Lesson Plan (Primary)
Create your own sentence
Lesson title:
Date:
Year level: 5
Punctuation, Commas,
Topic:
Duration of lesson: 50 minutes lesson 2
Learning areas
Strands & sub-strands
Content descriptors
Links to the
Australian
English
Reading, Writing, Comprehension
Curriculum:
Lesson rationale: What influenced your lesson choice? e.g. student interest, global/local event.
The Australian Curriculum
It is important to provide many opportunities for students to learn correct grammar usage. Through creating sentences students learn to use language, problem
solving and teamwork skills all at the same time.
Students background knowledge: What is your starting point – what
do the students already know, what have they done before, how does
this lesson connect to or build on their existing knowledge?
Students continue to scaffold sentences through recognising correct use
of punctuation.After reading Punctuation Mark, the students have heard
and seen what happens to the meaning of a sentence when commas are
placed in the wrong spot, right spot, or forgotten completely. Eats,
Shoots and Leaves continues to build students knowledge of commas
and punctuation.
Teacher focus: What areas will you concentrate on yourself? e.g. classroom
management, voice, body language, student motivation.
Classroom management,
Time management
engaging students through voice in reading punctuation marks and commas.
Learning objectives: What will the students learn?
Learning environment and resources: Where will this lesson take place? e.g. indoors
or outdoors. What resources will you need to have prepared?
Indoors.
Students will arrange words and punctuation to create complete
sentences.

Students rearrange words and punctuation to change the meaning of
sentences.
The punctuation/sentence strips ( ! . ? etc.) are printed on a different color
1.
Whiteboard and Marker
Worksheets for punctuation
Gold Rush Journal reading
Spelling list
Dictionary Work – finding their spelling words
http://www.scholastic.co.nz/Resources/Notes/Punctuation%20Mark.pdf
http://nashs.wa.edu.au/app/webroot/uploaded_files/media/literacy_handbook.pdf
http://www.education.com/files/465101_465200/465157/punctuation-usingcommas.pdf
Assessment strategies: How will you identify what the students have learnt and how will you record this?
Teacher observation during the work session will be documented in anecdotal records.


