Lesson Script

 Good evening students! I know we finished our novel reading a day early and are
supposed to be getting started on our literary analysis, but I thought we could spend a few
minutes looking over certain grammar concepts before we get started. Today we are
going to focus on present participle phrases.
 Who all believes they have a vague idea of what that is? Maybe you’ve heard it said
before, but you can’t tell me any specifics.

 Okay so since there seems to be some who know what it is and some who do not, I am
going to present a brief overview to jog your memory and then we will do a little exercise
to see where we all are on this grammar concept.
 (second slide) The first question to be asked is what a present participle phrase is. Well in
a short explanation, a present participle phrase is a verb that functions like an adjective.
TO understand that, we need to understand what a verb and adjective are. Who in here
can tell me what a verb is?
 Very good. A verb is anything that is something you can do, an action so to speak.
 Now who knows what an adjective is?
 Correct. An adjective is a descriptive word that is describing the noun. So basically, we
are looking at an action word that is describing the noun. You also need to know that to
make it present tense, these words will have -ing on the end of them. This places the
word in the now. With the brief recap knowledge, I want you to want you to try your best
to create an “I Am” poem to demonstrate your use of present participle phrases. These
poems should be about your favorite animal. For example, I chose a turtle. These poems
should also have three lines that describe the action being done (see example).
 (Show students your example of an “I Am” poem) give 2-3 minutes to complete work.
Have students lay pencils down once completed
 Who would like to volunteer first to read their attempt aloud?
 Very nice. From what we just heard, who can name the present participle phrases.
 Very good!
 Now to branch back into the lesson so we can grasp a better understanding, present
participle phrases are very versatile in placement within a sentence. They can be at the
beginning, middle, or end of your sentence. So basically, we need to consider this
grammatic as a superhero because it can be more than one thing (a descriptive of a noun
and a verb), and it can be anywhere you want it to be.
 Does anyone have any questions before we move on?
 Okay then, so the last thing I want to show you about this grammatic concept is that it
can be more useful if you can relate it to a book. Sometimes we may understand things,
but not be sure how to use them accurately. If we look at other writers, like ourselves, it
becomes more beneficial for our understanding over all. When looking at book quotes,
we want to make sure we try to use them as models until we become comfortable to
trying our own style of present participle phrases out.
 Now if there are no questions left, I will go ahead and discuss your homework for the
evening. In your quotation journals, I want you to write down three present participle
phrases and underline where the phrases are within your sentence. If there are any
questions this evening, please feel free to email me. Thank you for participating in the
present form today!