Lesson Plan 1
PLANNING
Date: 13 April 2011
Title/Subject of Lesson: Appositives To Spice Up Our Web Pages
Class and Grade Level: 11th Grade American Novel
Objective(s): [What will the students be able to do as a result of instruction?]
Students will be able to:
-Identify appositives
-Define “appositive”
-Use appositives effectively in their writing
State Core Objectives Met by this Lesson:
 Standard 2: Objective 3: “Revise and edit to strengthen voice and word
choice.”
Materials Needed: [What materials are necessary for you to present this lesson?]
 Envelopes with cut up sentences inside
 Overhead with models and sentence kernels
 Overhead with pictures of the Earth and a picture from the previous
day’s newspaper
Strategies to be Used:





Sentence Expansion
Sentence Unscrambling
Using models
Using pictures to inspire writing
Group work
PERFORMING
Announcements:
Continuation from Previous Lesson: We are writing informative texts for our
websites, and we want them to be interesting and alive given our audience
(each other). How can we do that? We can use appositive phrases.
Lesson Presentation:
A. Preparing for Learning
[Examples] Begin by showing students the following sentence on the overhead
without the bolded part. Ask students to describe the subject (“someone”) and list these
characteristics on the board.
“Someone is gripping my arm [,a boy from the Seam,] and I think maybe I
started to fall and he caught me.” (Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games)
Next, show the sentence with the bolded part. Now ask students to describe what is
explained or implied by the added phrase. List these characteristics on the board. Ask
students what the added phrase does for the sentence (adds clarity, expands the story,
interests the reader, etc). Repeat this with the follow model sentence:
“As we got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and
louder[--a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed.]”
(Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters pg. 158)
[Modeling] Explain to students that these phrases are called appositives, which are “noun
phrases that identify or rename a noun in the sentence. Appositives often begin with the
words a, an, or the and are punctuated with commas.” Eventually, post this term on the
wall in the room somewhere, with the term, the definition, and student examples written
around it. Write the kernel sentence on the board:
“The great waterfall dashed upon the rocks and sent a spray of mist towards the
heavens.”
Next, insert an appositive phrase of your own in order to describe “the great waterfall.”
Ask students to explain what your appositive phrase does for the sentence.
B. Directing the Learning
[Guided Practice] Have students work in groups to expand the sentence above with their
own appositive phrases. Ask for volunteers to read their examples out loud. Repeat this
with the kernel sentence, “A tiny black snake slipped quietly over the window sill and
into the cool dark basement.” if students need the practice.
Next, explain that appositives don’t necessarily always have to go after the subject or the
thing they describe. They are go at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence, but they
must always be set off be commas. Using the cut up sentence from one of the prepared
envelopes, read the strips and ask the student to help you identify the independent clause
and the appositive phrase. Read the sentence aloud three times, putting the appositive
phrase into the sentence at a different place each time you read it. Discuss with the
students which placement they liked best and why.
Give one envelope to each pair of students, and have student work together to unscramble
the sentence, move the appositive phrase to two or three different places in the sentence,
and pick which place they like best and why. Ask students to read their sentences aloud
and give their explanation.
C. Reinforcing the Learning
[Independent Practice] Finally, place a picture on the over head of the Earth in space.
Present students with a kernel sentence that they can use if they wish (“The Earth turned
slowly and silently on its axis during its year long journey around the Sun.”) but ask
students to write a sentence about the picture, and include in their sentence an appositive
phrase that is SET OFF BY COMMAS!!! Have students share if they wish. Do this again
with a picture from the front page of the newspaper.
Assignment:
For their assignment, students are two look at their rough drafts of their website text and
etither identify or insert two appositive phrases into their writing. Write on a half sheet of
paper why they chose to use the appositive phrases that they did.
Evaluation: