, points will be given for an attempt because it
shows they were willing to take the risk. And finally, typical aspects of a paragraph – organization, spelling,
punctuation, etc., will be expected to be on par with 4th grade writing. (points will not be deducted for
incorrect spelling or punctuation marks if they have not been taught/are deemed to be above a 4 th grade level
of instruction—however, words and writing conventions they are expected to know will be deducted if done
incorrectly).

Emily Squiller
Lesson 1: Informal vs Formal Writing
Date: Monday; Quarter 3; afternoon ELA block 70 minutes
Grade: 4

Instructional Context
What do I know about my students that will inform this lesson?
In my class of 25 fourth grade students, I know that I will need to provide multiple representations of the
information as to allow all students to access the content. I know that with my six ELL students, I will need to
provide extra wait time for students to process the information and be able to respond. Even though all of my
ELL students know a fair amount of English, I will make sure that I provide comprehensible input by speaking
clearly and slowly, I will also allow pairs of ELL students in the small group settings so they can assist each other
with translating and expressing ideas. In addition, I know that I have 5 students with language learning
disabilities. My expectations for these students will remain high however, I will provide them with the
appropriate scaffolds throughout the lesson. I will use their IEPs as a guide to ensure that I am providing the
accommodations they need. I have several ethnicities that make up my class, in addition to the fact that students
come with different funds of knowledge. I will prepare for my students having no practice with the skill, but will
also plan for extension activities that students can access if they have had experience with this type of writing.
Because my students bring different experiences to the classroom, I will provide several different methods of
conveying this information—I will provide a plethora of examples and non-examples. I also know that my
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

students have different learning references, so I am planning to include instructional methods that allow my
visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and other types of learners access the information with ease.
How does this lesson connect with and build on the previous lesson(s)?
This lesson builds on previous lessons because the students will be engaging in whole group, small group, and
individual work, so students will be applying their knowledge of correct social behavior when in these different
settings. Students will continue to develop their collaboration skills in addition to their listening comprehension
skills. As for the content, in fourth grade we are working on using text evidence to help us make inferences and
identifying overall structure of a text; the skills they practiced for those concepts will be built upon in today’s
lesson of identifying two specific types of text styles.
How do you expect to build on this lesson in subsequent lessons?
This is the first lesson in a series of three on the topic of formal and informal writing. In the subsequent lessons,
we will be continuing to practice identifying formal and informal pieces, with more emphasis on students
applying this knowledge in their own writing. Please look at the three-day overview document to see explicit
details of how we build on this first lesson in the series.
Standards Addressed
Common Core State Standards/Local Standards (2017-2018 TN ELA Standards)
4.SL.CC.1 Prepare for collaborative discussions on 4th grade level topics and texts; engage effectively with varied
partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own ideas clearly.

4.SL.PKI.6 Recognize that different situations call for formal vs. informal English, and use formal English when
appropriate.

Learning Objectives
Objective
o SWBAT analyze a mentor text for informal and
formal characteristics.
o SWBAT identify a piece of writing as informal or
formal.
o SWBAT write informal or formal sentences based
on given topic/audience.
Academic Language Demand/Language Function
Language Function: What are the students doing with
language in this lesson? This should be evident from
the lesson objectives.
Students are analyzing the language used by authors
and determining what it tells us about the author’s
purpose for writing. Students will be looking at word
choice to determine in what context we would use or
hear the language—in a formal setting, where we are
using carefully chosen words, meeting the
requirements of Standard English, or in an informal
setting, where slang and idioms are welcome.
Students will be looking at this in mentor texts in
Assessment
Informal, formative
Informal, formative
Informal, formative
Support/Scaffold
Students who have visual or hearing impairments will
be asked to sit at the front of the room during whole
group discussions so they can hear the teacher and
other students talk, as well as clearly see what is being
written on chart paper/illustrations in the mentor texts.
ELL students will be broken up into pairs, so that during
group work they will have each other as a support for
translating and expressing ideas (all of my ELL students
speak Spanish as their first language). ELL students will
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

order to be able to define the contexts for the
different styles of writing, then students will be
applying this knowledge in an activity where they are
writing sentences based on different audiences and
location of conversation.
have the option of writing their sentences in their native
language if they wish in order to get their ideas down
and then can translate them to English.
For my students with language disabilities, students
with dyslexia can have the support of dictating their
sentences to me verbally. I can write them out and have
students then try to write them independently, with
mine written sentence available if they need it. During
the small group portion, there will be other students
who can assist students in reading the prompts if
needed, this is also a support for struggling readers. The
video and mentor texts provide the words and reads
them aloud, helping students with language disabilities
because they are able to see the word, listen to it, and
see an illustration helping to aid them in comprehension
of the text. (This support also helps my ELL students)

Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks (Procedures & Timelines)

 Provide a sequential description of the procedures and activities for the lesson.
 Includes each step of the lesson & teacher directions, questions, and explanations.
 Identify informal assessments in the lesson.
Time Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks Purpose
15 minutes In small groups, students will sort sentence strips Active construction of meaning with
into categories. Students will work as a team to the types of writing. Sets us up for
construct a working definition for formal and establishing a class definition. Provides
informal writing. Students will come to a group a visual and kinesthetic representation
consensus on their definitions/requirements for of information.
“formal” and “informal” writing. During this time, I
will float among the groups seeing how they are
categorizing the sentence strips, asking questions
like what kind of patterns do you see? Why do
think this is an informal sentence? Have you ever
heard someone use this type of language? Where
were you?
20 minutes In a whole group discussion, we will test our To see authentic representations of
hypotheses by looking at examples and non- formal and informal writing. Provides a
examples of formal and informal writing in mentor visual and auditory representation of
texts. We will read excerpts of two texts and come information.
to a class consensus of what formal and informal
writing is. In Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus we
will discuss how the pigeon uses a lot of emotional
words, asks a lot of questions, really tries to relate
and appeal to the reader. We will talk about how
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

the pigeon uses contractions and abbreviations. In

One Tiny Turtle, we will note the longer and more
complex sentences, as well as the fact that the
perspective remains objective and informational,
we will see that there are no contractions or
abbreviations. We will co-create an anchor chart
for students to reference in the future.
2 minutes Students will watch a YouTube video that explicitly To establish a firm definition of these
delineates the definitions and characteristics of terms and what they mean. Also
formal and informal writing. provides a technology-based,
visual/auditory representation of
information.
8 minutes Students will listen as I explain the directions for To set students up for success with a
the independent task. We will do two examples as gradual release of responsibility.
a whole group (teacher modeling), then students
will do the task independently during centers (the
independent task will be explained below). I will
give the example of giving a presentation about
what I ate for breakfast versus telling my best
friend what I ate for breakfast on the bus. I would
start off with my best friend, and might say
something like “I had the yummiest breakfast. It
was a combo of my two fav cereals. So, ya know, I
mixed some coco puffs with coco pebbles…double
chocolatey!! Oh, and it turned my milk into like
chocolate milk! How cool?? What’d you have?”
My response will have contractions, slang, maybe
not correct grammar, abbreviations, and an
overall excited and conversational tone. If I were
giving a presentation about my breakfast, I would
want it to have longer sentences, maybe be a little
more specific, and not use as many abbreviations,
slang terms, and casual tone.
20 minutes Students will choose a strip from bowl A, which To provide students the time to apply
will list a topic, such as how to make a sandwich or what they have learned individually.
giving a movie review. Students will also choose a Students will have practice with the
strip from bowl B, which will list an audience such day’s concepts in a low stress
as your best friend on the playground or the environment where they will not be
President of the United States at a fancy White penalized for mistakes.
House dinner. Students will write a few sentences
for each topic/audience combination in the style
of writing they think the audience/location
requires. Students will be at their desks (which will
be groups of 5) and there will be bowls provided
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

for each table. I will be available to support all

students; however, I will be focusing my attention
on the students who seemed to struggle grasping
the concepts during the whole group portion. I will
be looking to support my ELL students if needed
and support my students with language
disabilities.
5 minutes Students will have the opportunity to share their To provide students with a sense of
writing and the listeners can guess whether they closure to the lesson and allow
think it is informally or formally written. This will students the opportunity to share their
be the closure of the lesson, as it will review once work if they desire.
again the features of both a formal and informal
piece of writing.
Student Supports
List what you are using to support student learning/organization.
 Students will have access to the mentor texts and anchor charts to help them if they need to reference
the characteristics of informal or formal writings
 I also provide students with a great deal of time to work with their peers—this is a support because
students can help each other by explaining something in a different way.
 I provide several modes of instruction, supporting the diverse learning styles of my students
 I provide ample time for students to construct their own meaning out of the task, so they are better able
to understand the content and apply it to their own writing.
Materials and Resources
 Sentence stems for each group to categorize
 Paper/pencils for groups to write down their working definitions
 Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
 One Tiny Turtle
 Anchor chart paper for reference
 Computer/projector
 Video clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdDBY2-Wmis
 Topic and audience strips for each group to be able to pick combinations to form sentences
 Student writing journals
 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

DAY 1

Sort Investigation Sentence Strips: (from ReadWriteThink.org)

Dude, do you wanna come over to my house to watch movies later?