Worksheets will be assessed by the teacher for correctness and the children’s understanding of the task to provide a concrete form of assessment of this lesson.
Stage of lesson
Approx. Pre-service teacher’s actions
What will you do during this time?
time
What prompting questions might you need to prepare?
How might you assess and record student learning?
How will you cater for individual differences?
Student actions/tasks
What will the students be doing during this time?
10mins
Stage 1
Introduction
How will you gain the
students’ attention,
engage the interest of
the students and
introduce the
concept(s)?
Preparation:
Teacher places sentence/punctuation strips on students
desks for group work along with 1 A4 white paper.
Teacher writes up on whiteboard the groups throughout
this lesson: Reading, Dictionary, wholeclass activity
and the tasks that need to be done for students to see.
Intro:
Teacher welcomes students as they enter the room and
asks them to sit on the floor.
Teacher asks them if they remember the book read
yesterday? Punctuation Mark.
Punctuation requires you to give careful consideration
to the meaning of what you are saying.
Teacher uses the humour of the following book for
commas as an effective teaching strategy.
Teacher reads aloud Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne
Truss to all the students who are sitting on the floor
inside the box.
Teacher discusses the differences between sentences
when comma placement changes as she turns eat page.
Teacher discusses when to use a comma. Focus is on
the four most common uses:
1.joining two independent clauses,
2.separating introductory material in a sentence,
3.separating unnecessary information in a sentence and
4.separating items in a series.
Transition:
Commas are important for proper communication. After
reading this book, students realize how easy it is to
misinterpret what someone else has put in writing if
they don’t use commas properly. Teacher explains to
Students begin sitting on the floor listening to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Students can hear/see what happens to the meaning of a sentence when
commas are placed in the right spot, wrong spot, or forgotten
completely through the reading, illustrations and text of the book.
Students participate in open-ended questions regarding the book.
the students the activity, creating sentences, through
demonstration.
30 mins
Stage 2
Body of lesson
Describe each activity
and the order in which
it will be undertaken.
Teacher demonstrates:
Creates sentences with correct grammar use via the
word and punctuation strips. Sentences are jumbled
with question marks, exclamation marks, a comma and
a full stop. Display to the students cutting up and
glueing.
Transition:
Teacher gives direct instruction to what students will be
doing after demonstrating the activity:
Guided Reading Groups:
 Mrs Gering: Journal reading of the Gold Rush
start group 9, then 8, then 7 ……1
 Mrs Zibell: Dictionary Group work (attached
doc)
Start at group 2, then 4, then 6, then 8
 Mrs Rawson: Dictionary Group work (attached
doc)
Start at group 1, then 3, then 5, then 7
 Mrs Packham rotate around the room checking:
Finish work not yet completed
Punctuation Mark handout
 Students at their desk in pairs or groups of 4
begin the sentence structure activity on their
desk to be presented at the end of lesson.
Teacher reminds students to include each person in
their group, to work quietly and to repect each person’s
contribution.
 When finished complete unfinished work.
 Silent reading upon completion of all work.
Teacher also designates students to group work.
Transition:
Teacher reminds students there is 5 minutes to finish
up their work and return to the floor with their A4
sheets of created sentences which will be displayed.
..
Small group
Students either go to reading groups, dictionary groups or classroom
activity.
Classroom activity: Students will gather in groups of 2 - 4 assigned by
the teacher to collaborate in creating sentences. Most of the desks are
set up in formation for 4 students so they will remain).
Students cut and glue their word/punctuation strips and make a correct
sentence on the A4 paper provided. Students write their names on the
A4 paper.
Students build on and elaborate their sentence by changing word order
and punctuation to change sentence meaning. Students should also be
encouraged to read aloud their sentences to listen to their word order
and choice.
Students pack up their desks before coming to the floor with their A4
posters.
Teacher asks students to pack up their desks and come
to the floor with their sentence A4 sheets.
15mins
Stage 3:
Conclusion
How will you draw the
lesson ideas together
so that the students
can evaluate what
they have learnt?
How will you prepare
the students for the
next task?
Teacher places the student’s work up on the board Students observe and listen to each other’s sentence/punctuation
posters.
for presenting to the class showing their
sentence/comma/punctuation work.
Evaluation and self reflection of the lesson: How well did your lesson plan meet your lesson objectives? What aspects of the lesson worked most effectively? What aspects of the
lesson could be improved and how could they be improved? e.g. Lesson flow, classroom management, resources, assessment of student learning.
Follow up: Are there any areas that you feel you need to follow up with the students?
Mentor teacher comments:
Pre-service teacher comments:
riding am Look bicycle Mum fast ! how I my
riding am ? bicycle Mum fast How I my ,
pond left . more Seven ducks swimming the , were
pond left ? more seven Were ducks swimming than the
chased the ! around Brad us block
I can’t Why when get watch ? home TV I
to I and like , salad eggs dinner . make for pizza
is dog the he ! best cats when chases Scruffy
faster trains than Airplanes and are boats, cars .
faster trains ? than airplanes and Are boats, cars
full I and use commas, marks stops question .
Dictionary Work

Age-appropriate dictionaries for student

Classroom list of spelling words on wall
Instructions to teach Finding words in the dictionary:
1. Start by having the child open the dictionary in the middle. Ask him what letter the words begin
with on the page that he opened.
2. Have him close the book and open it several times in the middle of the book. This is just to
show him that he does not start at the beginning of the dictionary to find a word that starts with
T. Other times have him open the dictionary in the front or near the back and do the same
"What letter does the words begin with" each time.
3. Explain guide words are at the top of the page to help them find the words. Tell him that guide
words tell the first word and the last word on that page. The guide words are there to help them
locate the words quickly.
4. Explain the words on the page are in alphabetical order.
5. Ask the students to find a spelling word in the dictionary.
6. Ask the students to tell you what the guide words are on that page they have found the spelling
word on.
Play Speed Word Search once they have mastered finding words in the dictionary.
1. Give each student a dictionary.
2. Call out a word on their spelling list.
3. The first person to call out the correct page number wins the round.
Start at group 2, then 4, then 6, then 8
Good morning ladies.
Our reading focus is a journal during the Australian Gold Rush (linking in with their integrated
studies).
After students take turns reading aloud could you please ask students to find and check they
understand the punctuation use:
 Capital letters,
 full stops,
 !,
 ?
 Plurals
 and paragraphs
Thankyou so much, Robyn.