Danielle Maternick & Tina Cartaino February 28, 2012 Lesson Plan: Sentence Stretching Grade: 4 Time: 10:50-11:35

Standard: W.4.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
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Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

Objective: Through the process of sentence stretching and adding descriptive details, students will be able to improve the quality of their writing. Materials: Smart board, PowerPoint with already made sentence slides, Writers notebooks, and pencils. Lesson Sequence: Anticipatory Set: Boys and girls, have you ever been writing an entry in your writers notebooks and realized that many of your sentences look similar? If you have realized this, have you ever tried to change this? Without the right technique and the correct tools, it may be extremely difficult to improve ones sentence structure. State Objective: Today we are going to learn an amazing technique that will change the way you write sentences! From being in your classroom a few weeks and seeing your writing, I have realized that you all are doing a great job of writing simple sentences! However, the only problem with these sentences is they can get a little boring if you do not switch it up. I am very happy to see that you all know how to use a subject (noun) and predicate (verb), but we thought you could use a little help in varying your sentences to make them more descriptive. Today through a technique that we call sentence stretching, we are going to learn how to add details to important sentences. This will make your writing more interesting, plus it will improve your sentence structure. Teach and Model: 1. On the Smart board pull up the PowerPoint slide with the starting paragraph that we will be working off of. It will say It was a clear, sunny day outside. The birds were chirping loudly. The dog ran. The boy smiled. 2. Are all of these phrases in the short paragraph sentences? Yes that is correct, they are all sentences. How do you know? Yes, they all begin with a capital letter, which signifies the beginning of a new thought. They also each end with a period, which signals the end of a complete thought. They also each contain a subject and a predicate. Okay so we have

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4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

established that these writings are complete sentences, however, are they good sentences? Yes, that is true, they are rather short. The last two sentences could be vastly improved by adding more sensory details in order to help the reader get a clearer vision of what is happening in the narrative. (There may be questions on what a subject and predicate is. A subject is used to describe who or what the writer is speaking about (noun) and the predicate refers to the action (verb). In order to teach the reader how to add more details, we will review adjectives, adverbs, and clauses. (Students should already know what both of these are). An adjective is a word used to describe the noun and the adverb is a word used to describe the action/verb. Many times adjectives refer to what something looks like, how many, what kind, and which one. Adverbs refer to where, when how, how much, and how long. A clause contains a subject and a verb, but it is not always a complete sentence by itself. Example: The dogs grew impatient. This can be a sentence, but it doesnt make much sense without more details. The dogs grew impatient when they saw the pieces of meat is a clearer idea. Since we know The dog ran is a complete sentence, how can we improve it? Role play: Tina: Miss. M what does your dog look like? Danielle: My dog is a large, jet-black Labrador. Tina: Oh, well when I read this sentence I was picturing my dog. My dog is a little, brown Cocker Spaniel. Miss M, Where does your dog run? Danielle: My dog likes to run down the street. What about your dog Miss. C? Tina: My dog likes to run in my backyard. How does your dog run Miss. M? Danielle: My dog runs really fast! What about yours? Tina: My dog runs pretty slowly. Lets improve the sentence, the dog ran, based on our conversation. On PowerPoint pull up the new sentence of The little, brown dog ran in the backyard. How many words were in the sentence that I began with? 3. How many words are in my sentence now? 8 words. See! I have stretched my sentence from 3 words to 9 words. Writing in this descriptive manner helps the reader to visualize exactly what you are trying to describe in your writing. Remind students that it is not a competition. While sentence stretching can be a useful tool in adding sensory details and conveys ideas more precisely, too many words can get very confusing. Just because a sentence is long does not necessarily mean that it is the best way it can be written. Sometimes sentences that are too long can take away the meaning you are trying to get across. If they do not understand provide an example: The big, brown, hairy, messy, funny dog was wild, crazy, and out of control as he ran down the long, paved, black driveway chasing wildly after his delicious, scrumptious, appetizing, white, hard bone that was thrown many, many, many feet by his mean, cruel, male owner.

Guided Practice:

1. Please take out your writers notebooks! We are going to try this new technique that you have just learned about! Pull up that next PowerPoint with the short paragraph again. Say We fixed the sentence the dog ran, now lets see if we can fix the next sentence, The boy smiled. 2. Handout a graphic organizer that allows them to brainstorm some adjectives such as what the boy looks like, how old he is, etc. Also have a place for them to brainstorm adverbs about how the boy smiled, when he smiled, where he smiled, etc. 3. Work with a partner and see if you can stretch this sentence into a better well written, descriptive sentence. Try your best to stretch it out and add in a few more sensory details to create a clear mind movie for your reader. You want your reader to be able to picture what you are talking about in order to help them to understand the point of your story. 4. Take five volunteers to share different ways that they stretched the sentence and discuss why the stretched sentences are better than the original. (More detailed, better able to picture what is happening, variation from other sentences in the paragraph) Independent Practice: 1. Today, individually, you are all going to look through your writers notebooks/ biography rough draft. Read through it one time and pick out two sentences that you think could be better. I know it is more difficult to stretch sentences with non-fiction writing, but you all should still be able to add some more supporting details in places. Remember, you do not need to stretch every sentence, only the meaningful and important ones. 2. Instruct students to take out a separate piece of paper. On this paper write the first sentence chosen at the top, and then the second sentence chosen out of the biography halfway down the page. This now leaves you room to create a few different possibilities of varied sentences. Remember, if you are stuck you can use the graphic organizer to help you think of what type of details of add. 3. If some students finish early, they can choose another sentence out of their biography rough draft, or they can begin to stretch sentences in other writings out of their writers notebooks. 4. Take a few volunteers. Oh I see, .. stretched his/her sentence from 4 words to 10 words! Great Job! Assessment: From doing the guided practice and independent practice, we will know if students understand the concept if they are able to successfully write new sentence with added details. We will know this by walking around the room and taking a look at each paper, and also from the whole-class sharing. Closure: Remember writers, whenever you write, good writers always use descriptive, precise writing in order to help the reader paint a mind movie in his or her thoughts. Always remember that this process does not have to be overwhelming. Even if you only revise and add description to a few sentences out of an entire entry, it will improve your sentence structure greatly. Ask how will this change the way you write in the future? Say from now on whenever we come, we will be checking your writing to make sure that you are using this new strategy.