MINILESSONTEMPLATE

templateandsomeideasforlessons.Draftyourminilesson#1ontheSubject/Predicate
(mysuggestion#1)andemailittomeforreview.ItcantargetanyELLsthatyouhave
knowninthepastorthepresent.Itcanchange,too.Ijustwantyoutoputsomethingdown
onpaper.Whoareyourstudentsatthelibrary?Adults?Doyouhavewritingsamplesfor
them?Couldyoudoyourminilessonswiththem?

YourName_ZainabMuhammad__________Date/NumberofMiniLesson:___1_____

Age/Grade/EnglishProficiencyOfTutee______Grade6ExpandingProficiency
Mystudentsarebrokenintotwogroups;onegroupcontainstwo7thgradestudents.Theother
groupcontainstwo6thgradestudents.AllarefromBangladesh.The6thgradestudentshave
beenhereinthestateslongerandseemtohaveastrongercommandofEnglish.
1. MiniLessonObjective,basedonyourknowledgeofthestudentswriting:
SWBATidentifythefunctionsoftheSubjectandPredicateinasentence.
SWBATcreatesentencesanddeterminewhatsthesubjectandwhatsthepredicate.
Studentswillalsotoexaminetheirownwritinganddeterminewhatsthesubjectand
predicateandwhereplacementoccurs,standardly,foreach

1. Inductive/DISCOVERYActivity=(a)presentlearnerswithaccuratelanguagedata;
and(b)askguidingquestionsthatleadstudentstoinducelanguagerulesfromthedata.

a. LanguageData(Whatlanguagedatadidyouprovidetohelpthemdiscoverhow
thesentencepatternworks?)
Idstarttheteaksbytellingthestudentsthatwewouldbedoinganinterestingpuzzle
together.Idprovidethestudentswithsentencestripsthatareseparatedbysubjectand
predicate.Makinguseofthedesk,Idlabelonehalfsubjectandtheotherpredicate.
b.Guidingquestions:(Whatguidingquestionswillyouasktoguidestudents
discovery?Dontdiscoverforthem!)
Asthestudentsputthepuzzlestogether,Idaskedthemiftheynoticeanything.Id
startbyaskingabroader,openquestiontoallowmystudentstopointoutanypatterns.Next,
Idaskthemwhatisthispartsjobinthesentence(pointingtotheSubjectcolumnlabelledas
S)NextIdaskthemwhatdoesthispartofthesentencedo(PointingtothePorPredicate
column).

DeductiveExplanation(AFTERtheydiscoverhowthelanguageworks,youwill
EXPLAINthestructureinanageappropriateway.Here,writeoutEXACTLYwhatyou
willsay,inanageappropriateway,withoutusinggrammarese.)
Iwouldexplaintomystudentsthatthesubjectistheidentifier.Ithelpsusunderstandwhoor
whatwearetalkingabout.Thepredicatetellsuswhatthesubjectisdoing.Allsentenceshavea
subjectandpredicate.Iwouldaskthemtotellmeverysimplesentences.Iwouldwriteitona
strip,thencutwherethesubjectandpredicateisandthenplaceitunderthecorrectcolumn.I
wouldaskthemtodothesame.

2. Materials(Whatvaried,multisensorymaterialswillyouuse?)
IdusesentencestripsaswellasaPPTtoshowothersentencesasexamples.
3. Assessment(Whatassessmentwillyouusetochecktoseeiftheyhaveinternalizedthe
sentencestructureandcanuseittoIMPROVETHEIRWRITING?Usingthenew
informationtoproofreadtheirownwritingisideal,butthereareotherpossible
assessments.)
Mystudentsalwaysdofreewritingaspartoftheirhomeworkassignment.Idaskthemtopull
outthreesentencesfromtheirfreewriting.Next,Idaskthemtoidentifythesubjectandthe
predicate.Idalsoaskthemhowtheycametotheirconclusion.