Students will:

I. Engage in a game of Twister with the intention of identifying prepositions, and to build a foundation for understanding more complex grammatical concepts.

II. Apply their knowledge of prepositions to understand prepositional phrases, and to identify objects of preposition and any modifiers.

III. Understand techniques used to combine sentences using prepositional phrases, and apply their knowledge of combining sentences using prepositional phrases while revising papers they have written to show an understanding of the technique.

Context: This lesson can be integrated into a writing unit, or other writing lesson. It is a grammar lesson which teaches fundamental grammar as well as extending the grammar into practical use within the student’s own work.

Resources: You will need a Twister© game and a grammar textbook, preferably Holt, Rinehart and Wilson’s Elements of Language.

Anticipatory set: Twister! To help students remember the function of the preposition, students will play a short version of the game Twister. One volunteer will act as “spinner,” and two other volunteers will put themselves in the physical configurations. After a few spins, the volunteers should be entwined. At this point, the class will identify the volunteers’ relationship to each other in terms of physical space. I will list the words the class uses to describe the positions, like “beside” or “under” on the board. Some people like to think of prepositions as “anywhere a mouse can go,” but I like to think of Twister.

Procedures:

I. Review

Students will view a transparency and a poster that will cover the following background review information:

·Review of Prepositions using the “Twister words.”

·Review of Phrases

Students will discuss prepositions, with a reminder that a trick to remembering a preposition is thinking of Twister words. Students will review the phrase, in contrast to a clause, and then will apply the knowledge of prepositions and phrases to discover prepositional phrases. Students will be asked to name some prepositional phrases to illustrate an understanding. We will list these on the board.

II. Understanding Prepositional Phrases

(Elements of Language p.536, Holt, Rinehart & Winston)

Students will view a transparency that will cover the elements of a prepositional phrase: the preposition, the object of the preposition, and any modifiers. They will identify each part and understand its function. The transparency lists information and examples, and then lists exercises that the class will complete as a group. I write their answers on the transparency.

Activity No. 1: Looking at a list of prepositional phrases on a worksheet, students will work individually to identify the preposition, the object of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object in each phrase.

III. Combining sentences using prepositional phrases

Students will view a transparency that lists two techniques for combining sentences with prepositional phrases.

The two techniques are:

·Take a prepositional phrase from one sentence and insert it into another sentence.

·Change part of a sentence into a prepositional phrase.

Activity No. 2: Students will be divided into five groups. Each group will be given a set of sentences. Using one of the two prepositional phrase techniques they have just learned, they will be asked to combine the sentences into one sentence. We will read some of the combined sentences aloud in class, and will identify which technique was used to combine the sentences.

Assessment:

Students will be tested using a sample of their own writing. They will be asked to identify all prepositional phrases in their work by circling them. Next, they will be asked to identify and label the parts of each prepositional phrase by writing an “O” over the object of preposition and an “M” over any modifiers. Last, they will be asked to apply their knowledge of prepositional phrases to combine two sets of sentences utilizing each of the techniques learned in class. I will model this assignment on a piece of my own writing as an example.

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Wendy Turner

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