Hennessy_Ch04_p53-90.pdf
LESSON 1
Sentence Parsing
(textbook pg.106)
Sentence parsing is an effective way to help students identify and understand the function of words, phrases, and clauses by deconstructing sentences. The guiding questions provide the necessary vehicle for analyzing the roles of words and phrases in the given sentences. The students would be taught to parse less sophisticated structures first, moving on to more complicated ones. Once students have practiced and mastered this activity, sentence parsing serves as an excellent warmup or exit ticket for any class. This lesson highlights how parsing is introduced to students through direct, explicit instruction. The sentences are aligned to the eighth-grade unit, Who Am I?, which explores themes of identity and belonging and features sentences from the short story "The Jacket" by Gary Soto. The text was prepared in advance for instruction and the sentences featured were preselected.
Grade: Eighth
Name: Sentence Parsing with "The Jacket"
Preparation for Instruction
Enduring Understandings:
- Individual identities are complex and show themselves in many ways.
- Everyone has multiple identities.
- Societal views can influence individual identity.
- What defines our identity?
- How is it shaped?
- Do we keep the same identity throughout our lives?
- Students will be able to identify and understand the function of words, phrases, and clauses and how they work together to create sentences
Literacy Objectives:
- How do authors develop a character's identity?
- Sentences from the short story "The Jacket" by Gary Soto
- Structured sentence organizer (individual copies for students, one for display purposes.)
Content Objectives:
- Examine the topic of identity in a variety of stories
- Reflect on the various ways certain social contexts impact our identities
Sequence of Learning Events
- Explain to students that today we will learn about an activity known as sentence parsing. Sentence parsing is a really helpful way to improve our understanding of tricky sentences because we are able to determine the function of the words, phrases, and clauses within sentences.
Purpose: Students will learn about the function of various words, phrases, and clauses by parsing sentences from the short story "The Jacket" by Gary Soto.
Review/Prerequisite Skills: To participate in this lesson, students should have the following prerequisite skills:
- Understanding of the parts of speech in sentence construction
- Understanding of phrases and clauses in sentence construction
- Understanding of word order within sentences
- Display the following organizer for students. This can be recreated on chart paper or via a document camera or slideshow. Then review the question words with students.
| Which one, what kind, how many? | Who or what? | Is/was doing or happening? | To what, whom? | When, where, why, how? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Next, display the sentence "The next day when I got home from school, I discovered draped on my bedpost a jacket the color of day-old guacamole" (Soto, pg. 1). Remind students that this is from the short story "The Jacket" by Gary Soto.
Model for students how to break apart the sentence to answer the corresponding question words. For example:
a. Who is this sentence about? (the author Gary Soto who uses the pronoun I)
b. What is he doing? discovered
c. What did he discover? a jacket
d. Where was the jacket? draped on my bedpost
e. When did he discover it? The next day when I got home from school
f. Which jacket? the one the color of day-old guacamole.
- This can be sorted under the proper question in the structured sentence organizer, shown as follows.
| Which one, what kind, how many? | Who or what? | Is/was doing or happening? | To what, whom? | When, where, why, how? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~the color of day-old guacamole | ~I(Gary Soto) | ~discovered | ~a jacket | ~The next day when I got home from school(when) ~draped on my bedpost(where) |
- Display the next sentence for students to see: "From my bed, I stared at the jacket" (Soto, pg. 1)
Student-Guided Practice:
- Use guiding questions to help students break apart the sentence to answer the question words. For instance:
a. Who is this sentence about? (the author Gary Soto who uses the pronoun I)
b. What is he doing? stared
c. What did he stare at? at the jacket
d. Where did he stare at the jacket? from my bed
| Which one, what kind, how many? | Who or what? | Is/was doing or happening? | To what, whom? | When, where, why, how? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | ~I(Gary Soto) | ~stared | ~at the jacket | ~from my bed |
- Once again, the following structured sentence organizer can be used as a scaffold to support students' thinking.
Independent practice:
Provide students with the following sentence, "The next day I wore it to sixth grade and got a D on a math quiz" (Soto, pg. 2).
Students can deconstruct this sentence independently as the closing activity.
The teacher can circulate the room and support students as they work on completing the activity.
Once complete, the teacher can have students share out and compare their response to the one that follows.
| Which one, what kind, how many? | Who or what? | Is/was doing or happening? | To what, whom? | When, where, why, how? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~math(quiz) ~sixth(grade) | ~I(Gary Soto) | ~wore ~got | ~it ~a D on a math quiz | ~The next day ~to sixth grade |
Differentiation/Inclusive Instructional Practices:
- Students can respond orally instead of in writing.
- Students can work in partnerships to complete the final activity.
- Words, phrases, and clauses can be prewritten on word cards for students to use as a sort instead of writing.
Evidence of Student Learning/Informal Classroom-Based Assessment:
- Teacher questioning
Teacher Reflection in Lesson Implementation
Try This! Now it's your turn to try! Using the structured sentence organizer provided, parse the sentence that follows according to the question words it answers. Once you've finished, reflect: what did you think of this activity? What challenges might your students encounter when engaging in activities like this one?
Gary Soto shares his childhood experiences growing up in 1950s California.
Answer key:
| Which one, what kind, how many? | Who or what? | Is/was doing or happening? | To what, whom? | When, where, why, how? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| his childhood(which experiences) | Gary Soto | shares | his childhood experiences growing up | in 1950s whenCalifornia where |