GRAMMAR: SENTENCE IMITATING “The practice room was seething, phantasms filling up the spaces

between objects, demons with long tails riding the sound waves in the air.”

Teacher:  Sarah Fullerton Subject/Grade:  English, Grade 11  

Time  Allotment:  One hour    

Standard:    Common Core Language Standards, Knowledge of Language 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

a. Vary syntax for effect, consulting references (e.g., Tufte’s Artful Sentences) for guidance as needed; apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading.

Common Core Reading Standards, Craft and Structure

5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

Objective  (Explicit):    • Students will imitate samples of Scott Westerfeld’s writing from his novel, The Last Days, in order to experiment

with creating long, descriptive sentences that utilize appositives, parallel structure, and gerunds to give them a sonorous quality that is superb for writing about sound.

Evidence  of  Mastery  (Measurable,  include  variety  of  methods  of  checking  for  understanding):    • Students will submit their three imitated sentences in order for the teacher to be able to check for understanding. • Students will also include one of these imitation sentences in their final writing project for the unit, adapted

specifically for the purpose. Key  vocabulary:    sentence imitation   Materials:    

1. Copies of sentence imitation hand out 2. Smart board with sentence frames projected

onto it (ideally) 3. Interactive notebooks

Opening/Anticipatory  Set:  (state  objectives,  connect  to  previous  learning,  and  make  relevant  to  real  life)  1. Teacher will go over today’s objectives in student-friendly language. 2. Students will watch this Youtube clip about building bigger sentences and discuss how the larger, more descriptive

sentences were more effective in both describing the situation and catching audience interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEHaBnaniC4

Instructional  Input   Teacher  Will:    

1.  Present a mini-lesson on the keys to effective sentence writing.  

Students  Will:    1. Take notes in their interactive notebooks.  

Differentiation  1. Teacher will provide a copy of mini-lesson notes to ELL students and students with IEPs for them to staple into their interactive notebooks.  

Guided  Practice  

Teacher  Will:      1. Pass out sentence imitation worksheet. Model sentence imitation on the front board, calling on students to provide reasonable word selections for the blank spaces. Answer questions as needed.  

Students  Will:    1. Follow along with sentence imitation modeling, suggesting words for the blank spaces and filling them in along with the teacher. Ask questions as needed.      

Differentiation 1. The class will be completing an example together on the front board. There is a fill-in-the blank spot on the

worksheet for students to use so that they have a reference for completing the other two exercises. 2. ELL students and students with IEPs will have handouts with fewer blank spaces and more cues for parts

of speech, etc.

Independent  Practice   Teacher Will:

1. Move about throughout the classroom, monitor students’ progress and assist as necessary.

2. Collect sentence imitation assignment at the end of the period or for homework.

Students  Will:    1. Complete the last two sentence imitations on

the handout independently or quietly in pairs. 2. Turn in assignment for credit.

Differentiation  1. Students may work in pairs to complete the sentence imitations.

Closure/Lesson  Summary:  Teacher will facilitate an informal discussion of how Westerfeld’s sentence structure complements the subject he is writing about. Students will be asked to draw upon conclusions from the earlier “Tokyo Pigeon” video, the sentence mini-lesson, and their impressions/reactions to the sentence imitation exercise.  

 

 

 

                                           

SENTENCE  IMITATION  ASSIGNMENT—Student  Handout    

SENTENCE IMITATION  

“The player was set to shuffle our four best songs—long, intense rants of Minerva’s peppered with Moz’s cleanest, simplest lines, Alana Ray shattering it

all into a thousand glittering shapes, Zahler finally playing a proper bass underneath” (Pearl, p. 138).

What  is  your  general  impression  of  this  passage?    

 

 

 

Key  Nouns  and  Verbs  Left  Out:  

The  [noun]  was  [adjective]  to  [verb]  our  [descriptors]  songs—[descriptors]  rants  of  Minerva’s  [verb]-­‐ed  with  Moz’s  [superlative  descriptors]  lines,  Alana  Ray  [action]-­‐ing  it          all  [preposition]  a  thousand  glittering  shapes,  Zahler  finally  [action]-­‐ing  a  [adjective]  bass  

[preposition].  

Class  Example:  

The                was            to          

our                               —  

        ,                      of  

        ‘s           ed  with         ‘s    

        est,           est           ,    

                  ing  it  all            

a                       ing         s,    

           finally           ing  a        

                    .  

NOW  TRY  IT  ON  YOUR  OWN!  REWRITE!  ð  

  “I took a slow, deep breath… then jumped in. My part’s faster than his, fingers

roaming in the high notes halfway up the neck. My part skitters while his churns, blowing sparks from his embers. Mine darts and mutates, keeps changing, while

Zahler’s stays level and even and thick, filling in all the gaps” (Moz, p. 22).

I          a         ,                 …  

then            in.  My           ‘s         er  

than         ,             s           ing  in  

the                      halfway          the    

    .  My                     s    while        

        ,         ing              from  

                .  Mine             s  and          

      s,  keeps           ing,  while         ‘s                                                    

      s            and              and              

                ,           ing  (in?)            

the             .  

“Moz’s guitar notes were scattered like Christmas lights across the ceiling, shimmering in and out, Pearl’s sinuous melody linking and electrifying them. The

dog-boy’s riff spread out underneath, solid and steady, and my drumming was the scaffolding that held it aloft.” (Alana Ray, p. 85-86).

      ‘s                        were        

        ed  like                      

across  the             ,           ing          

and           ,           ‘s              

                  ing  and         ing  

them.  The           ‘s                   (out?)  

        ,            and           ,  and          

              ing  was  the                

that              it             .