LESSON: Avoiding Pileups: Teaching Students How To Write Without Adjective Strings English Grade 9 Andrew Weber OBJECTIVES:

SWBAT use adjectives in creative ways that are removed from assembly-line writing (placing adjectives only before nouns). SWBAT create sentence patterns that remove adjective strings through interactions and discussion with other students (HUMAN SENTENCE ACTIVITY AND HANDOUT) SWBAT write sentences using the self-created sentence patterns to avoid adjective pileups.

NUMBER OF DAYS: 1 (20 MINUTE LESSON) MATERIALS: PowerPoint Presentation and Projector Handout Human Sentence Signs Whiteboard Markers Adjective Bucket Adjective Slips of Paper Writing Utensils

ACTIVITIES: Before Class: o The first 14 students who enter the classroom will be given human sentence signs for later activity. o Write And Corner on board for activity. o Have Adjective Bucket Ready o Place Handout (One for Each Student) on desks Students entering the room should be seated in groups (or have the room divided into tables) 5 MINUTES: REINTRODUCTION OF ADJECTIVES AND INTRODUCTION OF ADJECTIVE STRINGS (PILEUPS) o Students should be taking notes during this time. o PowerPoint Presentation Students will be briefly reintroduced to adjectives and will be provided with a few examples from literature circle texts o Discussion of Overuse of Adjectives (definition from Andersons Mechanically Inclined) How Adjective Pileups Happen and How We Can Avoid Them o Introduction of Car Pileup Metaphor Imagining a car as an adjective If the adjectives are too close, they might cause a pileup! We dont want that! There needs to be enough space between the cars (adjectives) so they can safely drive. o Example of 2 Adjective Pileups and Corrected Versions 5-7 MINUTES Creating a Human Sentence (Anderson Microteach Lesson) o The students who received the construction paper with words on it will interact with the other students to create a sentence using the words.

THE SENTENCE (FROM ANDERSON): The mangy, filthy, stray mutt approached me. The student with the and paper must stand in the AND CORNER for the first part of the activity. o After students create the sentence with the adjective string, the class has to figure out how to remove an adjective pileup Inclusion of AND student will be necessary now o Students will create sentences without adjective strings through critical thinking and interaction with other students Possible solutions The stray mutt, mangy and filthy, approached me. The stray mutt approached me, mangy and filthy. 5-7 MINUTES HANDOUT ACTIVITY AND ADJECTIVE BUCKET o Handout includes directions o Student will be put into groups (by table or numbering off) o Out of the groups, one student from each group must pick 3 adjectives out of the adjective bucket from the front of the class o With the 3 adjectives, the students must create 2 different sentences that include the adjectives. The sentences must not have adjective strings or pileups. o Due to random drawing of adjectives, the sentences may seem silly or nonsensical, but the activity is designed to reinforce the structure of the sentence, not the content. o If there is time remaining, groups can share their sentences by writing them on the board or orally.

ASSESSMENT The formative assessment will be creating sentence structures with the group (the final activity). By using arbitrary adjectives, the students must work together to create sentences that avoid adjective pileups. Having the students write sentences with and without adjective strings may be effective, but I believe that this activity will give them more than enough time to understand and display effective writing. PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: With this being a ninth-grade classroom, students will already have significant knowledge of what adjectives are and how they work. The main purpose of the lesson isnt to teach adjectives, but to refine how they use them in a more effective manner. ACCOMODATIONS: I believe that this lesson can easily accessible to every learning level. I have read that Human Sentence Activity is great of ESL learners because it provides a visual aid to how sentences can be structured without adhering to assembly-line writing. With the group activity, students of different learning levels can be paired up to better develop the thinking and interaction skills required for the activity. RATIONALE: Looking at Jeff Andersons lesson on Adjective Strings, the purpose is not to show that adjective strings are grammatically incorrect, but to develop an understanding that an overload of adjectives is generally unnecessary. Andersons uses numerous examples of how adjective strings can be broken down and rearranged to become a more effective way to explain detail or context. The car pileup metaphor is to help students visualize adjective strings in a very simple manner. If the cars (adjectives) are too close together, there is a good chance a pileup might happen. The human sentence activity (borrowed from Anderson) is to provide a visual understanding of how adjective strings can be shifted to better suit the flow of a sentence. It also allow students to interact with each other to develop sentence structures that avoid adjective strings and pileups. Plus, this activity is great of ESL students to see how adjectives can be placed in various spots in a sentence, and not just in front of nouns. The final activity is for students to write their own sentences without adjective strings. By having students pick random adjectives out of a bucket, the student must create sentences that may not make sense, but they will have the opportunity to create sentence structures that allows them to use the adjectives that dont adhere to

adjective strings. Hopefully, the random adjectives will also allow students to be creative with the sentences they create.

STANDARDS: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9-Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (EXAMPLES FROM TEXTS)