Ms.

Knight (7/21/15)
7th Grade Clauses and Phrases Unit Plan
Objective:

Students will be able to answer the essential questions and identify the grammar points in
their writing and the writing of their classmates.

Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English

grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
A. Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general and their function in specific
sentence.
B. Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal
differing relationships among ideas.
C. Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and
dangling modifiers.

My main strategy is to show the students that they already use these grammar concepts with
everyday writing but now they get to learn the terminology.
Day 1:

Bell work: Students write about a topic that we use for practice after lesson. (5 minutes)
o Topic: Describe your favorite birthday party. Who was there? What did you and your
guests do? Did you have cake or something else? What was your favorite gift?
Simple Subject vs. Simple Predicate
o Review the essential questions:

1.
2.
3.

What is a helping verb?

What is the main action happening in the sentence?

Who or what is doing the main action?

Go over notes worksheet on the board (PowerPoint 15 minutes)
Watch Mr. Morton Subject and Predicate Schoolhouse Rock video (3 minutes)
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUXxdmhIsw
Use students writing to answer essential questions. (5 minutes)

Exit Slip: Switch between so students dont copy off of each other.
Diagram the simple subject and simple predicate of the following two sentences.
1. My uncle made a pizza for us.
2. The students in that classroom have learned a lot today.
Diagram the simple subject and simple predicate of the following two sentences.
1. The students in that classroom have learned a lot today.
2. Will you bring your guitar to school tomorrow?

Homework: Simple subject and simple predicate

Day 2:

MINI LESSON: verb/noun review (10 minutes)

o Schoolhouse rock video verbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8mGU1MzYw
o Schoolhouse rock video nouns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk4N5kkifGQ
o After watching videos students write about their favorite vacation and we label the
nouns and verbs.
Who did you go with? Where did you go? What did you do?
Clauses and Phrases
Review the essential questions:
1. What do clauses have that phrases dont?
2. What should I look for first when Im trying to find out whether a group of words
is a clause or a phrase?
Go over notes worksheet on the board (PowerPoint 15 minutes)
Sentence Structure warm-ups highlighting subject and predicate. (5 minutes)
iPad activity
o Each student looks up their favorite childhood story. We will use the first few pages
of their story to diagram sentences and label nouns, verbs, clauses and phrases.
o Student print out or type up their sentences for easier diagraming then a few students
will present their favorite book and well put their sentence up on the board for the
class to diagram together so they can check their work.

Homework: Phrases vs. Clauses