Would you be interested in watching a movie later?


Do you want a guarantee for your new phone?


Would you be interested in purchasing a guarantee with your new phone?

Can I get a cheeseburger and fries?

I’d like a cheeseburger and fries, please.


This TV show totally sucks.


I’m not a fan of that show.
 I find that particular show to be rather off-putting.

She was unable to complete the assignment on time.

She couldn’t do the work.

I don’t know why they put up with that.

It’s unclear why the organizers tolerated the problem for so long.

Topics/Audience for Sentence Writing: (from ReadWriteThink.org)

How to make a sandwich Televised awards ceremony

Ordering food Your best friend on the playground

If you believe in aliens Your mom in your kitchen

Explaining your favorite book The President of the United States at the White House

Giving an acceptance speech Waiter at a very fancy restaurant

Your thoughts on recycling Your dog while on a neighborhood walk

 Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

Why the color green is the best color in the world Your principal at school in their office

Day 2
Translating Sentences – Warm-Up (from ReadWriteThink.org)
Re-write these sentences in a formal style

- Man, I’m starving! I’m gonna get something to eat and then call you back. 

- We gotta get this done before we can go anywhere. 

- When you write papers for class, you have to remember to use a more formal style than
when you talk to your friends. 

- Lemme know if you need a hand with that. 

- You’re wrong! I paid twenty-five bucks for that! 


Re-write these sentences in an informal style

- I would prefer that you turn down the volume on your television. 

- According to an eye witness, the event occurred at approximately 3:00 in the
afternoon.

- The project is to be completed by the end of the week. 

- Would you be available to attend the gathering tomorrow? 

- Students are required to report to their classrooms immediately upon entering the
building.

Who and Whom

Who: is reserved for the subject of the sentence.

- The subject is the one in the sentence doing the action.

Whom: is reserved for the object of the sentence.

- The object is the one receiving the action.

Easy steps to help you use “who” vs “whom” correctly.

The teacher spoke to Tanya about her tardiness.

1. Firstly, keep in mind that your usage of the pronoun “who” vs “whom” will depend on
the answer you are looking for. 

Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

2. Identify the main verb first. The verb is “spoke.” 


3. Ask yourself, who is the one doing the speaking? The teacher. Therefore, she is the

 subject of the sentence. 

4. Who is the one receiving the speaking? Tanya. 

5. Now if we were to construct this into a question, it would be: 

o Who spoke to Tanya about her tardiness? OR
o Whom did the teacher speak to about tardiness?

^ these are the models we will do as a class and the independent practice exercises students
can try on their own to apply the rules they just learned. An extended challenge will be for
students to rewrite these sentences with the other pronoun. (retrieved from Academic Success Center
– Reading and Writing Lab)
- Example: Who couldn’t sleep last night because of the fire alarm?
o Whom did the fire alarm wake last night?
Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

Day 3

Warm-up: https://www.ixl.com/ela/grade-4/use-relative-pronouns-who-and-whom
Students will be able to practice their who/whom knowledge by completing sentences
generated by this website. Students will compete in small groups to warm up for the day.
Emily Squiller – Grammar Lesson Overview

Why You Should Recycle!

Did you know that the average family throws away 6

trees worth of paper every year? And that when the
garage men come by your house to collect your trash
they take it to a landfill? Where it just sits forever? Did
you know that in those landfills there are hundreds of
items that could have been recycled? Well there is! We
can do better. This paragraph talks about some of the
reasons why you should be more conscious of what
you through away; you would be surprised just how
much of your stuff can actually be recycled.

We all know that with the increase in the number of

people driving cars there is an increase in CO2
emissions into the air. Did you know that if we recycled
all of the newspapers we print, we could save about
250 million trees? Holy cow!! Think about how lush
and vibrant our forests would be!

We all have heard the warnings that plastic takes like a

billion years to decompose and when we don’t recycle
it properly it ends up in our oceans. Have you see
those photos of animals trapped in plastic bags or the
animals whose bodies have grown around recyclable
materials? It’s been said that unrecycled plastic kills
100,000 sea creatures a year!! What? Isn’t that
unbelievable? It makes me so sad. They don’t deserve
that. If we were more mindful of properly disposing of
our trash, we could save so many lives.

So in the end, it’s up to us to dispose of our trash

responsibly. It is so easy to find that blue or green
recycling bin standing right next to the regular trash
^ the infographic
can. Don’t youis from
wantbetterpaper.org
to be consistedand will be
a responsible,
used as the formalhuman
considerate text, the paragraphs
being? I know on theSo,
it do! right
next time,
that I wrote will be used
let’s just recycle! for the informal text
students will compare in a Venn diagram.