Sentence Lesson & Reflection
Name: Britany Lynch
Lesson Title: Question and Statement Sentences
Grade level(s)/Course: 2nd grade
Date taught: November 13th and 15th , 2012
GENERAL CONTEXT
Amount of time devoted each day or week in your classroom to the content or topic of your instruction.
Students spend a large portion of their day working on literacy skills. The whole morning is spent working on language arts, phonics, etc. Literacy skills are also worked into the afternoon in Math, Science and Social Studies if possible.
Describe how ability grouping or tracking (if any) affects your planning and teaching of this content.
These students were grouped together because of poor performance on a Friday test. Because of these results the teacher found that they needed some extra practice in this subject.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE LESSON
Content Strand – found within the Wisconsin Academic Content Standards
Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing. (2.L.2)
Enduring Understanding and/or Essential Question
What is the difference between question sentences and statement sentences?
Outcome(s)
Students will know the difference between question and statement sentences.
Students will be able to correctly punctuate question and statement sentences.
Academic Language related to the lesson
Question mark
Period
Statement
Question
Prior Learning/Prior Thinking
Students encounter questions and statements every day. It is part of daily language so it is something that the students will already have background knowledge on.
LESSON IMPLEMENTATION
Anticipatory Set/Elicit Prior Knowledge
To get students prepared for the lesson I will ask them to give me a question and then a sentence that tells me something. We can use their sentences as examples to explain the differences between the two types of sentences. We will discuss what makes a question sentence a question and what makes a statement sentence a statement.
Focus/Purpose Statement
The purpose of this lesson is to review the differences between question and statement sentences.
Procedures
1. As a group we will discuss the differences between question and statement sentences.
a. Question-asks something, ends in a question mark
b. Statement-tells something, ends in a period
2. Students will match the correct punctuation to the sentences provided.
3. Students will each make their own sentence and place the correct punctuation at the end.
4. As a group we will cut apart the sentence strips, one word per piece. Then we will mix the pieces of a sentence together, and students will put them in the correct order.
5. To assess student learning, students will write down the sentences that they unscramble.
Differentiation
Product-Students will be able to write their own sentences, either question or statement.
Closure
To close this lesson, students will be asked to arrange their classmates’ sentences in the correct order after they are cut apart. They will have to write theses sentences down after they are arranged to show that they can use conventions of the English language correctly.
Materials and Resources
Sentence Strips
Markers
Final assessment
Classroom Management/Democratic Practices
To promote a democratic community I will allow all students to actively participate in the activity and pass on a sentence if they don’t know the answer and feel uncomfortable answering the question. I will also have some blank sentence strips so that students can create their own sentences.
ASSESSMENT
Before the lesson
The teacher and I used an assessment already completed by the students as the pre-assessment for this lesson. The students completed a Friday test that included some questions about question and statement sentences. There were a few students who didn’t do very well with these questions and they needed more practice with the subject.
During the lesson
During the lesson students will be assessed through matching sentences with punctuation. I will also be observing students to make sure they understand the concepts.
At the end of the lesson
At the end of the lesson students will complete an assessment in which they must arrange sentences correctly. Showing competence in sentence structures.
Lesson Reflection
Teaching this lesson was much easier than the first. The students were once again excited, which is always a good thing. The group that I worked with was a small group that needed more practice with these types of sentences based on an assessment done earlier.
I started by asking students if they could tell me what question and statement sentences were. We then discussed what makes that sentence a question or statement (question mark, period, who, what, where, when, why, etc.). Next, I showed students a few examples of sentences written on sentence strips. They then had to match the correct punctuation with the right sentence. Students seemed to like this activity because it was hands on and they got to actually participate.
Afterwards students got the chance to write their own sentences on the sentence strips. They could write either a question or a statement, but they had to tell me what type of sentence it was and correctly punctuate it. Students could easily come up with sentences; some had difficulty telling me what kind of sentence it was though. I reminded them that question sentences ask questions and statements tell you something. We then cut apart the sentence strips so that there was one word on each piece. They traded sentences and put them back together like a puzzle. I think this was the student’s favorite part. To them it was sort of like being able to play a game, but they were learning at the same time. We continued to switch sentences until everyone put together every sentence.
As students were putting the sentences in order, they had a lined piece of paper to write the sentences down. There was a small box that above each set of lines, this space was there for early finishers. If they were finished putting together the sentence, they could draw a picture to match the sentence.
One thing that was not taught that the students seemed to want to learn was exclamation sentences. When we were discussing question marks and periods, one student asked about exclamation points. They have learned about exclamation points before and have come across them in their reading. I think the next lesson I would teach would be similar to this one, but would go another step further and discuss exclamation sentences.
One thing that I would change about the lesson is timing of my lesson. The second day went really well, but some of the students wrote their sentences on their sentence strip much faster than others. Luckily I had some examples of sentences that I could cut apart for the students who finished early. They put my sentences together while waiting for the other students to finish writing theirs.
Overall I think the lesson went well. The students were actively engaged and seemed to enjoy most of the lesson. There are some adjustments that I think need to be made in order to make the lesson better, and more effective. The next time I teach the lesson I will make sure to include exclamation sentences along with the question and statement sentences.