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Grammar Bytes: Fragments
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Activity Description
Source: Grammar Bytes: Fragments Interactive Exercises (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])
In this activity, students practice their skills in identifying sentence fragments. There are seven interactive exercises each with its own worksheet. Most exercises have twenty questions. This activity works well in a computer lab or as a classroom presentation.
Grammar Bytes is a contemporary-looking site with an Index of Grammar Terms, Interactive Exercises with accompanying Handouts For students, and Grammar Rules. It includes PowerPoint presentations that will cut down on your preparation time and a few YouTube videos. It makes a difficult topic enjoyable.
Grammar Bytes exercises cover the following topics:
- Comma Splices &Fused Sentences
- Fragments
- Irregular Verbs
- Commas
- Parallel Structure
- Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
- Apostrophes
- Pronoun Agreement
- Pronoun Case
- Pronoun Reference
- Subject-Verb Agreement
- Word Choice
Preparation
- Make sure the site is not blocked at your school.
- Preview the site. It includes terms, exercises, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations; however, this activity focuses on fragment exercises.
- Decide which exercises you will use.
- Download and print the worksheets needed for the selected exercises.
- Create a formative quiz to check for understanding.
Teacher Tips
- Review the exercise questions to make sure you agree with the answers.
More Ways
- Divide the class into groups and have teams play against each other to answer each exercise question. This works well if you only have one computer and a projector.
Program Areas
- ASE: High School Equivalency Preparation
- ABE: Adult Basic Education
- ASE: High School Diploma
Levels
- Intermediate
- High
Lesson Plan
Warm-up
Engagement
Objective: Engage students and activate prior knowledge.
Activity:
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- Begin with a quick review of sentence structures. Ask students to recall the components of a complete sentence.
- Display a few examples of complete sentences and sentence fragments on the board.
- Have students work in pairs to identify which are complete sentences and which are fragments.
- Discuss their responses as a class.
Introduction
Objective: Introduce the topic of sentence fragments and the purpose of the lesson.
Activity:
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- Explain the definition of sentence fragments and why they are problematic in writing.
- Introduce the resource, “Grammar Bytes”, and explain that it will help us practice identifying and correcting sentence fragments.
Presentation
Objective: Provide students with information and strategies to identify sentence fragments.
Activity:
- Show a brief PowerPoint presentation from Grammar Bytes that explains sentence fragments.
- Use a projector to display the Grammar Bytes website and navigate to the sentence fragments exercises.
- Go over the handout provided by Grammar Bytes that explains sentence fragments in detail.
Practice
Objective: Allow students to apply what they have learned through guided practice.
Activity:
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- Do the first three questions from the Grammar Bytes exercise as a class. Use the projector to display the questions and discuss the answers.
- Emphasize the explanation links provided for each answer to ensure students understand why a sentence is a fragment or not.
Evaluation
Engagement
Objective: Assess students’ understanding and provide immediate feedback.
Activity:
-
- Distribute the selected worksheets from Grammar Bytes.
- Students complete the worksheet individually or in pairs if in a computer lab.
- Circulate the room to provide assistance and ensure students are on task.
Objective: Formatively assess students' understanding of sentence fragments.
Activity:
- Administer a short quiz with sentences where students must identify fragments and correct them.
- Review the quiz as a class, discussing the correct answers and explanations.
Application
Engagement
Enhancement
Extension
Objective: Reinforce learning through additional practice and collaborative activities.
Activity:
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- Divide the class into small groups.
- Each group will be given a set of sentences on index cards (some complete, some fragments).
- Groups will sort the sentences into two categories: complete sentences and fragments.
- Groups will present their sorted sentences and explain their reasoning to the class.
- As a class, discuss any disagreements and clarify any misunderstandings.
Subjects
- Language Arts - Writing
- Language Facility
- Writing Conventions
- Reasoning Through Language Arts
- Mechanics (Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling)
- Sentence Structure
- Writing
- Mechanics (Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling)
Standards
- Language
- CCR Anchor 1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Tags
Grammar, coordination and subordination, fragments, fused sentences, grammar bytes, grammarbytes, misplaced modifiers, misused words, parallel structure, parts of speech, prefix, pronoun reference, pronoun shift, pronouns, punctuation, sentence, sentence fragments, spelling, subject-verb agreement, suffix, tense shifts, verb forms, adjectives, adverbs, capitalization, chomp chomp, chompchomp, comma splices